Category Archives: Spiritual life

Come What May

Here’s a really interesting and thoughtful piece by Stuart Hollyoak who asks ‘how can I act without dependency on results and thus independent of Ego?’  Is this possible?  What do you think?  ‘Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them. Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them. The Dharmas are […]

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On Pain

by Stuart Hollyoak Before I was a Buddhist I was a Stoic. What attracted me to Stoicism was that it promised invulnerability. It was a great prospect to experience no pain and go about life without any fear of losing control. To avoid pain is a desire common to all sentient beings so why not […]

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No creature ever falls short of its own completion. Wherever it stands it does not fail to cover the ground.

No creature ever falls short of its own completion.  Wherever it stands it does not fail to cover the ground.        Dogen Zenji I recently heard this quoted during a talk on sesshin at Crosby a few weeks ago.  It caught my attention immediately with its profound depth and wisdom.  I would like to share with […]

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Here, There, Everywhere and Nowhere. That’s where it’s at (or not….)

Sometimes in my talks I emphasise the no-self especially because most of us are more stuck in the concept of a solid, separate self than vice versa.  However, the idea of no self can be easily misconstrued.  Shakyamuni Buddha himself commented on this and he described two broad areas of possible misunderstanding.  On the one hand there are folk […]

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Stepping Out of Self Deception

Dear Fellow Practitioners, Our natural direction is towards unity and harmony with ourselves and the Great Life, however, for many of us our sense of self resists and holds us in familar patterns and restrictions that create a feeling of separation. This practice is about seeing/examining  the limitations of our fabricated sense of ‘self’ and […]

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The Human Route

Having just posted Maurice’s thoughtful piece, The Practicalities of Living and Dying, Alasdair has just shared this poem brought by a member of his Northampton group to their meeting tonight.  By coincidence it has a related theme. Alasdair writes: Kevin brought in a poem this evening, and I thought I’d share it here, too. Coming […]

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