Every human choice bows like a slave in submission to the absolute's creative will, yet this does not deprive us of freedom, or of taking responsibility for what we choose. ~ Rumi ~ (Translated by Coleman Barks in, "The Soul of Rumi.") Hearing the news of the Christchurch mosque shootings, I sit stunned with sadness … Continue reading We Are In This Together
We are bombarded daily by reports of conflict, atrocities and proliferating social dysfunction. Surely many of us must be asking what, if anything, we can do about this nightmarish situation. The following essay is extracted from my e-book, "Sangha Work". Re-reading it the other day I felt it is as relevant today as it was … Continue reading Cultivating Healthy Community: towards a universal sangha
I remember studying with the Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche in 1970. What attracted me was his alive presence, his breadth of knowledge and the immensity of view he continually revealed to us. Around that time, his book "The Vision" was published. Drawing on traditions of Christianity, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, science and sociology, he sketched out an … Continue reading Future Dharma Worth Supporting: a vision of immeasurable wisdom and compassion
Profound teaching (dharma) is revealed in the fullness of our living. At Orgyen Hermitage, we have shelves of books from various schools and traditions. Each of them grew from a view of the world. Each of them conveys a particular angle or breadth of understanding. Many of them seem to be saying very similar things. … Continue reading Primordial Middle Way
A central meaning of 'tantra' is wholeness/continuity. Tantra is a path of wholeness understanding wholeness, a vision integrating all visions. In the ancient cultures of Tibet, India, parts of southeast Asia and China, there flourished various wisdom traditions known as tantra. Today, tantra is sometimes associated with attempted mergings of spirituality and sex, but originally … Continue reading Tantra and Climate Change
To read the fully formatted PDF version, please click here. These verses are a recent arising, but they hint at contemplations that have flavoured my living for many years. As you explore with them, can you sense in the flow of your own experience, a quality of spacious hovering – scuba divers might equate this … Continue reading Mandala Offering in a Modern Key
1/9/18 Contemplating the awesomeness of surrendering into living. Life is a terminal condition. All living creatures die – 100% of them. I am living with metastatic cancer. In a week or so, I may have surgery to remove a cancerous left common iliac lymph node. There are no statistics to say that such a procedure … Continue reading Notes From The Cancer Ward
A philosophy of contemplative science can easily become a dense entanglement of language and concepts whereas a poetry of contemplative science can invite fresh ways of seeing. In this prose/verse I try to illumine some of my thinking about cognition and knowing. May the timbre of these thoughts quicken the edges and membranes we share. … Continue reading Edges, Membranes and Mystery
Science developed from the human compulsion to explain things, either to another or to oneself. Perhaps this could be seen as the early stirrings of wisdom, prājña – an inherent inquisitiveness and curiosity of one's own mind (one's own field of knowing) that is both precise and playful at the same time. The compulsion to … Continue reading Dancing Stillness and The Poetry of Science
Samantabhadra appears as a mysterious presence in many Mahayana scriptures. Often referred to, but rarely appearing, he/she has an ephemeral quality – ubiquitous yet will-o-the-wisp – powerfully present yet difficult to define or meet with face to face. In the Tibetan Nyingma tradition, Samantabhadra is the name of the primordial Buddha. The same primordial buddha … Continue reading A Sadhana of Samantabhadra:the heart of Mahayana
