Urthona – Buddhism & art – Page 2 – art & poetry for spiritual evolution

The Alchemical Island

A new book of strange and marvellous poems from Ananda / Stephen Parr

The Alchemical Island: Poems 2106 – 2017 pb, 250 pp, £12 – to order email the poet on moon@wolfatthedoor.org

Ananda (Stephen Parr) has brought out another poetry collection, his first since the 2015 collection The Paths Between. The Alchemical Island says on the cover that it covers the years 2016 and 2017. Given the great variety and high quality of the work in this volume one can only wonder and anticipate what richess the poet has up his sleaves from subsequent years. Years, by the way, during which he moved from Bristol back up to his beloved North (Sheffield in fact) so it will be interesting to see what that move has brought to his work.

Editor’s photo gallery

A new online gallery of my landscape photography is now live. Also includes geopoetic blog posts / photo essays

geopoeticblog.wordpress.com/

Tolkien and Buddhism

TOLKIEN AND BUDDHISM

Has this topic been explored yet by anyone? Urthona will be doing so in our next issue (summer 2024).

Meanwhile here is an article that opens up many interesting parallels with Tolkien and western estotericism. Many Buddhists I imagine would focus more on Tolkien’s moral vision, but there is much to think about in this rich essay written by a traditionalist writer in the lineage of Rene Guernon.

Essay: Tolkien and the Primordial tradition

Joscelyn Godwin does mention Buddhism however…

Paul Hart – the desolate sublime

Paul Hart is an exceptionally fine English nature photographer. He finds haunting, poetic images in neglected corners of small towns and the countryside. Many of the images convey a sense of desolation and paralysis, and the partial capture of nature in industrial farm landscapes.

Buddhist choral music – web resource page

The Bodhi choir at Jade Buddha Temple, Houston, Texas

Buddhist choral music

Sarvadarsin introduces a new web resource of Buddhist choral music: In recent years, Buddhism has spread to the West, becoming the fastest growing religion in some countries, its teachings and practices striking a chord with individuals seeking spiritual growth and inner peace. Previously, as it reached new parts of the world, Buddhism had a transformative effect on the cultures it encountered, as new Buddhists share and communicate the Buddha Dharma in ways informed by their own traditions.

Jonny Church landscapes of vision

Although he is now settled in Cambridge, landscape painter Jonny Church grew up on the Welsh borders and studied at Aberystwyth School of Art, surrounded by mountains and wild seascapes.

His evocative semi-abstract works seek to convey intangible atmospheres in nature while referring always to the actual physical presence of mountains, fells and fields in different weathers.

Two Rivers

Two Rivers

Poetry by Simon Millward – Mudlark Press, £12, pb, pp 68

Cover painting by Ruth Bateman

To purchase e-mail s.d.millward@googlemail.com

Two Rivers is a new book of poems by Simon Millward – a long time Buddhist meditator based in North Devon. Simon Millward is a predominantly a poet of nature, pure and simple, in the best sense. He resists the siren calls of ‘pressing issues’, and writes with strong, direct feeling – for the elemental presences in our world, and also the poignancies of human relationships.

luminous landscapes

TANIA RUTLAND is based in the South Downs where she paints evocative landscapes of mists and contours. These magical works are dreamy yet rooted in the actual appearance of the Downs at certain times of day.

She is currently (July 2023) exhibiting at the Stapleford Granary rural arts centre in South Cambridgeshire, where the coffee is excellent..

See more at https://www.taniarutland.co.uk/

New Issue: Unknown Landscapes

Urthona Issue 36 ‘Unknown Landscapes’ is OUT NOW.

Landscapes move and uplift us in ways that are hard to pin down. Artists explore such emotional responses and bring clarity, awareness and transformational depth to the process. They help us to make the appreciation of landscape more conscious and meaningful.

the Buddha meets Plato…

The encounter of Buddhism and Platonism – what can modern Buddhists and others learn from Plato?

A philosophical essay by Ratnagarbha

I have been interested in Platonism for as long as I have been a Buddhist. The two have always gone hand in hand for me. I find in Platonism a wonderfully articulated view of a sacred cosmos, in which number and harmonic ratios, in their more mystical aspects, play an important part. It is a cosmos imbued with living, divine forces that animate it and give meaning and purpose. Whilst I am well aware of the vast, rich heritage of imaginative mythological conceptions in Buddhism, for me still, even after several decades, it is the practical, existential aspect of Buddhism that is to the forefront of my mind. Renouncing attachment and cultivating concentration and wisdom. After many years of thinking about the differences and similarities between these two systems, and feeling it was important for me to honour both, I offer these reflections that may be of some interest to others… Posted here a seven point key summary of my conclusions. After these there is a link to a longer 10,000 word essay which explores Platonism and its parallels with Buddhism in more detail.