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My life at the moment is complicated and confused, my ex wife was diagnosed with lung cancer at the beginning of this year, she has bravely fought the illness and continues to do so. Watching the woman who had my four children,  and who I shared my adult life with, go through this saddens me. I worry for my children and grandchildren and how they…[Read more]

Dharmavidya:

Zen is
“a special transmission outside the scriptures,
not founded upon words and letters.
pointing directly to the heart,
seeing into one’s own true nature,
attaining buddhahood.”

What does this mean? What does it not mean?

Commonly this is taken to mean that Zen rejects scriptures and even writing. However, Zen pract…[Read more]

Dharmavidya:

1. The correct attitude is to be willing to do whatever the Dharma requires, in whatever realm, in whatever aeon. Enlightenment means to see clearly what needs to be done. It is to walk the eightfold path and to know what that means. Yet, as bombu beings, we cannot fully know this. Our ideas are bound to be inadequate and coloured by…[Read more]

For me – taking my Buddhist practice outside and making time for practising in outdoors has become increasingly important. I suggest that it should be important to us all. I am sure the climate crisis has in part come about through our disconnection from the natural world.

It’s been a while since I read through the Pali cannon but I can’t remem…[Read more]

I was reflecting this morning on a documentary that I watched recently about Yoga and Meditation. It struck me whilst watching that there was a pretty negative attitude being projected about thoughts. Like thoughts are a bad thing. As If they are what stand in the way of perfect enlightenment for the spiritual practitioner. My experience is that…[Read more]

My Dharma Talk at our recent gathering in Coleshill focused on Humility and Gratitude:

When we are stuck in self-centred ways our ego self does not open up to the possibility that another person could have helped us along the way. But unless we can acknowledge the help of others to get by in this life then we open ourselves up to states of…[Read more]

Here’s the talk I gave this morning:

Dharmavidya:

Buddhism praises awareness, especially awareness of presently arisen states. There is a value in being aware of what is arising, being aware of what is persisting, what is fading away. Thus I might notice that a feeling of sadness is arising, or that sadness is persisting, or that the sadness is fading, or that happiness is arising,…[Read more]

Dharmavidya:

October 4th:

I have just come back from the conference of Buddhist teachers in Europe. While I was there I heard much discussion about secularisation and how it is necessary to secularise the Dharma in order to make it palatable to modern people. Personally, I am resistant to this idea. The Dharma is, in essence, a faith that lodges…[Read more]