Fire Boat Festival (Lai Heua Fai), marking the End of Buddhist Lent on October 7, 2025. Coinciding with the full moon of the 11th lunar month

Laos: Rainy Season Retreat Comes to an End for Buddhist Monks! (13.11.2025)

Beyond the spiritual rituals, the festival grounds came alive with vibrant activity as local vendors showcased a wide array of goods, ranging from traditional foods and drinks to handmade crafts, clothing, and household items. The lively marketplace added a festive touch, transforming the event into not just a religious celebration, but also a vibrant community gathering.

Well-organized and secure, the event provided a safe and joyful environment for all attendees. It stood as a testament to Laos’ rich cultural heritage, while also promoting environmental consciousness and community unity.

As the glowing boats drifted peacefully down the Mekong and candlelight danced in the night breeze, the Fire Boat Festival once again proved to be a captivating blend of faith, folklore, and festivity—a timeless tradition that continues to illuminate the hearts of those who take part, year after year.

Becoming Aware of the Mind - Moment To Moment!

BMA-UK: Uprooting the Delusion that Underlies Racism! (21.9.2025)

Racism is learned on the outside of the body – and imported into the interior of the mind – where it becomes a habit of interpretation regarding other objects in the world. Perpetuating racism is one manifestation of racism – as is being a victim of racism – or the recipient of racism. In Asia, the Buddhist answer is to remove all klesa (defilements) – greed, hatred, and delusion – so that the conditions that allow racism to exist cannot function. Laws can be changed outlawing racism in the external world – this only deals with the superficiality that is racism – the tip of the iceberg so-to-speak.

Zen of Galmpton! (24.8.2035)

Here we are. Zen is Ch’an in reverse – which is good as perception is the wrong way around. Turn it the right way around – and Zen becomes Ch’an the right way around. Not always an easy task – like catching a steam train whilst it is obscured by it’s own smoke. What a joy such contradictions are. They exist to test our perception and determination. As such, nothing else matters. We all look up – and we all look down – just like every koan (gong-an) you may have viewed. Still, none of it matters if you cannot lay it all down. None of it matters at all.

Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin Temple. (File photo/China Daily)

China: Shaolin Head Monk – Shi Yongxin – Under Investigation for Alleged Criminal Offenses! (28.7.2025)

In Japan, a Buddhist monk or nun can get married, produce children, eat meat, and drink alcohol. In other words, these people are lay-people in robes – but are practicing dishonesty. A group of Chinese Ch’an monks had been following the Vinaya Discipline when they travelled to Japan to spread the Ch’an Dharma – but returned with Japanese wives and children – and wearing lay-clothing – eating meat and drinking alcohol. In front of Xu Yun – these “monks” petitioned the post-1949 government of China to permanently abolish the Ch’an requirement for monks and nuns to be celibate and vegetarian. Xu Yun is said to have loudly slapped the table – stating that the Chinese government should do the exact opposite – that is, integrate the Vinaya Discipline into the fabric of China’s secular law. If a man or woman wants to be an ordained Buddhist monk or nun, then it should be a legal requirement – punishable by secular law – if they fail to uphold the rules and regulations of the lifestyle they have chosen to follow. Being a Buddhist monastic is a “job” that requires a strict form of lifestyle.

The 15th Dalai Lama will reincarnated in China - not the non-Buddhist West!

BMA (UK): Corrupt Lamaism Outside China “Jockeying” for Reincarnation Influence! (12.7.2025)

The religious myth being perpetuated is that this supposedly enlightened being is slowly transform in into light – reflected to us lesser mortals as a “rainbow”. Is this how a Nazi dies? Surely not. As reincarnation does not exist within authentic Buddhism – reincarnation is not rebirth – how can the incorrect path of Lamaism claim to be “Buddhist” – or even unfolding in any coherent sense? If you click on the above link – you will find a Buddhist-Marxist Alliance (UK) article highlighting the dishonest honest history of the 14th Dalai Lama and his association with German Nazism! This is what the West is attempting to preserve by high-jacking the reincarnation process – a fictional religious practice. The imagined 15th Dalai lama will be reborn somewhere in China – not New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia!

The Buddha's Enlightenment is Secular!

The Buddha & Secular Enlightenment! (3.7.2025)

If this was the case, why did the Buddha reject Brahmanism? Why did the Buddha bite the hand that fed him? Well, he practiced all the available meditative paths, mastered them all, and realised none of them expressed the ultimate truth. He carried-on training in meditation as the Upanishads advised – and saw through all the conditioning of his mind, body, and environment. He gave up caste privilege and all work for money. He knew that this would lead to starvation, homelessness, and nakedness. He resolved these issues by dressing himself in rags found in the charnel grounds (the clothing of dead who were to poor to be cremated), he acquired the skull-cap of a dead person and used it as a begging bowl as he walked from village to village quietly requesting waste-food on a daily basis, and he sat under the foot of a tree when he meditated. The Buddha left society and lived on the forested outskirts of Hindu society. Of course, the Buddha still physically lived in India, and interfaced with Hindu society, but he did this under a completely new contract of understanding.

1 2 3 22