Someone sent me an article this morning with this title, which I have shamelessly stolen, and the byline: A single act of kindness reminded me that, despite so much evidence to the contrary, the better angels of our nature are not necessarily doomed. My mother’s overnight carer Joanne Marie woke me early on Christmas Day to say that Sally was struggling to breathe. She seemed to be breathing, but also…
Just In
Hello everyone, happy holidays. Talking of which, I was contemplating this prayer the other day, one of the four immeasurables: May no one ever be separated from their happiness. This is often explained as referring to the…
Give me a dollar for the number of times I’ve been asked in the last ten or so years, “Is there an app for that?” And the answer’s always been a sad something along the lines of,…
Hello. I haven’t posted lately ‘cos I’ve been pretty busy with stuff you might well hear about at some point. But today as I was swimming laps – following the advice of seemingly all my friends to…
I was very pleased when my last family of foster cats – all five of them, mom and babies – found homes with Buddhist practitioners who are interested in their future lives. (Nonetheless, it’s been weeks since…
Someone just told me that he’s been totally distracted away from Dharma all summer and that, notwithstanding his discombobulation and re-growing anxiety, it was only when his wife pointedly asked him “Have you meditated recently?” that he…
Apologies for the grandiose title – it’s not that I’m qualified to explain this but that I’m still in awe of the five-pronged vajras on our temple and the five omniscient wisdoms they embody. What would it…
Premise: If we don’t remember death each day, we are bound to neglect what is actually important in life, our perspective will be skewwhiff. True…
In the last article on Buddha and the Brain, I quoted from How to Transform Your Life on how our body and mind are different…
I’m going to assume for the moment that we’re not going to blow the entire planet up just yet, and that we still have some…
Does karma make things our fault? No. It’s not the self of this life that’s primarily at fault for the bad stuff that happens to…
It might be tempting when faced with the day’s headlines — suffering, and more suffering — to go to the extremes of either freaking out…
The long read!!! Sorry about that. Big subject. What can Buddhists do? (Jul 2022: Wrote this before all the heat waves, fires, drought, melting glaciers,…
Impermanence
(Apologies in advance for the relatively esoteric nature of this article! I’ll…