Category: Articles

  • Calm Abiding Instructions

    A first practice: meditation – training the mind Introductory notes Our minds will naturally find peace, compassion and wisdom if we give them the opportunity. Living with these qualities present leads to a very good life – a content, happy – even an enlightened life. However, due to the way we’ve lived our lives and…

  • What the Buddha Said About Eating Meat

    Ajahn Brahmavamso Since the very beginning of Buddhism over 2500 years ago, Buddhist monks and nuns have depended on almsfood. They were, and still are, prohibited from growing their own food, storing their own provisions or cooking their own meals. Instead, every morning they would make their day’s meal out of whatever was freely given…

  • Green Sweet Cicely Seed Sweets

    How to make sweet cicely seed brittle, a form of boiled sweet, and mukhwas, a foraged wild take on Indian sugar coated fennel seeds.   Sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) is found growing wild in the parts of the British Isles that have a cold enough winter for the seed to set. This is mainly north…

  • Mixed Vegetable Pulao – Nepali: तरकारीको पुलाउ – नेपाली

    This type of mixed vegetable pulao is occasionally prepared, especially for feasts and in picnics.  It is a very rich dish. Ingredients 1 1/2 cups of rice (basmati or masino/fine) 3 tablespoons of ghiu (clarified butter) 1 cup of cauliflower pieces 1/2 a cup of peas 1 carrot thinly sliced 1 onion finely chopped 1 teaspoon cumin…

  • Buddhist Humour

  • 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 JUDEO/CHRISTIAN MEDITATION Christian meditation takes the form of prayer in order to appreciate the revelations of god.  This can be done by concentrating on a passage in the bible and…

  • Are There Any Bodhisattvas in the Room? by Karma Changchub

    “Are there any Bodhisattvas in the room?” KARMA CHANGCHUB·TUESDAY, 19 JULY 2016 “Are there any Bodhisattvas in the room?” When asked such a question, few of us might raise our hands, possibly through a combination of humility and the absence of having more than two arms? Ringu Tulku Rinpoche asked the question when he returned…

  • News Update on fundraising for car/ambulance for Dr. Chuga

    Latest news on the fundraising campaign to get a car/ambulance for Dr. Chuga. Just £3,000 needed to reach the target! Great news! We have now raised about £7,000 (still £3,000 to go) for the vehicle thanks to the many very generous donations given so far. If you are still considering donating to this very worthy…

  • A Room

    Our grandparents’ house was one story with the thatched roof common to most houses in our particular area at that time. It consisted of a kitchen/cum living room, two bedrooms and what was known as “the good room”, this room was only used on very special occasions such as gatherings at weddings or funerals. I…

  • Lama Ngapa Shakes the Dice

    Keeping an open mind, I decide that my mind would be open enough to have my immediate kismet – if fate has an intermediate stage – foretold by a lama.  The idea of rolling the dice, reading the tarot, seeing angels in tea leaves, stirring the entrails of a dead goat, laying silver on the…

  • Cartoons

  • Fermented Wild Garlic

    The bright green shoots of wild garlic are one of the most heart-lifting aspects of an early Spring. I eat it fresh, in salads, in cooked dishes, as pesto, or soup. By the summer, it is gone again. I love having wild garlic later in the year but I can’t dry it like most other…

  • Teaching on Holy Isle

      I arrived on the island with no prior knowledge of Edie’s teaching; my mother had recommended attending, having deeply benefited from a previous course on the island, led by Lama Rinchen Palmo. Edie is a wonderfully grounded teacher, whose honesty and humour helped us all feel at ease remarkably quickly; like Ringu Tulku she…

  • Renewable Energy

    The plan to build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Devon, in the light of the recent developments of power sources in the world, seems to be an anomaly.  While many countries in Europe are turning to renewable energy in order to cut emissions, the UK seems to be determined to build this…

  • Mushroom Curry च्याउको कढी

    Mushroom or chyau, Agaricus conpestris, family Solanaceae, is a summer vegetable grown in Nepal, especially in the high mountains. Ingredients 1 cup of mushrooms 4 teaspoons of mustard oil 1 medium onion 2 garlic cloves 2.5 cm of ginger 1/2 teaspoon of chilli (optional) 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds salt to taste. Process (The following…

  • India: A Personal View

    When you come from a small country with a population of just over 5 million it’s hard to get your head round the complexities of a juggernaut like India with its 1.25 billion souls – and that was in 2013. The army was called out in Haryana last week where a north Indian martial and…

  • Depression

    Question: My question is about practice & how, when doing one’s ngondro for example, many difficult things can come up. Recently I remembered your description of being on retreat, and not being able to move because of depression (how something was expressing itself at the time). How possible is it to lead a daily life…