What is ‘pure form’? Since time immemorial human beings have been prone to extraordinary experiences where they feel that they have ascended to a world of purity & wonder far beyond everyday concerns. However, the ways in which such experiences of pure, luminous forms have been understood has differed widely from culture to culture. A particularlyContinue reading “Pure Forms in Buddhism and Platonism”
Category Archives: Buddhism in practice
‘The Infinite Game’ – Zen and AI
Zen and Artificial Intelligence by PAUL ANDREW POWELL Crucial topics of modernity from a Zen point of view, book review by Ratnagarbha
Where are all the dark paths now?
‘Where are all the dark paths now? The Pure Land itself is near’ – Zen Master Hakuin. Ratnagarbha explores the Buddhist Pure Land tradition through a painting from old Tibet.
Discipleship – an idea worth ressurecting?
The dictionary says that a disciple is ‘the follower of the doctrines of a teacher or school of thought’. But this doesn’t really convey the experiential flavour of that ancient institution. In days gone by, when you took up a trade or a course of study in guild, church or university, you were apprenticed toContinue reading “Discipleship – an idea worth ressurecting?”
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”
Urthona – Buddhism & art 