urthonamag

Zen and Ice

Without water no Buddhas! Zen Master Hakuin says: ‘All beings from the very beginning are Buddhas, it is like water and ice, without water no ice, without living beings no Buddhas’. This suggests that metaphorically living beings are water and the Buddha ice. In one way this is appropriate because liquid water is the generalContinue reading “Zen and Ice”

Editor’s Blog – notes from an English village

In praise of a Victorian suburb

Editor’s Blog – notes from an English village

Bela Tarr – the ultimate director of European existential film-noir? Are you a fan of long, slow European art movies with strong symbolic overtones, shot in black and white or at the very least shades of murky sepia, in which the main character walks down deserted white roads in the mountains at dusk, or throughContinue reading “Editor’s Blog – notes from an English village”

Chomsky, Seldon and authority

Last Tuesday night’s Night Waves, Radio Three’s intellectual discussion program was unusually good. Philip Dodd spoke separately to the philosopher Noam Chomsky then the biographer of Blair and Thatcher and Public School Headmaster, Anthony Sheldon. The theme in both cases was authority. What is it? Can it be a force for good? How can itsContinue reading “Chomsky, Seldon and authority”

Editor’s blog – Notes from an English Village

A misty moisty morning today, as we used to say on misty days when I was growing up. I think we got this from Maddy Prior – we often listened to Steelye Span on Saturday mornings, and I recall what was then Maddy’s crystal clear, high, pure voice, with a hint of danger, like aContinue reading “Editor’s blog – Notes from an English Village”

Editor’s blog (notes from an English village)

Mist rising off the damp dark fields at the front of our cottage this morning. Not river mist, but fine wraithlike tendrils of mist rising from the strength of the sun on the damp earth. Not easy to photograph, but a fine sight, telling of the increasing power of the sun, and the waning ofContinue reading “Editor’s blog (notes from an English village)”

The Unanswered Question: Chretien De Troyes and the first Story of the Grail

NEW POSTING: The Unanswered Question Chretien De Troyes and the first Story of the Grail Just posted on this site under ‘Literature’ a major essay on the mythos of the Grail legend, as found in the original medieval text. “I want to open this piece with an image rather than ideas about the Grail. Picture thisContinue reading “The Unanswered Question: Chretien De Troyes and the first Story of the Grail”

Editor’s Blog 7th Feb 2013

We are already hard at work on issue 30, which is going to be a celebratory issue, Urthona is 21 years old! We will allow ourselves the indulgence of a little reminiscence about the early days of the magazine, and how its vision was originally forged. We plan also to have some material on WilliamContinue reading “Editor’s Blog 7th Feb 2013”

Editor’s Journal 8th September 2009

Issue 26 is out and about in the shops, and we are looking into a distributor on the East Coast of the USA. We are starting to think about issue 27, which will be on the theme of Buddhism, culture and ecology. Views of nature, and the natural, are as many and various as thereContinue reading “Editor’s Journal 8th September 2009”

NEWS: Issue 26 – Landscapes of the Mind

Urthona printed version issue no. 26: ‘Landscapes of the Mind’ is now out in UK bookshops and Buddhist centres around the world. If you have a local book store or Buddhist temple / meditation centre you think would like to stock it please let us know!