Note - Latest Vishvapani Talk Now Available

The latest "Thought for the Day" talk by Vishvapani on Buddhist compassion is now available in our Audio Section.

NEW MOON – Thursday 26th June 2014

Remorse

When we see clearly
our own lack of virtue
we are filled with grief; 
here and hereafter we grieve. 

Dhammapada v. 15

If we were to stub our toe and not feel pain we would be in trouble. Pain is a message saying, ‘pay attention here’. If we were to act or speak cruelly without our heart feeling remorse, we would similarly be in trouble. How else could we learn? Despite appearances remorse is not something going wrong. It is there to protect us; a sort of immune system. We can listen to it, accept it, invite the pain in our hearts to teach us not to follow heedlessness in future. Becoming lost in remorse will lead to guilt; we missed the point. We don’t learn by taking delight in hating ourselves or others for making a mistake.

With Metta, Bhikkhu Munindo

Island Teacher Swimming Solent to Help Tibet

Isle of Wight filmmaker and teacher Joe Briscoe will be raising money for the Tibet Relief Fund by swimming the solent on July 6th. He will be swimming from Hurst Castle on the mainland to the West Wight!



Joe chose the Tibet Relief Fund, having previously spent time in the country and witnessing the effect the oppressive Chinese occupation is having on the population.

Click HERE to help Joe reach his target.

FULL MOON - Ease

More than a thief, 
more than an enemy, 
a misdirected heart 
brings one to harm.

Dhammapada v.42

A misdirected heart leads us to harm when it obstructs access to the natural state of contentment. When awareness fails and we attach, the act of clinging feeds into confused thinking and divisive action.

True, self-existing well-being arises effortlessly for those who are at one with what is; with Dhamma. A liberated being doesn’t have to try to be contented or try to not be discontented. Having seen the suffering caused by clinging, all inclination to attach to fixed positions has gone. The unobstructed heart leads only to understanding and ease.

With Metta,
Bhikkhu Munindo

Tiananmen Square, Liao Yiwu's Poem "Massacre"

25 years ago today hundreds of students and residents were killed when the Chinese army pushed into Tiananmen Square in Peking to retake it from the student protesters who were calling for government accountability, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the restoration of workers' control over industry. This is Chinese author, reporter, musician, and poet Liao Yiwu's Poem about that day............................

“MASSACRE”

Leap! Howl! Fly! Run!
Freedom feels so good!
Snuffing out freedom feels so good!
Power will be triumphant forever.
Will be passed down from generation to generation forever.
Freedom will also come back from the dead.
It will come back to life in generation after generation.
Like that dim light just before the dawn.
No. There’s no light.
At Utopia’s core there can never be light.
Our hearts are pitch black.
Black and scalding.
Like a corpse incinerator.
A trace of the phantoms of the burned dead.
We will exist.
The government that dominates us will exist.
Daylight comes quickly.
It feels so good.
The butchers are still ranting!
Children. Children, your bodies all cold.
Children, your hands grasping stones.
Let’s go home.
Brothers and sisters, your shattered bodies littering the earth.
Let’s go home.
We walk noiselessly.
Walk three feet above the ground.
All the time forward, there must be a place to rest.
There must be a place where sounds of gunfire and explosions cannot
be heard.
We so wish to hide within a stalk of grass.
A leaf.
Uncle. Auntie. Grandpa. Granny. Daddy. Mummy.
How much farther till we’re home?
We have no home.
Everyone knows.
Chinese people have no home.
Home is a comforting desire.
Let us die in this desire.
OPEN FIRE, BLAST AWAY, FIRE!
Let us die in freedom.
Righteousness. Equality. Universal love.
Peace, in these vague desires.
Stand on the horizon.
Attract more of the living to death!
It rains.
Don’t know if it is rain or transparent ashes.
Run quickly, Mummy!
Run quickly, son!
Run quickly, elder brother!
Run quickly, little brother!
The butchers will not let up.
An even more terrifying day is approaching.
OPEN FIRE! BLAST AWAY! FIRE! IT FEELS GOOD! FEELS SO
GOOD! . . .
Cry cry cry crycrycrycrycrycrycry
We stand in the midst of brilliance but all people are blind.
We stand on a great road but no one is able to walk.
We stand in the midst of a cacophony but all are mute.
We stand in the midst of heat and thirst but all refuse to drink.
In this historically unprecedented massacre only the spawn of dogs
can survive.

Here Liao Yiwu performs his poem in the original chinese...........................