I’m back at Step One. Again. Step One of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable”. We all have different poisons. You might want to swap out the word alcohol for food, or other people, or shopping. My favourite compulsions include […]

Yesterday Poppet managed to find a rabbit-sized hole in the perimeter of our ‘bunny garden’ where they get their exercise. My dinner was just about ready when I glanced up to see her perusing our vegetable patch. I turned the oven down and went outside. As I approached her she headed towards the big slope down […]

I am looking at the white question of the screen, as our cat Roshi bows at the scratching post and sharpens his claws, and as the wind runs its fingers through the leaves of the fading magnolia outside. I am wondering how I can make you happy. I have been thinking about offerings. That beautiful […]

Why do I do the things I do? This is a question that has been marinading in me for weeks, months, years. It goes alongside questions such as, what should I do with the limited time I have? What is the most skilful way of meeting my goals? What ARE my goals? Of course, I […]

There is no love which does not become help. ~ Paul Tillich Sometimes it is exquisitely painful to love. We love those who do not love us back. We love those who are cutting into themselves, and they will not stop, and we cannot stop them bleeding. We love those who are gone from this earth. […]

For this morning’s Buddhist service, rather than sitting in the shrine room we went outside. We spent forty minutes snaking single file around the temple garden, slowly placing one foot in front of the other. The gravel was sharp and woke up my bare soles, and then the dew cooled them. A robin accompanied us with her confident song. We […]

Yesterday Rev Khemashalini & I performed a Buddhist well blessing at Evandine. My favourite bit is where I use a leafy branch to sprinkle everyone with cool blessed water.   The joys of the blessing were punctuated by two ill-tempered incidents. The first was someone who wanted to collect water, and said with obvious annoyance […]

This weekend my nieces took part in the children’s mini-marathon in Greenwich Park. After a mass warm up with stretches and jumping jacks, we saw them off at the starting line. Luma (5 and a mini-marathon first timer) ran with her mum, and Ramona (7 and a veteran) with my brother. The route looped and snaked around […]

Last night, as a part of the weekly Buddhist practice I offer online, my Dharma talk was about this quote: The big distinction between good art and so-so art lies somewhere in the art’s heart’s purpose, the agenda of the consciousness behind the text. It’s got something to do with love. With having the discipline […]

A lot of the things I offer to the world are a ‘hard sell’. Nobody skips happily to see me for psychotherapy, where they pay money to feel horrible. People are understandably sceptical of our form of Buddhism, which encourages us to acknowledge our foolishness and to open to the Other. My latest book is called […]