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A small group, Peace and Wisdom Studies, has established itself at the Bodhi Garden in Brighton, Sussex, England, under the wing of Chris Dornley, a senior in the Dharma. He kindly invited me to speak at the Bodh Garden with the title for the evening
I gave a talk on WHY ARE WE SUCH A VIOLENT NATION?- with questions and answers and small group discussions on the theme. Continue reading
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.” Continue reading
Someone told me that I have joined the masses of names on Wikipaedia, the online encyclopaedia. Despite all the years of exploration and teaching of ‘non-self,’ I still find a certain interest in the name Christopher Titmuss. I looked at ‘my’ name on Wikipaedia. I smiled in its description of me as a Theravada tutor. I am not even a Buddhist let alone a Theravada teacher. I am a small servant of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. When I have nothing else to do, I will make one or two modest changes in the text – for the sake of accuracy. I look slightly mad in the photo taken while in full flow in giving a teaching at the Buddhafield Festival. Who am I to dispute appearances? Continue reading
The Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya desperately needs care and attention. The 60 metre Maha Bodhi Stupa immediately behind the tree forces the tree to grow in unnatural directions. The tree shows a sick appearance. It is in desperate need of pruning, and needs watering in the heat of the summer. Branches are lopsided and cracked, the leaves appear dry and dull and the level of pollution in the village affects the tree. The situation isn’t helped with the fears in the village. There is the possibility of the police taking action if anybody prunes a single branch. Is the intention to sell the branch to corrupt businessmen? Will one make bad karma by cutting limbs off the tree and so get sent to the hell realms? Continue reading
A friend advised me the other day to look at the Greenpeace report on computers. He asked me if I owned an Apple Mac. I said “no.” I told him that I have a four-year-old Toshiba laptop and a two-year-old Dell desktop. I had a look at the Greenpeace report on the Net.
I did not find the report an easy read because of the technical jargon but it made clear that some of the worst known toxic chemicals, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and brominated flame-retardants (BFRs) are found in laptops Greenpeace said that Apple computers contained the highest level of contamination among the computers they tested in Danish laboratories – followed by Hewlett Packard. Continue reading