‘Furthermore, Subhuti, self-identical is that dharma, and nothing is therein at variance. Therefore is it called ‘utmost, right and perfect enlightenment’. Self-identical through the absence of a self, a being, a soul, or a person, the utmost, right and perfect enlightenment is fully known as the totality of all the wholesome dharmas. ‘Wholesome dharmas, wholesome […]
‘One thing I have learned about attention is that certain forms of it are contagious. When you spend enough time with someone who pays close attention to something (if you were hanging out with me, it would be birds), you inevitably start to pay attention to some of the same things. I’ve also learned that […]
The rain passed through the city over the weekend, as it did a couple of weekends ago, as the slowdown was starting. That, of course, seems a long time ago. Most days, I feel like I end up spending too much time sitting down. I am sure this was true of my life hitherto, but […]
From a single thought arise Deeds wrought by delusion, Sixty-two mistaken views Nine hundred crazy ins and outs But then what ends is endless And what begins is beginningless When you see like this Truth and falsehood are the same I don’t usually comment on the poems I post, but this one does need the […]
‘We can learn to welcome everything, including our own failures. When we learn to welcome everything wholeheartedly, we become fearless, and that helps others to become fearless also.’ (Entering The Mind Of Buddha) This is the heart of bodhisattva activity. The transformation that allows us to welcome our own failures and to drop away some […]
This might have become part of a talk I had been planning to give in England, to the Hebden Bridge group, this evening – though I allow myself longer words and fuller sentences in this written version: Memories of London sometimes permeate my thinking, and in those memories, the depths of the city’s past make […]
‘I should dispel the suffering of others because it is suffering like my own suffering. I should help others too because of their nature as beings, which is like my own being.’ (Shantideva) I had a whole month’s worth of posts lined up to cover the time I was due to be in England. Now I […]
