This old telescope, tanka
August 13, 2021
This old telescope:searching distant lands, no one notices the lens –pristine after countless sights,invisible to itself.
Insurgent Heart
August 9, 2021
“Sati is not heavy, not harsh, not rigid. It is supple, light, invisible. It has not flavor of its own. It is uncontracted, unmanipulative attention that allows phenomena to arise and pass according to their own nature without the tethers of reactivity and control.” —Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey, Insurgent Heart There’s a fascinating dharma book available […]
Haiku vol. 2
May 24, 2020
These haiku were written between the end of last year and the first half of 2020. So they include the first months of the coronavirus lockdown in the UK. The order has been somewhat rearranged from the order in which they were written. I hope they will be of interest to people who like Basho, […]
Early Buddhist systems map
May 22, 2020
I had a go at mapping early Buddhist practice systematically. It’s over-simplified, of course, despite the fact that I couldn’t get it to look as elegant as I’d wanted. There’s a lot missing, such as the brahmaviharas’ value as concentration and insight practices, and their role in facing off against the hindrances. Some of the […]
Haiku on Twitter
September 26, 2019
I’ve recently been writing some haiku on Twitter. I like the concision and concreteness of the form. But I especially like that a haiku is a place where my interests in poetry, nature, and Buddhism converge. I’m particularly interested in using the form’s traditional focus on nature to highlight the climate crisis. There is a […]