Dear Friends I am writing from a place I never seriously imagined before these Covid-19 times. The normalisation of social distancing, lock-down, unrequested retreat, and a prolonged plunge – an eternal diving – deep into the unknowing and unknowable not-knowingness of everything taken for granted; this interweaving of worlds, revealed ever more starkly as fragile, … Continue reading A Sheaf of Poems
This post is dedicated to the Australian fire fighters, medical responders, comforters, supporters and helpers – bodhisattvas of all kinds – who are courageously rising to the occasion, regardless of risk, to help and succour beings in need. I realise that many of you are far too engaged with immediate necessities to find these mere … Continue reading Fire and Living Dharma
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
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 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
Click here to view the fully formatted article in PDF An object can always have a name. This designated thing sits in its space; sometimes a geographic space of physical linkage and relationship, sometimes an emotional or conceptual space; and we, from the perspective of our own place, can then name it. But what if … Continue reading Naming the Unnameable
The key to meaningful living is mindfulness. The heart of mindfulness, a simultaneous blending of love with clear-seeing-enquiry, arises out of the multi-levelled life and living that we are. 1 This is the music of the universe and it resounds in everything. Listen! You can hear the singing in your bones, your feelings, your perceptions … Continue reading Meaningful Living: a modern expression of the gradual path of awakening
Left Palm <------------> Right Palm gazing at these wondrous hands easeful presence and skilful engagement mind and matter form and function knower and known work and play inner and outer micro and macro self and other one and many profound and mundane worldly and spiritual stillness and movement animate and inanimate brain and body individual … Continue reading Silent Prayer
Bodhicitta is an important concept in Mahayana Buddhism that hints at an immense mystery. Literally, the heart or mind (citta) of awakening (bodhi). It is the ground of our being, and the path we walk in learning to live well and meaningfully. It is the fruition of a life illumined with profound understanding. At the … Continue reading With Love and Good Wishes
