Class Dismissed
When I sit down to write my blog, I try to relate to the circumstances surrounding a particular lesson I have learned that day. Quite often a post has been rattling around in my head for hours, and it...
View ArticleNice Contrasts
I’ve been out cycling this morning, and having enjoyed the cooler conditions that Autumn is starting to bring, I spent the afternoon with my nose in a book. It’s a contrast I enjoy, swapping muscle for...
View ArticleTaking Time To Learn
You know the old adage, ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’. I believe it means that you can introduce an idea to someone, but you can’t make them accept the suggestion. So it...
View ArticleBack To The Very Basics
Each day, at least twice a day, I chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. It is this phrase that encapsulates the very essence of The Lotus Sutra, which itself contains the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha as refined...
View ArticleBoys, Boys, Boys
Spending time with my grandsons is blooming hard work, and absolutely brilliant at the same time. Talk about a barrel load of monkeys, even Oliver, the two year old, run on some form of perpetual...
View ArticleAre You Writing Nice Letters?
The law of cause and effect, action and reaction, applies to everything in life and forms the basis of our Karma. The results of all the causes we have made in this, and previous lives, is precisely...
View ArticleBeneficial Introspection
The path to enlightenment involves a lot of learning, much of it about yourself. Wisdom is rooted in the souls of human beings. The way to acquire it is to follow the simple advice of Socrates – ‘Know...
View ArticleReading, Forever Reading
Daisaku Ikeda, in his Buddhism Day By Day, says this about the act of reading: ‘Reading is dialogue with oneself; it is self-reflection, which cultivates profound humanity. Reading is therefore...
View ArticleShhhhhh
When you are waiting for something, an answer, a decision, an outcome, it can be almost like the world is holding its breath. Sometimes the World of Tranquillity can be a true blessing, a time to...
View ArticleLook And Learn
I love the way this poem beautifully encapsulates the stages of learning, and the long, long road to enlightenment … I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk I fall in. I am lost… I...
View ArticleChallenge Or Opportunity?
With my recently announced redundancy still five months away, time is not yet of the essence to find alternative employment. But as we all know, times are tight, jobs few on the ground, and times flies...
View ArticleInner Dialogue
Apart from my usual daily cycling workout, I’ve spent most of the day with my nose in a book, again. I’m not going to go into details, as I did yesterday, but the more I read, the more convinced I am...
View ArticleBack To School
Every now and then it is a good thing to brush up on the basics. That applies to pretty much everything in life, be it academic, occupational, sporting or more especially spiritual. Let’s imagine that...
View ArticleLooking Back, To Move Forward
There are situations and challenges in life, when the almost overwhelming tendency is to look inwards, to examine repeatedly, the reasons and causes that have brought us to this point in time. We may...
View ArticleA Day Of Laughter And Learning
The first day of my TEFL teacher training course today was great fun. Although it meant an early start and a late finish, the time really flew by. The teacher is great, the topics are bringing back...
View ArticleCertified Fun
Another wonderful day of certified teacher training fun. Just full on learning, does it get any better than this? Despite the long day yesterday, and the rather challenging homework on verb tenses,...
View ArticleGreat News!!!
My own experiences with Nichiren Buddhism have shown me how powerfully it can change your life. Whether that is simply making you a happier person or helping you see situations from a different...
View ArticleSeeing Life Differently
Do you remember the day you mastered the art of riding a bicycle? Of course you do. For me, it was the culmination of a rather lengthy, and very frustrating process, and but for the perseverance of my...
View ArticleL For Learning
My first CELTA evening class went very well last night. An enthusiastic, if slightly overwhelmed group of ten students, we were expertly corralled by our tutors, Emma and Stef, through the course...
View ArticleA More Enlightened Future
I know that my Buddhist practice has changed the way I interact with everything and everyone in my own personal Universe. The change is difficult to explain, and even more difficult to prove, over the...
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