Category: buddhism
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1 year an Upāsaka
Halfway through last year I described my year-long commitment as a lay devotee of Buddhism in the Thai Forest Monastery under Ajahn Sona. I completed the commitment at the end of December and was given the Pali name of Sanghapāla — “protector of the Sangha (the Buddhist community).” I use that name now when in…
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6 months an upāsaka
At the beginning of the year I undertook a commitment to take my Buddhist learning to the next level by becoming an upāsaka, or “lay devotee.” Last fall I applied to and was accepted into the upāsikā program at Birken, the Thai Forest Monastery near Kamloops where I have attended a couple of different meditation…
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Rainy remembrance
In the rain today I walked to Bukkō-ji 佛光寺, an important temple in the centre of Kyoto for Shinran, the founder of Shin Buddhism. I am not a temple member, but this is the neighborhood temple. In a famously gridded city, its grounds are the local shortcut. Every day we walk diagonally through Bukko-ji to…
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Sunday morning. I hear the calling of Buddhist monks on alms round as they walk down the narrow street in front of my house. I give some dana. I had always lived in apartments in Kyoto, so never had this experience before. Anumodana! 🙏📿
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2022 Goals
Last year was one of disruption, multiple changed plans, instability, and finally settling in. I have no big plans for 2022, except maybe to try and get to Japan during the summer to tie up some loose ends there. Thus, my goals for 2022 are pretty assured. 2022 will be a year of learning. (well,…
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Meditation stats snapshot
It has been a while, so I took a bit of a snapshot of my meditation tracker data on Insight Timer today, exporting it into Numbers for some visualization. Some quick stats: 930 Total sessions 14,800 Total minutes 753 Days with at least 1 session Timer 37% Guided meditations 63% Meditation 99% Chanting 1% Consecutive…
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Symphonic society
In many Buddhist traditions monks and nuns depend on the support of the surrounding community to survive. Thai Forest Monastery monks will walk to the local village with alms bowls in which villagers will place rice and fruit — which will be all a monk will eat for that day. Furthermore, monastics are not allowed…
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Trickle-down ethical leadership — a review of The Just King
The Just King: The Tibetan Buddhist Classic on Leading an Ethical Life by Jamgön Mipham Take a moment to think of the good leaders that you have had in your life and/or career. Think of the qualities they possess, the qualities that you admire and might even emulate. I am sure we could come up…
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Cycles: 2019 Meditation retreat
For a third time I went on retreat to Birken, a Buddhist monastery in the Thai Forest tradition. I try to do retreats like this annually as a way to reset my meditation practice. Going up on Friday, we stayed three nights and enjoyed complete silence, 45m meditation sessions at least twice daily, and lots…
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100 days of meditation
At 6am this morning I quietly rose out of bed, padded into the bathroom to wash the sleep out my eyes, and then sat down on a cushion in front of the fireplace in my living room, surrounded by shadow and silence. Crossing my legs into a half-lotus position, I took a couple of deep…