Category: Personal Stories
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Trowlock Island
Trowlock Island from Thames Path A sliver of land cut from the mainland by a narrow backwater – this was Trowlock Island on the Thames where I lived every weekend from Easter to September and throughout the Summer Holidays when I was young. Although it was only about…
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REMEMBERING HARRY
Death to me is something that is perfectly natural. Of course, as a boy and as a grownup person, like most people, I think have some feeling like this: they avoid thinking about death because very few people actually want to die. One of our firmest attachments is to life itself. And yet if you…
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Big Buddha is watching you!
The object I am about to describe was probably made in Nepal. It has been in my possession for several years, and I can’t remember where I bought it. Certainly not in Nepal, a country I have yet to visit. The object is a wallet made of coarsely woven hemp and reinforced with raw cotton…
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COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS REFLECTION SECTION
Community Champions Reflection Section One of our Community Champions, Ankhra, reflects on what being environmental means to her… Memoirs of another age Winter was different when I was growing up, not to be dreaded for the cold but almost celebrated. My grandparents started to prepare for it in the late summer by gathering apples from…
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Healing the Wounded Heart
Almost two years ago I found myself unexpectedly in a hospital bed awaiting a common but serious medical procedure to unblock an artery. I had just returned from a trip to visit my daughter in the US, and could count a few mostly work-related flights in the five months prior to that, including a…
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COMPASSION CAN CHANGE A MAN
Photo of Avalokiteshvara in Singapore by Yeshe At this year’s summer camp in Portugal, Rinpoche, amongst other topics, talked about the power of compassion. So here is a story to share with you. Since 2007 I have been teaching ‚ Being happy, how do I do that? at a night school in Aix-la-Chappel (Aachen, Germany). Based…
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OASIS OF LONG LIFE
MAISON AND ROSES An innovative Dharma venture in the Centre of France. For the last few decades, particularly with the arrival in the West of Zen and Tibetan Masters, together with the strong aura of HH the Dalaï Lama, many Westerners (among whom are many French people) have embraced Buddhism. With the…
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UNDER THE WALNUT TREE
Under the walnut tree in Palpung Sera Nevada is both a retreat centre and a mountain farm run under auspices of Khenting Tai Situ Rinpoche, the 12th Tai Situpa.It is located two thousand meters up in the Sierra Nevada of Andalucia in Spain and is about about 3 hours drive from Granada airport. The name…
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HOW I MET RINGU TULKU RINPOCHE
Andy with Rinpoche at the summer camp in Portugal, 2014 25 years ago I was trying to write a research methodology text book but was unable to so due to severe writers block. This was making the lives of my friends in Glasgow a misery. One day someone suggested that I go to a quiet…
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I WAS THERE
I was in India when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Indira succeeded her father, Jawaharlal Nerhu, the first Prime Minister of India, and continued the dynastic rule of the family. Indians place great trust in their leaders and perpetuate family involvement in their rulers as a matter of course, venerating them as living deities. Immediately after her…
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CHANGING TIBET
I visited Tibet in 2002. Although I saw only Lhasa and Shigatse I experienced and enjoyed the unique ambience which had captured the hearts of visitors over the previous 250 years. Now that 5 trains each day link Lhasa with other regions of China I am not sure that this ambience still exists. George Bogle…
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DAYS 1 AND 2: END TO END
Day 1 – 1st August – 55.65 miles It was still raining when I pedaled away from the Sandy Bank Hotel at just after 8 am. The wind was still blowing too, not so strongly as the night before but luckily still from the same direction, this time blowing me along the A30 towards Penzance. Although I…
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JOURNEY INTO BUDDHISM
Journey into Buddhism In the years following Buddha Shakyamuni’s demise Buddhism was propagated in all sorts of ways; mendicant monks travelling around the country spreading the word to name but one. Following the famous conversion by Emperor Ashoka, Buddhism became enmeshed into the political system of his ever expanding Empire and was soon adopted, perhaps…
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CONTENTMENT
In the old days, when my students asked me how to tackle a one-word abstract essay title like ‘Contentment’, I used to tell them to use a tin-opener, by which I meant questions which began with interrogatives like Who? When? What? Why? How? That was in the days before the internet was universally available and…
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JOURNEY DOWN
Journey Down 31 July 2009 The threeleg train journey down to Penzance wasn’t quite as bad as I’d expected; despite my disappointment when booking at not being able to repeat the trip my son and I made years ago. At that time, we travelled Leeds to Penzance direct so had eight hours to sit back and enjoy the journey. Manchester to Birmingham New Street on ‘Cross Country’ trains turned out to be the most problematic. I arrived at Piccadilly Station in plenty of time for the 7.26 departure.
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MY JOURNEY
Just before Christmas 2011 my Mother asked if I wanted to go to a place called Samye Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Dumfries she had heard of, to do a weekend course as a Christmas present. I immediately said no, I had no interest in Religion at this time and couldn’t have told you a…
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ERNIE’S END TO END – LAND’S END TO JOHN O’GROATS
It’s time to hit the road again. Since returning from the ‘big ride’ over two years ago now I’ve been clocking up quite large mileages. What with 4 – 5 sessions a week of cycle training with schools during term time, occasional rides up to Scotland to visit a Buddhist Centre and trips to…