This time period saw the Rinzai and Soto actively deny their Chinese cultural roots, and support the government’s anti-China policies. This coincided with the Rinzai and Soto Zen traditions ‘abandoning’ the Vinaya Discipline for ordained monks and nuns because it was viewed as both ‘Indian’ and ‘Chinese’, and therefore ‘un-Japanese’ in nature. This abandoning of the Vinaya Discipline marks a significant deviation of the Japanese Zen tradition from its Chinese Ch’an origin.
Month: Aug 2015
What is a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO)?
A ‘PCSO’ is a paid member of the public who volunteers to fulfil the role of a ‘Community Service Officer’, working for the Police Service in a local capacity. In the official literature, this role is usually referred to by the initials ‘CSO’ – and such a ‘Community Service Officer’ should not be confused with a ‘PC’, or ‘Police Constable’. A Community Service Officer IS NOT a Police Constable and as a consequence, does not automatically hold the powers of a Police Constable as defined in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE).
Ode to Hippies
I was very much the product of the Hippy Movement and was born in 1967 during the ‘Summer of Love’ – my parents were hippies.
UKIP Supporting Livermead Cliff Hotel Still Doing Business with Foreigners!
Three months since the General Election – what is the situation today? Well, the hotel whose manager supports the far-right and anti-migrant UKIP is still quite happy to take money from unsuspecting ‘foreign’ tourists who are coached into the area. These tourists (from all over Europe and the world), bring their hard-earned money into Torbay and unknowingly give it to a hotel manager who then uses it to fund a far-right and racist political party.
Cultivating Dao and Developing Mind is True Self-Cultivation
Genuine self-cultivation can only be achieved after the mind has been developed through discipline. The mind is developed in two ways – by cultivating the permanent states of virtue and selflessness. Cause and effect is entirely dependent upon our own physical actions which produce either blessings or misfortune – but only the realised state of wuwei (non-action) in the mind and body is considered real. Even spirits and ghosts have their method – but their cycle of endless transformation is difficult to discern.
Thomas Parr (1483-1635 CE) – Oldest Man in England
He was so famous that when aged 122 years old, his portrait was painted by the famous artists Rubens (see above) and Van Dyke – with one of his portraits hanging at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery carrying the inscription: ‘Thomas Parr died at the age of 152 years 9 months’ – and another at the National Portrait Gallery. It is also interesting to note that Thomas Parr attributes his longevity in part, to the following of a vegetarian diet.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 