Strangely Perfect

The Hell of Incessant Suffering and the Land of Tranquil Light Note: This was originally published here http://buddhastate.co.uk/blog/?p=30 on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 4:28 pm and filed under Buddhism..  The link has been dead for quite some time, looks unlikely to re-appear,  so I’m showing the words here as they are so wonderful because [...]

How Summer Camps Could Change Britain by Christopher M. Green (Convenor of the Summer Camps Forum and Founding Director of The ATE Trust) Download Links to Original Chris Green Articles: Letter to MPs February 2010 Suggested letter format to lobby your local MP on behalf of Chris Green’s summer camps’ initiative. How Summer Camps …inline [...]

I woke up this morning ……and read two small passages, both written by Buddhists, one of which quotes one of “The Buddha’s” last works, the Lotus Sutra. What struck me, was that sometimes, this Buddhism that I do can get a bit confusing, and then suddenly – suddenly someone says something that brings everything right [...]

As MP’s expenses come to the fore again, Peter Mandelson spoke on Radio 4 this morning and did his usual self by not explaining anything and being perfectly unclear about everything!  Listen hear here! Thank god the interviewer cut him off. The question was “Have you got much sympathy with MPs who’ve claimed under one [...]

My.  What a Big One! This is Ron and his flower, a dahlia. It reminds me of this picture taken of Josei Toda, a Buddhist, just before he announced his opinion that nuclear weapons were a curse on the world and humanity. Toda’s flower is a chrysanthemum, but the similarities are obvious.

Each one of the fuzzy white bits in the photo above is a galaxy containing billions of stars and thus many, many life-forms, all at various stages of evolution.  This statement is derived from the work of thousands of intellectuals using the powers of observation and deduction available to us all. Tonight there was a [...]

I’m off for a few days of Buddhist activity in delightful Devon.  So no posting, wahay! “Worthy persons deserve to be called so because they are not carried away by the eight winds: prosperity, decline, disgrace, honour, praise, censure, suffering, and pleasure.” – The Eight Winds – The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 794

FYI: Two Things About Nichiren One: While fishing around back-links to this website, I came across two pages on the BBC website that explain Nichiren’s Buddhism and the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) quite well.  Go for it Robert!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/nichiren_1.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2005/03/17/sgi_uk_feature.shtml Two: I’ve just seen this ridiculous rat with a Nichiren t-Shirt on the Amazon website. [...]

G20 UK Protests – an Appraisal Following on from this post about the protest(s) the other day and the obviously censored reporting, we can now look back for a little unheated analysis. Spin What’s clear to me during the event, was the useless reporting and photograph work, the news organisation’s focus on violence and the [...]

I subscribe to news from No10.gov.uk to get the latest view of events and policies from the highest elected position in the land!  In this post from the PM’s office, is a joint statement from our own and the Australian Prime Minister. My interest is piqued by the numerical incidence of the two words “peace” [...]

Sex Videos As time passes, we see the Buddhist concept of “karmic retribution” really coming into view with all the latest happenings with wacky backy Jacqui Smith, the (as I write this morning) current Home Secretary for HM Gov in the UK.  The continuing saga of her rule-bending expenses and her husband’s adult activities while [...]

These are a few pictures taken with my new Panasonic Lumix TZ5.  They show the first real flowers in the back garden, some daffodils across the canal and some ethereal and dynamic shots from down the canal that demonstrate the effect of sunlight on reed beds with the sun for and against you!  There are [...]

“I’m so tired from watching TV I have to have a nap” Thus spake Philip Chawner, 53, in the Daily Mail inspired newspaper and TV witch-hunt which kicked off in ‘Closer’ magazine.  The ensuing rants from outraged people are predictable but it all just looks like a bit of entrepreneurship from the Chawner family to [...]

Nichiren …if the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds. – Nichiren Daishonin, from his writings, page 4.  Written [...]