Daily Life

 I have been engaged in reflection and reading on Right Livelihood. Generally speaking, we consider right livelihood in terms of its ethical significant – we work without causing suffering to others. We also need to consider work in terms of the relationship to intention, action and result. Many dharma friends are self-employed – yoga /dharma teachers, carpenters, therapists, mind/body workers, web designers, gardeners, plumbers, writers, electricians, masseurs and so on. …

The Challenge of Self-EmploymentRead More »

Year by year, meditation gains more street credibility.

I noticed two examples of this in the last week. Nshorna, my daughter, who lives in nearby Torquay, suggested that I become a ‘named’ driver on her insurance policy. I had to fill out the usual details for the policy, name, address, age, any driving convictions and so on. (I renounced car ownership eight years ago). One of the questions asked my occupation. I typed on the screen “teacher.” …

Meditate, MeditateRead More »

Prama and Ranji kindly sent their driver to New Delhi airport to pick up Dominika and I upon our arrival in India. It is a very gentle way to land. The cooks, servants and Kaiser, their gentle Afghani dog, take great of us. The day after my arrival, I paid my annual visit to Dr. Sharma, the dentist of Prama and Ranji, for a check up. I first visited him four years ago. …

A Dentist in DelhiRead More »

Thankfully, the flight touched down right on time at Brisbane Airport at around 6.30 am. My mother greeted me. “I need to go to the doctor and the hospital,” I told her.At the clinic, the doctor gave me an examination. “Without x-rays, I cannot be sure of what the problem is, he said. “ From my initial examination, it could be that you have a swollen liver.”

“A tumour?” I responded.

“That diagnosis is a long way down the line. Nothing can be ruled out.” I then gave a blood, stool and urine sample to go to the laboratory. The doctor arranged for me to have x-rays the following day. …

“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?Read More »

By 5 pm on the Saturday afternoon of the weekend retreat with Nicole in Germany, I could unmistakably feel that there was major distress in the body. Intense pains and a sickening nausea began emanating out of the stomach area. I could feel myself wanting to retch. Two or three hours later, I experienced the wrath of the body as intense pain raced through the body. Every cell seemed on fire.

At times, I bent double with the pain or kept walking up and down in my room at the Waldhaus retreat centre, an hour from Bonn, or retched over the toilet with nothing but spittle emerging. These were a different level of sensations to those experienced on the meditation cushion. The pain had spread throughout the stomach area into the diaphragm, the liver, and back and to the top of the shoulder. …

PAIN, PAIN,PAINRead More »