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 there are human beings. In my article for the upcoming issue I will attempt to interrogate the notion that nature is the only valid category of reality, which is a reaction to the previous notion that all values must come from the human. Buddhism has an amelioritive stance, which is that man is a particular node of being within the much vaster natural cosmos, which includes the imaginal as well as the physical. I will be looking at how the romantic stance of Blake has definite affinities with this view.Continue 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!Continue reading “NEWS: Issue 26 – Landscapes of the Mind”
Editor’s Journal: 26th June 2009
Last night I went to a very interesting talk here in Cambridge on the theme of Wabi Sabi as a buddhist practice. Wabi Sabi is a Japanese idea which is very hard to sum up in a few words. The speaker Vajradarshini brought together Wabi Sabi as an aesthetic quality of imperfection and transience with Wabi Sabi as an attitude to life. When you ask Japanese people what Wabi Sabi is, they may point to a tea house, or a cracked pot, or touch their chest and say ‘Japanese Heart’.Continue reading “Editor’s Journal: 26th June 2009”