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Often a contrast is drawn between the "western" approach to God as a Person and the "eastern" impersonal/non-theistic approach. Thus a lot of Western religion centres around the relationship between our own "persons" and the Person of God, while the Eastern appears to concentrate more on being...

Maybe this has been raised before, but on my PC the number of "views" for each thread is always just 1 more than the number of replies/posts. Is this some sort of error? Thanks

D T Suzuki is well known in Buddhist circles as being one of the first true "easterners" to bring genuine knowledge of zen/buddhism to the West. Perhaps to some he is now "old hat" and out-dated, yet I have just been reading his book, first published in 1907, "Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism", and...

Go forth, O monks, to bless the many, to bring happiness to the many, out of compassion for the worlds; go forth for the welfare, the blessing, the happiness of all beings......Go forth and spread the teaching that is beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle and beautiful in the end...

The idea of "free will" seems to be going the rounds at the moment. The idea seems to raise its head as some sort of justification for "judgement" and I was reflecting on this from my own perspective. It does seem to me that in many ways the conservative/fundamentalist perspective...

Just drifting around a few other threads and for some reason my memory was jolted back to 1985, the time of Liveaid, and the famine in Ethiopia. During every newscast there seemed to be fresh pictures that called a lot of things into question. During those days I was walking my six year old...

As promised - or was it theatened? - on another thread............. Great compassion awaits us with open arms. Namu-Amida-Butsu is the beckoning call, "Come, just as you are." This openhearted welcome is quietly described by Koshin Ogui in an article carried in the Cleveland Buddhist...

From my old liberal christian days I have always kept a little note in my wallet and close to my heart. It is a few words by the English mystic Julian of Norwich concerning the resurrection....... He is Risen! The worst conceivable thing has happened, and it has been mended..............so...

I'm currently reading the Avatamsaka Sutra (also known as the Flower Ornament Scripture) It is a vast text, running to over 1500 pages. D T Suzuki speaks of it as follows........ (As) the consummation of Buddhist thought, Buddhist sentiment, and Buddhist experience...................here not...

The following quote is offered for discussion. Though drawn from the writings of a Buddhist, I believe they have relevance for those of any faith. Dharma (Buddhist) practice requires the courage to confront what it means to be human. All the pictures we entertain of heaven and hell or cycles...

Just thought I would post this story.................. Time before time, when the world was young, two brothers shared a field and a mill. Each night they divided evenly the grain they had ground together during the day. Now as it happened, one of the brothers lived alone; the other had a...

One of the proverbs of the OT goes....(sorry, can't locate the exact chapter and verse).... He who answers a thing before he heareth it, it is a shame and a folly unto him. (and to her I suppose...:D ) It seems to me, reading through so many threads on so many forums, that many - at...

Just thought I would create a small space for some expressions of the Pure Land........ (This poem was written by a woman who was looking after her husband who suffered from Alzheimers) Assumptions and expectations Of what I can and should do Must be erased from my mind. An inner voice...

For a long time now I have explored the relationship between Christian and Buddhist experience. One very good guide - for me - has been the Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Thomas Merton had a deep respect for Buddhism - especially Zen - and always spoke highly of it, even to the point of using...

One of the "Signatures" that I have used on various forums is the following:- "When the bird and the book disagree, always believe the bird" I have always loved these words, which seem to point to something self evident. Yet, thinking about them, just "who" - or "what" - is the "bird"...

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes" (Marcel Proust) Is "wisdom" gained by the accumulation and assimilation of facts? If not, how is "wisdom"................the seeing with new eyes............."gained"? I think that there is a...

Perhaps if Jesus were telling the famous parable today it would be a Buddhist and a Christian and an ecologically aware person who passed by on the other side. And a Muslim who stopped and helped............. :)

Is there a difference between loss of belief and loss of faith? Can loss of belief in fact be a positive thing? Could loss of faith ever be positive? (I understand faith as a letting go, a trust in reality-as-is, a willingness to accept to the point expressed by...

I was just browsing on the Web, and caught the following words, written by Rainer Maria Rilke. They seemed worth sharing, for reflection..... "For one human being to love another: that is the most difficult of all out tasks, the ultimate, the last test of proof, the work for which all other...

"Passing over is a shifting of standpoint, a going over to the standpoint of another culture, another way of life, another religion. It is followed by an equal and opposite process we might call 'coming back', coming back with new insight to one's own culture, one's own way of life, one's own...