Category: spirituality

  • A Moment’s Peace at the Olympics

    At the 2012 London Olympics, I participated in an event “A Moment’s Peace” – it was an event run to celebrate the true Olympic spirit – promoting the ideal of peace, unity in diversity and the hope for creating a better world. The London 2012 Olympics was a special time. There was so much good […]

  • Keep calm and carry on

    As a general rule I try to avoid politics. However, the recent referendum on EU membership is more than your average political issue. Save living in a cave it’s been hard to avoid. In particular I am concerned how it has divided the nation on grounds of identity, nationality, age and more. For me the […]

  • New Address for Self-Improvement blog

    “Everything in life is a choice.” – Sri Chinmoy For a few reasons, I’ve moved my ‘self-improvement‘ blog to a new address. It a blog based on the personal experience of moving through life and trying to work out a slightly better ways of living. The latest post is dealing with personal difficulties or more […]

  • The honest Buddhist

    I gave meditation classes, on behalf of the Sri Chinmoy Centre at a local Friends Meeting House (Quakers) in Oxford. It is useful location, and is used by quite a few different meditation groups and spiritual paths. At the back, there is a small private car park, which, in the dark, is not so easy […]

  • The shadow of trees in winter

    Sometimes you go through life and at a certain point – you start to notice something, that had always been there, but for some reason you never paid any attention to. There are many things all around us, that can easily pass us by – but then something subtly changes, and we start to appreciate […]

  • Adventures in writing

    Rather unexpectedly, on a rather dreary day, I had a good experience in a local church (a place I very rarely visit). It felt a certain grace, a feeling of newness. Hungry for more, I tried to repeat experience, but it wasn’t the same.

  • A visit to a local church

    A dull winter’s day, but I drag myself from the comfy, soporific atmosphere of being glued to a screen. The chill bites through a thin winter’s jacket, so I walk at a quicker pace up the hill. Still, a rather aimless march – just a break for blurry eyes and cramped legs. I contemplate the […]

  • The Buddha’s silence wins

    One day the Lord Buddha was meditating. An elderly man came in and started abusing the Buddha most ruthlessly. The Buddha remained absolutely silent. How long could he continue his abuse? After a while he stopped and was about to leave the place. But the Buddha said, “Just wait, please. I have something to ask […]

  • Recognising old friends

    Recently, I was staying in the outskirts of Paris in an old French château owned by the Ramakrishna Centre. Whilst there, I read a leaflet about Swami Vivekananda’s travels in Paris in 1900, shortly before he left the body. Vivekananda would give lectures on spirituality to spread his message of Vedanta. At the end of […]

  • Lourdes and the Pyrenees

    Many years ago I watched a film ‘The Song of Bernadette’ – it was a captivating story, which made me research a little more. Reading first hand accounts, and the words of Bernadette Soubirous herself gave a much deeper insight into the events that took place over 150 years ago.The film was somewhat liberal with […]