Category: Articles

  • NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION

    You. Yes you! Did you know that what you do to the Earth, you do to yourself? When you nurture the planet, you look after your body. For only by nourishing yourself with food that grows in healthysoils, pollinated by insects, with clean water and the right amount of sunshine, does your body stay strong…

  • HEALTH INDEPENDENCE AND RESISTANCE IN OUR BRAVE NEW WORLD

      PolItIcal upheavals are causing widespread anxiety about many issues, including health care, all over the world. Where do we go from here and what can we do on an individual basis to improve our own situation? First let me say, as a doctor, I see health care as a vital human right. I regard…

  • TRUANCY

    Isa knows this is not her home. Whatever the young girls with tattoos and piercings tell her, their names peppery on her tongue. “You live here now, darling. You’re safe with us.” This is not her home and she will not stay. She is a serial escapee though never got much further than the bus…

  • INSTALLATIONS OF OUTER SPACE

    To make the hypnotic artworks, Krakow-based duo Przemek Podolski and Marta Basandowskaby start by arranging the complex designs as a 3D computer model. The structures range from simple cubes to impressively complex geometric designs which they use to represent outer space. Basandowska says that she and Podolski then use a series of different knotting techniques to weave…

  • POHA POTATOES

      This is a simple, spicy Indian lunch or brunch made with rice and potatoes. Perfect as a side dish with curry, too. Ingredients 4 medium waxy potatoes (such as Charlotte or Jersey Royal) 140g/5oz thick poha rice (also called flaked rice or thick flattened rice) 3 tbsp olive oil generous pinch of ground asafoetida 1 tsp urid dal 1 tsp black mustard seeds 1…

  • KARMA SONAM RINCHEN

    I’m not at all sure how we all in the Bodhicharya Sangha developed the merit to be able to meet Rinpoche in this life – but somehow the good fortune has come to us, each in our own different way, and I think now we  just have to see how much further we can clarify…

  • BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME

    Can we love our families fully while upholding the Buddha’s teaching on non-attachment? Sometimes people ask me if there isn’t a conflict between the Mahayana instruction to see all beings as close relatives, worthy of our affection and compassion, and Buddhist teachings on non attachment. Perhaps they are thinking of Jetsun Milarepa’s words: When you…

  • MEDITATION

    Because of the complexity of various forms of meditation, the text is broken up into two main areas, although it could be broken down much further. Judeo/Christian Buddhist CHRISTIAN MEDITATION This seems to take the form of prayer in order to appreciate the revelations of god.  This can be done by concentrating on a passage in…

  • HOW TO FIND INNER PEACE

    If you are reading these words, it means that you either realize you’re not at peace and want to be, or the sound of the word drew you … it’s something you haven’t really thought about, but it resonates and you want it in your life. The universal truth is that we all suffer.  Whether rich…

  • WAR AND PEACE

    In their miniature world, cramped between wooden crevices of a make-shift dugout, the ants busy themselves with homemaking and egg laying, ensuring their lineage. “Come on lads, let’s all pull together, we can get this done today!” They carry their dainty furniture, food and precious eggs purposefully back and forth, undisturbed by the mayhem around…

  • LIVING AND DYING IN PEACE

    Living & Dying in Peace Dying in a graceful and joyful way – the practice that we need to work on. Ringu Tulku Rinpoche Our vision for this evolving website is that there will be ongoing guidance and instruction from Ringu Tulku on living a peaceful, purposeful life and how to face, embrace and engage…

  • STORIES OF REINCARNATION

    A conversation with Erlendur Haraldsson: Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Iceland, Reykjavik. Sitting round a table at the back of a dining hall with several others, Professor Erlendur Haraldsson is explaining his research into  reincarnation and the world of the dead and dying. At the hour of death, people who are about to die…

  • RINGU TULKU RINPOCHE’S VISIT TO DUBLIN

    We were delighted to have Rinpoche in Ireland again last month. This is his 29th year visiting us and he continues to travel great distances to teach to whomever wishes to hear Dharma. We are very fortunate in Ireland that he spends almost a week here in a very busy schedule. For the first few…

  • Must Have Sea View

    On the forklift truck on a grey morning Boz had a dream.  It was always the same dream; he was a man of stubborn allegiances and wild expectation. His luck would turn and he would retire to the seaside, the English seaside. He’d been happy there. Not so much the overpowering smells of vinegar, frying…

  • A LOVE CALCULUS

    Multiply the number of groups of people you hate by the number of individuals in those groups. The sum equals the number of reasons, causes, and triggers for you to experience the feeling of hatred in your heart; not only at those times of direct encounter with those persons, but also in each and every…

  • THE FINAL WORDS OF PADMASAMBHAVA

      While strolling down the main boulevard in Shigatse, the home of the Panchen Lamas, in 1987, I see only a few people and almost no cars. Tibet has just opened up for foreign travellers and back-packers some months before. Standing on the pavement, perusing the items displayed on makeshift tables in the market stalls,…

  • ERNIE BUCK: AN INTERVIEW

      When and how did you first discover Buddhism? Oh heavens!  In a conventional sense I would say by accident.  I started doing TM in about the early nineties or late eighties.  I had a quite stressful job at Bradford Chamber of Commerce; lots of squabbles and small ‘p’ politics, that sort of thing.  I…