Love after love

I know at the moment I'm posting a lot of stuff written or created by other people. This is because other people can often express it a lot better than I can!

So here's a poem for you.

Love After Love, by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Killing the Buddha

This article by Sam Harris has got to be one of the best things I've ever read on Buddhism. It's also one of the most 'Buddhist' things I've ever read, despite it being written by someone who prefers to call himself an Atheist than a Buddhist. I also love the fact that it appeared in a Buddhist magazine, the Shambhala Sun.

Very, very interesting and insightful. I wish I'd written it!

http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=2903Itemid=247

Psychiatry and Buddhism

I'm looking forward to going to see mister psychiatrist tomorrow.

But I don't like the word "psychiatrist". It sounds so serious. Not like a psychologist or a therapist, which sound softer. I've always associated psychiatrists with big hairy illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anorexia, and psychologists or therapists with anxiety and depression, i.e. things that are perhaps more manageable and that are more common. I don't think my preconceptions are founded in any kind of reality or truth though. I know people with big hairy illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who frequented therapists, and I know of people who went through a patch of depression and who went to see a shrink.

Anyway - the feeling I have at the moment is that it'll be a bit like going to the hairdressers, i.e. you pay someone money so that they ask you questions about yourself for an hour. The only thing is with the hairdressers at least you come out looking better.

No - I'm kidding. I think this psychiatric work I'm going to embark on may constitute an important part of my journey as a Buddhist, and above all as a person. I see many incredible similarities between psychology and Buddhism. This is something I'd like to write more about in the future.

A friend of mine in Paris sent me a message a few days ago saying "I think you're right to look for some kind of healing by following a spiritual path." My response was one of surprise, as I always thought the spiritual path was none other than healing itself.

Happiness in a French baguette

Today I got up at a reasonable time (9.30am is revolutionary for me, honestly), went for a slow walk to get a baguette (I am living in France, after all) and some breakfast stuff, came back and ate it, meditated for five short minutes, and now I feel great.

Could it be like this every day?

OK, I've got to remember that this sudden feeling of well-being is not permanent, but I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts, I tell you.

Song : Freed from desire

As a music fan with an interest in Buddhism, I've begun to notice lately that there are a lot of songs that seem to have Buddhist sentiments in them. I'm gonna start posting them on here with the lyrics.

Here's the first: the 90s pop classic Freed From Desire, by Gala. '90s cheese in all its glory, but there's something quite wise about it! Enjoy :-)

Perhaps we should start singing Gala hits in our meditation classes instead of chanting...

My love has got no money He's got his strong beliefs
My love has got no power He's got his strong beliefs
My love has got no fame He's got his strong beliefs
My love has got no money He's got his strong beliefs
Want more and more
People just want more and more
Freedom and love
What he's looking for
Want more and more
People just want more and more
Freedom and love
What he's looking for
Freed from desire Mind and senses purified
Freed from desire Mind and senses purified
Freed from desire Mind and senses purified
Freed from desire
Nanana...
My love has got no money He's got his strong beliefs
My love has got no power He's got his strong beliefs
My love has got no fame He's got his strong beliefs
My love has got no money He's got his strong beliefs
Want more and more
People just want more and more
Freedom and love
What he's looking for
Want more and more
People just want more and more
Freedom and love
What he's looking for
Freed from desire Mind and senses purified
Freed from desire Mind and senses purified
Freed from desire Mind and senses purified
Freed from desire
Nanana...

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

I reckon in a former life I was a French revolutionary. I absolutely love the French national motto “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (freedom, equality, brotherhood). What could be more Buddhist, and indeed more generally wise, than that? The phrase was coined during the French Revolution and granted, the revolution itself was a wee bit bloodier and more brutal than any Buddhist uprising that is likely to take place, but I somehow feel that the motivation and the underlying feeling were strangely similar to what Buddhist political ideologies there might be.

A mass of ordinary working people coming together to pursue the heartfelt cause of freedom and equality, overcoming the tyranny and dictatorship in their country and attempting to install an egalitarian system of government. It didn’t go exactly to plan, what with the beheadings, the blood and then Napoleon and all, but I think they were onto something important...