Tag: ring

Buddha & St Benedict United!

UK: Buddha & St Benedict Entwined – a Retrospect! (10.9.2026)

Now, whilst in Hereford I befriended an Irishman (my family are part Irish) named “Brian Gray” – who was training to be a Catholic Priest. He was fascinated by Buddhism and liked to “spar” with me in gloved-boxing matches (I was a nasty bit of work in my late teens – as I discovered my natural physical strength). He introduced me to a “Father Thomas” the Abbot of the Catholic Hereford Cathedral. He wanted me to go to the Vatican to meet the Pope – and to join the Catholic faith – but of course, this was not my path. I am not attuned to entering these paths that discriminate against non-members for not being members. Also, at that point I was learning about how the Vatican supported fascism before, during, and after WWII. So you can see my predicament. Although I had friendly interactions on the personal level, there were certain political realities that had to be acknowledged and balanced. Anyway, the upshot of all this was that I was introduced to the study of the Rule of St Benedict followed by the monastics of the Catholic Church (and given the ring you can see here – although I am unaware of its significance).

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"When I Grow Up - I Want to Be Like You" - Doctor & Mum Cut from the Same Cloth!

Cuba: “When I Grow Up – I Want to Be Like You” – Doctor & Mum Cut from the Same Cloth! (5.5.2026)

“There’s a lot of fear,” he admits. “Fear of not being able, of not being on time, losing more days… It scares us. The effectiveness of the treatment is lost.”
But Yohima does not stop at lamenting. His voice tightens, becomes precise.

“Regardless of all the difficult things we go through, like every good Cuban, we have the heartbeat, the knowledge. And emotions don’t need fuel, they don’t need oil to function.”

And then he shows with pride and relief the walls of his office. Equipped with what you need to spend the night. This small and warm space has something that no blockage can frustrate: a children’s gallery. “The children, when they arrived here, did not want to cross the threshold of the door,” he recalls. A colleague had the idea of distracting them with drawings. “They were accumulating and we were sticking the drawings on the wall, some that had no color, we colored them.” The children came back and saw his work, he motivated them and wanted to bring another one. “The idea is that they make this place a place for them, where everything is fine, where everything is safe.”

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St Peter & St Paul Church - Market Overton

Market Overton: Visiting St Peter & St Paul Church! (28.10.2025)

Culture is an interesting thing – as it often changes and switches. When Henry VIII abolished the Roman Catholic Church in the UK in 1534 (Act of Supremacy) – followed by the Dissolution of the Monasteries – these were tremendous Revolutionary acts that must of shocked the entire population. Even before this, Henry V annulled all foreign-owned abbeys and monasteries (as many English church establishments had been given as gifts to ecclesiastical authorities in other countries) – bringing them into the ownership of the English State. Perhaps the Revolutionary writing was on the wall. Still, out of all this, the “Anglican” (Protestant) movement development – and most of the churches in the UK today are “Protestant” (the Catholic Church was only permitted back into the UK during the early 20th century – but it remains very much a minority religion).

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