Following the path of a Bodhisattva.

The realisation life that flows through each and every one of us and that we are intimately connected to everything else in the universe came as quite a shock. The fragile looking monk had said “when you drink your tea think of the clouds”, it was some time later that the penny dropped and I realised he had described the entire water cycle in one sentence, and that me, being 70% water was also part of that same system. One day my 70kg of water would also become a cloud. Consider the relationship between man and the natural environment – when we breathe out – the trees breathe in and vice versa, and yet we cut down the trees that supply our oxygen. We breed cattle for our burgers but 14% of the methane in our atmosphere comes from cows. We are not separate from our natural environment we are totally dependent on it. Why do we destroy it?

I like everyone else was born into this world and have spent a lifetime responding and reacting to earthly desires. In the Christian world I have been “reaping that what I have sown”, and as a result have suffered from its Karmic Consequence, the law of cause and effect. The seeds I sow today will become the crops I harvest tomorrow. 

Some times it takes a life changing event to change our perception, a light comes on and we are presented with a brilliant “ah ahh” moment and a little spark of enlightenment. For the most part we are just like the person who listens but does not hear what is being said, we wonder through life acting the part but not actually doing the practice. Learning from what went wrong is just as important as knowing what is right and so we learn from our mistakes, sometime we need a guide, a teacher someone to show us the way. To undertake the Bodhisattva vows, is to undertake and follow a set of precepts that help and guide us along the path to becoming a Bodhisattva in our daily lives, for the benefit of all sentient beings.

I bow deeply with hands in Gassho…….

The Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts

The Three Refuges (Three Treasures)

I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the Dharma.
I take refuge in the Sangha.

The Three Pure Precepts
I vow not to commit evil.
I vow to cultivate goodness.
I vow to help others.

The Ten Grave Precepts
I vow not to kill, but to cherish all life.
I vow not to steal, but to respect that which belongs to others.
I vow not to misuse sexual energy, but to be honest and respectful.
I vow not to lie, but to speak the truth.
I vow not to misuse drugs or alcohol, but to keep the mind clear.
I vow not to gossip about others’ faults, but to be understanding and sympathetic.
I vow not to praise myself by criticizing others, but to overcome my own shortcomings.
I vow not to withhold spiritual or material aid, but to give freely when needed.
I vow not to unleash anger, but to seek its source.
I vow not to speak ill of the Three Treasures, but to cherish and uphold them.

(The Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts by courtesy of The Great Vow Monastery).

Beginning Qigong Practice

A lesson on Qigong by Master Mingtong Gu of The Chi Center. more information can be found at:
The Chi Center

Smile to your Buddha Nature

Finding Peace in a Troubled World.

The brutality of war has many faces. When I first joined the Devon Ambulance service in 1975 I had the honor of carrying veterans from both World Wars and survivors from other conflicts including Burma, Korea, Vietnam, Northern Ireland. I have worked with men who fought in N Ireland, the Falkland’s, Serbia and Iraq. My school friend Philip Stentiford was killed by a landmine whilst on foot patrol in County Armagh on 21st January 1972 aged 18….. the same age as me and I could not understand why.

After Philip’s funeral I made a promise to myself that I would never take up arms, but in the event of war I would drive an ambulance and tend to the wounded from both sides but never fire a gun in anger. In peacetime I drove an ambulance and tended to the sick and injured or 20 years. I have never fired a gun.

It was H. G. Wells who published articles in London newspapers and later published them in book form, who described World War 1 as “The war to end all wars”, but around 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians had their lives taken away from them. Today the term is used disparagingly because there has not been a decade free of conflict since WW1.

Twenty years after WW1, the Second World War (1939 and 1945), directly involved an estimated 100 million people from 30 different countries and claimed an estimated 50 to 85 million fatalities. The weapons became more powerful, sophisticated and technical, and more people died, culminating in the first use of atomic bombs on August 6^th and August 9^th 1945. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki an estimated 150,000 and 246,000 people died from the acute effects of the atomic bombs within the first four months, (approximately half this number killed on the first day). And still we do not learn.

War, Terrorism and Conflict continues. In the intervening years ten’s of thousands of combatants and civilians have had their lives taken away from them. In recent months conflicts in the Ukraine, Syria, Gaza/Israel have peppered every news item. Around the world aircraft have been brought down, ships capsized, and earthquakes, hurricanes and floods have torn communities apart. Some have lived with conflict for so long they do not know what peace is and for some peace may look as though it has abandoned humankind. 

Peace has not abandoned us, peace is still here, but we may have to look deeply for it. We have to penetrate the brambles, stinging nettles of anger, negative thoughts and our judgmental mind to find the beautiful flowers of love, peace and happiness.

Peace starts with you and me and our friends, our friends, friend’s and their friends, and their friends, friends and so on. We each have to sow and nurture the seeds of peace. Peace can grow out of a smile, find peace in our hearts and we can find peace in the world, cultivate peace and the beautiful flowers of love, compassion and forgiveness will grow. But the moment we adopt an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth attitude we can never have peace, as long as we have anger in our hearts there can be no room for stillness, love, peace and compassion.

In November The Stillness Project plans to hold a day long meditation session on the theme of "Finding Peace in a Troubled World", The first of a series of "Peace Meditation sessions" leading up too the 70th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The sessions will be held at the Woodlands Community College, Minstead Avenue, Harefield, Southampton, SO185FW. The Date and finer details are still to be announced. 

"Peace In the world starts with peace in our hearts"

The Great Bell Chant

Today I include a video and a prayer, the poem is read by Thich Nath Hanh and chanted by brother Phap Niem in Vietnamese.

May the sound of this bell penetrate deep into the cosmos. 
Even in the darkest spots, living beings are able to hear it clearly, 
So that all suffering in them ceases, 
Understanding comes to their heart 
And they transcend the path of sorrow and death.

The universal dharma door is already open.
The sound of the rising tide is heard clearly.
The miracle happens:
A beautiful child appears in the heart of the lotus flower.
One single drop of this compassionate water
Is enough to bring back the refreshing spring to our mountains and rivers.

Listening to the bell, I feel the afflictions in me being to dissolve --
My mind calm, my body relaxed,
A smile is born on my lips.
Following the sound of the bell,
My breath brings me back to the safe island of mindfulness.
In the garden of my heart, the flowers of peace bloom beautifully.