March 31st, 2009 Comments Off
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower is located next to the Gateway of India. Part of the Taj group of hotels this iconic 105-year old heritage building was part of the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
March 29th, 2009 Comments Off
Below is the notification I received of His Holiness Pema Norbu (Penor) Rinpoche passing. While I do not consider myself a Buddhist I did have the pleasure of meeting him many years ago in Bylakuppe, India. There was something special about him, and if nothing else he appeared to me as a kind person and holy man.
This is to formally announce that the 11th Throneholder of the Palyul Lineage of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche entered the stage of Thugdam, the final stage of meditation, as of 8:20 PM on Friday, March 27, 2009, at the Namdroling Monastery in Bylakuppe, South India.
Earlier, at noon, His Holiness received offerings from many of the highest Nyingma Tulkus, Khenpos, and Lamas who had assembled to pay homage to him. Rinpoche left Columbia Asia Hospital at 3:30 PM with the help of the Bhutanese Government who provided an Indian police escort. He reached Palyul Namdroling at 6:40 PM and remained on his bed at the residence. Tulkus, Khenpos and Lamas did aspiration prayers together with His Holiness until 8:20 PM. At that time Rinpoche looked around and then closed his eyes and went into meditation.
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March 28th, 2009 §
Inge took this shot a few years back when I travelled to met her in Tibet. She’d been living and working in a town called Ganzi (Karze if you’re Tibetan) teaching English at a free school. I’d arrived the day before — it had taken me 5 days to get there from Sydney.
She took this shot while we were walking back from the main Ganzi monastery after receiving a surprise blessing — hence the red dot. Ganzi is 3,800 meters above sea level and I remember being rather puffed.
As I look at the photo now, I see is a tired, puffy-faced old geezer who’s looking forward to a beer.
The poem is a favourite. I obviously think it applies.
a warning to my readers
by Wendell Berry
Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise
of gentleness, or elegant
because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am
a man crude as any,
gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full
of fits and furies. That I
may have spoken well
at times, is not natural.
A wonder is what it is.
March 23rd, 2009 Comments Off
A touch of paradise in far North Queensland. Windjana is a magnificent luxury beach house designed by the award-winning Daryl Jackson.
March 22nd, 2009 Comments Off
flash fiction by John Holman
I watched as Ito wiped his hands. He had completed painting and stood back for a moment allowing himself time to enjoy his work. It had taken many months. First finding the door and then hanging it in our apartment. I called it the ‘door to nowhere’ because that’s what it was — Ito’s beautifully painted red door that opened onto a blank wall.
When I asked him why? He simply answered, “Why not?”
In time, Ito knew every square inch of the door, every crack, scratch and sound it made. And yes, he believed he could hear the door talk to him, just as distinctly he said as he could hear the slow, methodical in and out of his own breath.
He talked of the door’s solitariness and if he dared swing it open, there would be nothing and yet everything. Every possibility. Every dream. Every kind and horrid word ever spoken. Every form of love. Everything in heaven and on earth, both good and bad, sat behind the door and so he left it closed. » Read the rest of this entry «
