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PAIN, PAIN,PAIN

Daily Life / /

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. …

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The Buddha and the Rugby Player

Dharma Reflections / /

I picked up The Times newspaper on Saturday, October 22, 2007. It had a rather large picture of Johnny Wilkinson, the handsome and much loved English rugby footballer, who was playing with the English team in the World Rugby Finals in Paris that afternoon.

In the previous World Rugby Finals in Australia, four years ago, Johnny scored the winning points in the very last seconds of the match against Australia. English fans went ballistic. Wilkinson joined the Realm of the Gods in sport.

In large print on the photograph on the front page, it said: “Buddha and Me. Johnny Wilkinson exclusive. I had to buy a copy of the paper. …

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Overturning the Begging Bowl

The Buddha, Spiritual / /

As a former Buddhist monk, I bow down with the greatest respect and reverence to the thousands of Burmese monks who silently and respectfully walked the streets of cities and towns of Burma to communicate unequivocally their profound disapproval of the treatment of the citizens of the country by the military government.

I saw the picture of a senior monk in Rangoon with an upturned begging bowl leading a march with thousands of monks following in his steps. It was an extraordinary picture. …

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Science and the Mind of the Scientist

Dharma Reflections / /

James Watson, the 79 year-old American, the winner of the Nobel Prize for his part in the establishing the model of the molecular structure of DNA, said last month in a newspaper interview:

 

“All our social policies are based on the fact that their (African) intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.”

 

He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but “people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true.” …

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An Olive Grove in Devon

Dharma Reflections / /

One of the signals of the impact of global warming is the decision of a Devon farmer to plant olive groves on his land.

 

There is a certain poignancy in all this. Palestinians especially love dearly their olive groves – taken care of in the same family for centuries upon centuries – a rural culture under threat from the occupation.

 

Mark Dacano, who runs Otter Farm at Honiton in Devon, England, about an hour or so drive from Totnes, says that food grown in the hot climate of the Mediterranean has a real chance to grow in Devon in the west country of England. As the winter frosts get lighter and lighter, he sees the potential for olive groves, almonds and apricots. …

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