I would like to wish all of you good wishes and enjoyment in all the traditional and contemporary celebrations and events that you may be engaging in. These include Christmas, Yule and New Year, and you may (or may not) celebrate them in different ways; they are an opportunity for some families and friends to get together, sing and eat,
Love
One of the four heavenly abodes in Buddhism is ‘loving kindness’ or metta in Pali, (the others are compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity). Metta is sometimes translated as ‘compassion’, though in this formulation, it is distinctly ‘loving-kindness’. This is because karuna is used to describe ‘compassion’. The Pali language makes this distinction between metta and karuna: Karuna connotes active sympathy and gentle affection, and a
Let their spirit shine through
Several years ago, at a meeting with a group of Western teachers, the Dalai Lama expressed astonishment at the degree of self-aversion and feelings of unworthiness reported by Western students. In fact, when asked about self-hatred (by Sharon Salzberg, a senior teacher in the Insight tradition), he did not know what it was, and needed it explaining. There is a
New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year to all! May you have a healthy year, full of peace and love. I always enjoy the inexorable change of the seasons, in a bodily way; it is a true reminder of my animal self. We are already past the longest night, moving towards Imbolc and thence to Spring. Imbolc (1st February) is a traditional Gaelic or
Talking to children about interbeing this Christmas…and beyond
It’s Christmas time, the weather is cold and there has even been some snow! Christmas is a time to give gifts and to have fun, but in all the excitement it is also important for our children to have moments of peaceful reflection, and to consider others who may be less fortunate. This year I have really enjoyed having a
‘What we think, we become’
In this blog, I want to touch upon the vast topic of ‘focus’; a huge subject and a worthy one for consideration, in terms of generating the motivation to develop the practice and in exploring ways of teaching it to children both in school and at home. In all our literature – and as part of our recent winning submission
Softening our responses
Brighton and Hove City Council have been experimenting with adding on an extra week to the October half-term holiday and taking it off the next summer break, thus half-term has come around very quickly! In planning for the term dates 2018/19 (which are now on our website) I have tried to mitigate the negative effects of this, by ensuring that
On Loving Kindness
‘It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.’ – HH The 14th– Dalai Lama Welcome to the new term and warm wishes to our new families and children! We also welcome
Everything Changes
‘Everything changes and nothing stands still’ – Heraclitus Anicca (impermanence in Pali) is one of the foundational premises of Buddhism and it asserts that all physical and mental events (including ourselves) are not constant or permanent. All events, in the widest sense of the word – physical and mental – come into being, dependent on conditions, change and finally dissolve
Science and the ‘Seeing that Frees’
I have been reading Rob Burbea’s book, ‘Seeing That Frees’, subtitled ‘Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising’. I want to share my excitement about this book, how I am connecting with it and how it links into a direction for the school. This is the sort of book that really excites me because I get very tired of my own