by Vishvapani | Sep 11, 2012 | arts
Last week a Buddhist friend organised a celebration of the elements, inviting contributions to his Facebook page. This stimulated me to look out some favourite works, mostly modern and mostly poems. Here is a cento on the Buddhist elements – earth, water, fire, air,...
by Vishvapani | Sep 7, 2012 | Buddha, Buddhism, Interviews
I met German-born Analayo some years ago when he was living a life of intensive meditation and study in a small retreat centre in Sri Lanka. He told me how his study of the Buddha’s original meditation teaching had led him to question established approaches to...
by Vishvapani | Sep 1, 2012 | arts, Reviews
David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten is a novel for the interconnected, globalised times in which we are buffeted among billions; it offers not so much an answer as a neural network of thought, not so much an argument as ideas whirring like minds, and interacting like...
by Vishvapani | Aug 29, 2012 | Thought for the Day
New research shows that teenage cannabis use causes lasting damage. As well as the physiological damage, Buddhism suggests that drugs are about avoiding experience rather than engaging with mindfully with it Thought for the Day 29/08/2012 Some of the parents I know...
by Vishvapani | Aug 25, 2012 | Buddhism in the West, Reviews
in his life before Buddhism, Issan Dorsey was a ‘bad drag queen’. But at the San Francisco Zen Centre he was a bodhisattva for a gay community blighted by AIDS. This excellent biography vividly evokes his extraordinary life. What...
