Category Archives: Blogs
LISTEN UP AND LISTEN DOWN
Dear Friends
We so often become attracted and distracted by the superficial surround sounds both of the external world and our mentalising self-talk of and about the external world. This mental talk creates and makes, compounds and conditions, the endless mental comments, commentary, complaint, critique and ongoing concerns that fill our mind and detract from what might be more important.
Why not take some time to ‘listen up and listen in’ so we can actually hear what our Heart-Mind might be...
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FLEE TO FIND, FEEL, SEE AND BE!
Dear Friends
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves to run, race and even flee from the all to easily conditioned mental creations and reactions that keep us stuck in our static stress, struggle and state of ‘self’.
The Buddha’s last words and final teaching just before his death was a remind:
‘To see the impermanence of all things and make haste in Realising Enlightened Freedom.’
Here we appreciate that time and effort is of the essence.
Thus, any words of inspiration and motivation to...
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Gone Forth
Dear Friends
This week has held the Full Moon of July and is celebrated as Asalah Puja – a significant day within the Buddhist Calendar, when the Buddha soon after his Enlightenment – gave his first Teaching to the five yogi’s that he had previously been practicing with. Following this teaching, these five asked to become his students and thus began the Buddhist Monastic Order. These monks together with the Buddha then began the three-month ‘Rains Retreat’ which has been...
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BEAUTY WAS – IS – AND AWAYS WILL BE!
BEAUTY WAS – IS – AND AWAYS WILL BE!
Dear Friends
Beauty is a particular perception and appreciation that is very much ‘in the eye of the beholder’. In seeing, knowing and experiencing things as beautiful, it creates a certain joy and delight that brightens the mind and lightens the heart. The more our mind is free from fear and frustration, anxiety and anger, delusion and dullness; the more we see and know the beauty of things, as things and in...
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Find a Friend in Nature
FIND A FRIEND IN NATURE
Dear Friends, while winter may find us spending more time in - doors than what we usually do in the warmer months of the year, we may however be more aware of and even wary of the weather and nature than we usually are. We are more likely to be aware of the air through its coolness; the sun through its intermittent shinning through grey skies and clouds. Certainly, we are more aware of the...
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Being Beyond the ways of The World
BEING BEYOND THE WAYS OF THE WORLD
Dear Friends, the Ways of the World are all around us and within us; however, the Way of Wisdom is to Find and fulfill the ultimate Freedom that is the teaching and legacy of all the Buddha’s wisdom.
Our Place and Path of Practice is not beyond the world but by seeing and knowing the Ways of the World and not being identified with or as these. The verse below is my offering of...
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Tomorrow Reborn as Today
TOMORROW REBORN AS TODAY
Dear Friends – we get taught to pay attention to the just here and the just now! However sometimes the just here and just now present is only bearable knowing that there is a tomorrow and it may bring some respite or relief from the challenges of today. Enjoy my verse reflections on tomorrow as today.
John B.
TOMORROW REBORN AS TODAY
Tomorrow is;
Always only ever and forever;
Never more than just a day away.
What could, would should;
Tomorrow boast, bring...
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No One To Matter
NO ONE TO MATTER
Dear Friends
Life seems so vast and amazing with all of its complexities and complications; its contrasts and contradictions. However; is it only so because we, you me, we, perceive it thus and make it so?
So, what then is this I, me, you, we; this ‘one’ that we think ourselves into being?
The Ultimate Spiritual Path of Practice is to Realise Reality and Be Beyond the drama! It is to the mind free from identification as this or...
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Mind and Meaning Making
MIND AND MEANING MAKING
Dear Friends
It’s amazing how much meaning we make of a collection of concepts strung together in a line or sentence or ‘saying’. In many ways this expresses the idea of ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’!
When we rearrange the words in a line, sentence or expression it can be interesting to note both what occurs and what meaning we make of this?
Enjoy my lines below and use these ideas for your own...
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Go to the Trees
GO TO THE TREES
Dear Friends
There are many suitable and sustaining refuges that we can source or seek out when life becomes difficult and distressing, when we feel depressed or despairing.
One refuge which is increasingly becoming appreciated both by contemplatives and the common person, written and spoken about by sages, saints, scientists, psychologists and philosophers; is that of the Trees and the Forests.
We are learning more about the importance of connecting and communing with nature. This is both the...
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