Just returned from the Freshers Fair at Leicester College. Was very busy this morning, but much quieter this afternoon. In terms of people I mean, the noise levels were just as high from the huge sound system at the end of the sports hall, just behind the bucking bronco...
I was there as part of the multi-faith chaplaincy team, we've got a few pages of names of people interested in multi-faith discussion, and said hello to a lot more.
Even if those don't translate into big numbers at events, i…
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Added by Kaspalita on September 16, 2009 at 3:14pm —
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From one of the myriad web commenters in today's
online guardian
The film Julie & Julia will, I hope, knock cookery off the pedestal it has acquired of being a pastime, a hobby or primarily an enjoyable activity. Cooking is, in fact, characterised by duty, boredom, bossiness and chaos;
Well - this whole piece is disheartening really, and I have to d…
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Added by Kaspalita on September 3, 2009 at 6:53pm —
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Next Monday is the first day of the MTh (Masters in Theology) in Chaplaincy course that I'm taking, and Prasada is becoming an adviser for. The first module, which we'll be having some lecture on next week is 'Practical Theology'.
Practical Theology is a Christian discipline that began back in the 18th C. in Germany, a Theologian called Schleiermacher working in a research university wanted to add another strand to the 'encyclopedia of theology' he called it practical theology, for developing '…
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Added by Kaspalita on September 2, 2009 at 9:30am —
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It's quiet here in The Buddhist House this morning, Susthama and Catherine have gone away for the week, and most of the others have gone out this morning. I'm full of cold,and trying not to procrastinate too much - I wanted to be studying for the Chaplaincy course next week, I've got a pot of coffee and all my books stacked up next to me - so it must be time to begin.
I wanted to mention the Sutra Study class we had last night, with the Bank holiday I wasn't sure how many people would show up,…
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Added by Kaspalita on September 1, 2009 at 10:43am —
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We had three new people for Sunday service this afternoon, which was lovely, and three old friends, plus Sudhana and myself. I was, a little unexpectedly, taking the service so I hadn't really prepared anything. And one of the new people had expressed some fears about not knowing what to expect in the service, and the other couple looked a little nervous as well - so I tried to explain all the different bits as we went along. What those funny words are that we are chanting, what they actually me…
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Added by Kaspalita on August 30, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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Time to dig out my woolly hat, I think - there's a chill in the air tonight, it really feels like the beginning of autumn here in The Buddhist House.
Prasada and I arrived back from France a couple of days ago, we came on the evening ferry across the channel, from beautiful clear sky above northern France, and towards a shroud of cloud hanging over the UK.
Now, a few days later, I feel back in to the swing of life here. It's been good to catch up with old friends, and today I've had a nice mix…
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Added by Kaspalita on August 29, 2009 at 8:14pm —
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Well, Dharmavidya Prasada, and myself, (along with Sumaya who had driven one car up to Dunkirke, and then got in with us to come back again) arrived at around one o clock, Tuesday morning. Since then we've been busy clearing ground, and getting things ready for the sessin next week.
Some guests have arrived, and are out at the lake at the moment, although it's starting to rain as I write this. Both Sumaya and myself have moved out into tents in the grounds, and are enjoying hearing the birds an…
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Added by Kaspalita on July 12, 2009 at 1:41pm —
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"The darkest hour is just before the dawn" -
Sojourner Truth (1797 1883)
Today like yesterday, Amida France is wrapped up in a blanket of fog. In the morning service yesterday, Dharmavidya talked about how these days that begin with mist often turn out to be the brightest - and said that this is like life also, prior to the brightest day is the coldest, dampest morning, before the world, or a person, changes for the better there is often a period of turbulence and disquiet and our defenc…
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Added by Kaspalita on April 13, 2009 at 8:08am —
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We had our first morning service at Amida France this morning, listening to the rain slowly falling outside, watching the swallows flying in to the barn, singing nembutsu. Dharmavidya talked about Buddhism as friendship, the idea that we are not worshipping some higher being, who looks down upon us. But that we are as Bodhisattvas, creating Purelands along side all the other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, in a spirit of friendship, and our making offerings too is an act that Buddha's engage in, makin…
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Added by Kaspalita on April 11, 2009 at 11:09am —
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...Nineteen hours of nembutsu...
We decided to go right at the top of the road, and head for the M1, in hindsight we should have turned right down the Fosse way. This fatal choice was made just moments after turning out of the driveway at seven am on Wednesday morning. We had managed to squeeze four people and all their luggage in to the little hatchback, although Zee-Zee's knees were in my back, and she was snowed under with her on luggage. But we were on the road, and on time - everyth…
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Added by Kaspalita on April 9, 2009 at 9:12pm —
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Lots of wonderful things have happened since the last time I wrote anything here, and emotionally I've been up and down as well - feeling quite homesick this week, perhaps triggered by mothers day, and then by reading about all the things you are all doing on here.
There have been a few struggles around communicating with different people here, mainly just down to language issues, I think, and some down to my assumptions about the culture, and people's assumptions about me - and how the differe…
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Added by Kaspalita on March 27, 2009 at 6:30am —
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In the sun blackened crook of her arm
there is a child
her sari, like its eyes
has faded to grey
the baby cries quietly
like a starving dog
it begs for food with its eyes
please, sir, rupee?
mother holds out her hand
please, sir, baby...
dust and the smell of open latrines
collect around them
as they walk past fat monks
reciting mantras
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Added by Kaspalita on March 27, 2009 at 5:50am —
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I've had this sitting on my computer for a little while, whilst I was waiting to get online, which I finally am. A great deal has happened since the weddings that I write a little about below. We have had many wonderful Buddhist classes, which although I Ied - only happen with the help and cooperation of many different people here, services here at the flat and out in the community, including the wonderful refuge and shu-membership ceremony which I'll write more about later.
I've a Buddhist cla…
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Added by Kaspalita on March 13, 2009 at 7:09am —
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I recovered from the jet-lag, both yesterday and today my internal alarm rang at 7am. Yesterday morning there was time for lot’s of nembutsu before the alter (I’m sleeping in our shrine room here, up on the roof, above our flat) this morning, I fell back to sleep and was woken up my alarm clock, several presses of the snooze function later, I managed a bleary eyed prostration before coming down to the flat.
Two days ago I bought an Indian sim-card for my phone, but the law is that foreign natio…
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Added by Kaspalita on February 22, 2009 at 3:46pm —
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My Indian Journey
It's just turned 9pm here, and outside I can here one of the many wedding parties in full swing, fireworks and all the usual noise of the city - thre horns of the rickshaws and trucks fighting for space on Loni road, kids playing cricket in the park below and underneath it all the sound of Hare-ram Hare-krishna - a holy river of sound.
The Internet here in the flat is down, so I'm typing offline, before I become to tired to write anything at all. I promised myself before comi…
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Added by Kaspalita on February 22, 2009 at 2:30pm —
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6th Feb, 11:30am
an intake of breath like a
scream caught in a tight throat
and slowly let out sobs
a tear in each eye
waiting to fall
as I look back and see
I have forsaken you
you who lives in the cold pine forests
in wandering sheep and calling geese
in each living thing
in all of my breaths
and the ground that I walk upon
you are always calling me home
if I listen carefully
I can hear your name
in the whisper of falling snow
in the wind underneath the eaves
and in the crackling of the…
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Added by Kaspalita on February 10, 2009 at 10:30pm —
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the trouble with doubt is
it's like the little silver ball in a pinball machine
each of the paddles, and rubber bands
another question
'Why?' and the soul of the silver ball shakes
and rebounds into 'What's true?'
spiralling into the black-hole of self-examination
and back onto the table - keep moving - keep asking -
that clatter you hear in arcades,
the shaking machine,
it's the endless questions,
crashing against the inside of my skull
(my shaking head)
the trouble with doubt is
it feels li…
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Added by Kaspalita on January 30, 2009 at 8:30pm —
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Honen, I don't know you
I have pictures of you
in books, in a poster on the wall
you never smile in them.
mala in hand, you are seeing
Amida in all the ten directions
and you keep an open door to all
regardless of what others think.
I wonder at your seriousness
and if you knew the trouble you would cause
and although you frown in the woodcut I have seen
in my mind
when they exiled you
you are smiling
seeing Amida in the fields, and forests
in the hard worn lines of peasant faces
as much as in…
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Added by Kaspalita on January 27, 2009 at 8:00pm —
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Yesterday we had some time in the schedule for Free Form nembutsu, this is where we take the words of the nembutsu - namo amida bu - and improvise chanting, and movement around them. Some of you may have watched on the streaming video and thought 'What an aweful racket....' it was pretty terrible the first time around. We had people drumming in different patterns and speeds, bells ringing, and a ukulele in the background, all of this made it difficult to hear each others voices, and to create a…
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Added by Kaspalita on December 6, 2008 at 2:30pm —
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Well, after a few blowy days and nights, most of the leaves have fallen to the ground here. For a couple of days we were privileged to the most wonderful display of soft golden colours, burnt oranges and outside my bedroom window a whole canvas of bright canary yellow.
Today it's dark, and damp a grey miserable day, and the leaves are rotting in the gutters, limp wet things, the colour of earth. They fell across the lawn in their thousands, transforming the landscape of the garden. This afterno…
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Added by Kaspalita on November 17, 2008 at 5:44pm —
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