A collection of articles and other Dharma by Rev. Leon and friends of the Priory
Thich Nhat Hanh On the Art of Embracing Loneliness
(Follow this link to see the March 2024 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)
– Thich Nhat Hanh
This short teaching about embracing loneliness is part of a talk Thay gave on the 13th of December 2012, during the winter retreat in Plum Village. Loneliness has been a constant presence in our lives during these restrictive pandemic times, and Thay’s teachings on this topic should provide much needed comfort and understanding.
Here is a link to the video of the talk on Youtube (it is well worth watching!): You can watch the short teaching here.
This transcript has been edited for readability and was originally published on the Plumvillage.app website on April 2, 2021. It is used here with permission.
Last time we spoke about home. We know that once we are home, we no longer feel lonely. If you’re at home, you feel warm, comfortable, safe, fulfilled. So home is a place where loneliness disappears. But where is home?
The Buddha said very clearly that home is in us, and that there is an island that you have to go back to: the island of self. This is a practice, not a theory.
Loneliness is the ill-being of our time. We feel very lonely, even if we are surrounded by many people. We are lonely together. There is a vacuum inside of us, where you don’t feel comfortable. We try to fill the vacuum by connecting with other people.
…
Continue reading this article on the Plumvillage.app website or you can watch the short teaching here.
Dealings With Pain
(Follow this link to see the February 2024 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)
Anna Ayse Atika, OBC
— The Netherlands —
This article first appeared as a posting on the blog Jade Mountains Buddha Hall in autumn of 2009. The article also appears in the winter 2009 edition of the Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. It appears here with permission of the author.
Ayse is a lay minister of the OBC living in the Netherlands. She contributes, with other lay ministers of the Order, to the blog Dew on the Grass.
Due to orthopaedic surgeries and treatments I have been dealing with long periods of excessive physical pain. Because of my body’s condition, being without pain is a rare thing in general. So training with pain is a necessity. The following is an excerpt of sorts, some bits and pieces on my personal dealings with pain. I guess what I am learning in the process is in essence applicable to any form of difficulty or Continue reading →
Do You Need To Be Religious To Practice Zen?
(Follow this link to see the January 2024 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)
– Rev. Master Berwyn Watson, Abbot of Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, Northumberland, UK.
(This article originally appeared in the Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplative and can be viewed here. It appears in this newsletter by kind permission of the Journal and the author.)
The brief answer is: it depends on what you mean by ‘religious’. If we see ‘being religious’ as believing in a set of religious doctrines that define belonging to a particular religion, then I would say the answer is ‘no’.1 If by being religious we are implying that we would have faith in something more than just what we know now, I would have to say ‘yes’.
There are two reasons why faith cannot be left out of Zen practice. Firstly, I don’t believe that the Sōtō Zen tradition can be separated from the Buddhist tradition as a whole. And despite attempts from some to be selective and create a western form of ‘secular Buddhism’, the Buddhist tradition usually implies some form of faith in its various forms.2 This is especially true in terms of actual Buddhist practice. It is just about possible to write an academic book about Buddhism and say its doctrines are ‘secular’ in many ways. But this leaves out the important fact that Buddhism is actually practiced by Continue reading →