I am a part of several different communities, as I’m sure you are too. Some of these are tighter, like the group of us who live together here in the temple, and some are looser, like my 12 step community, or the members of our sangha who rarely visit but remain connected. I see creating community as one of the biggest responsibilities of my role as priest – secondary maybe only to introducing people to the Buddha. Sangha is one... Read more

I am not a fan of exercise. At school I hated games – the P.E. teachers who made us run cross country in the freezing cold, and the hockey games where I was always one of the last to be chosen. This has led to a lifelong antipathy towards anything involving moving my body because it would be ‘good for me’. Earlier in the year, Kaspa & I miraculously started doing yoga. We followed videos online and found ourselves spending... Read more

My heart was banging. It was Thursday evening and I was preparing to do a live broadcast of a Buddhist service on Facebook. I run several services a week at the temple and don’t get any nerves at all- the last time I felt this anxious, I was getting ready to speak to a hundred people. Partly it was because lots of people had expressed interested in attending, some of them from other schools of Pureland Buddhism – what would they... Read more

The wanderer Potaliya approached the Buddha and after they had exchanged greetings and ‘cordial talk’ (I’d love to know what this was! Maybe they talked about the weather or local politics…) the Buddha offered Potaliya a teaching. He told Potaliya that there were four kinds of people: “What four? (1) Here, some person speaks dispraise of someone who deserves dispraise, and the dispraise is accurate, truthful and timely; but he does not speak praise of someone who deserves praise, though... Read more

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Rumi I fell in love with my husband eight years ago, and since then I have fallen seriously in love with at least a dozen other men and women. Here’s a list of them. Terrance Keenan. Jean Vanier. Patrick Lane. Linda Gregg. Byron Katie. Richard Rohr. Rumi. John Paraskevopoulos. Marshall Rosenberg. I could go... Read more

Every Sunday evening we hold something called a Listening Circle at the temple. In this practice we sit facing each other in a circle and take turns holding a stone. Whoever is holding the stone can speak or sit in silence, and everyone else is quiet. This simple practice always results in a deeply sacred space, no matter who is present, and I find it one of the most helpful practices we do. The Listening Circle is our most unpopular... Read more

I try to make a regular practice of dipping into the reams of suttas from the Pali Canon. I feel it gives me a more direct experience of ‘hanging out with the Buddha’ than when I read the myriads wonderful commentaries produced throughout Buddhist history and in contemporary times. Despite the density of the text and the sutta’s repetitious nature, the Buddha always has something interesting and relevant to say. Today I read the Cremation Brand or Firebrand from the... Read more

Sometimes life feels hopeless. Maybe we are struggling with an addiction, or our hearts are breaking. We might have got trapped in a stressful job, squashed by the pressures of supporting our family, or we might have retreated into a prison of depression or bitterness. Maybe someone did terrible things to us and we can’t find a way out of their shadow. Maybe we have done terrible things and cannot forgive ourselves. Maybe there hasn’t been any light for a... Read more

This is not your week to run the Universe. Next week is not looking so good either. ~ Susan J. Elliott I am somewhat of a chocolate connoisseur, and so when I find companies that make high quality vegan chocolates I get very excited. Bianca Marton are one of those companies. They also make delicious caramel chocolates which are even rarer in the vegan world. The last time I ordered myself a small box of their exquisite handmade chocolates, I... Read more

I am not a good meditator. I rarely look forward to sitting meditation. I don’t settle very easily. I often spend the time thinking about what I’m going to do later. I don’t do very much of it. I started meditating formally in my twenties, when I became interested in Suzuki Roshi’s writings. I visited a local Zen centre and I was inspired by the teacher who ran it – she glowed. I liked the idea of being a Zen... Read more