Last week I wrote about my chance encounter with the story of Ryonen, who because of her beauty was only accepted as a disciple of Zen after intentionally disfiguring her face with a hot iron.
Curiously, I encountered two stories of facial disfigurement and spirituality in the space of a few days. The second was in the 1978 Bollywood film, Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram - "Beauty, Godliness, Truth."

Last weekend I joined a friend at a car-boot sale the likes of which I haven't experienced since the 1980s. The likes of which I didn't know had existed since the 1980s!

A sprawling collection of ragtag relics, tarnished trinkets and hidden treasures displayed without care or concern. Eccentric sellers vied with hopeful seekers amongst keys without locks, locks without keys, family portraits (of other people's families) and in amongst the rough, purchased for a pound...

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones

I've just finished editing an amazing clip from our last course with Bernardo Kastrup. You'll be pleased to know he covers the meaning of life, the universe and everything...

He also explains why everything is happening in nothing even though nothing ever happens, and how this paradox is a potential key to the ultimate riddle of reality.

When my nephew was 4 years old we took a pause from playing in the garden, and I said 'Hey Charlie, what's the meaning of life?'
He didn't hesitate. 'Life is a game!' he exclaimed.

Recently, the simple act of knowing I am breathing in when I'm breathing in, and knowing I am breathing out when breathing out has coincided with increasing levels of joy and a subtle background bliss that lingers about me like a pleasant scent.

Last September, Beyhan Mutlu was out on a forest walk after a drink with friends, when he came across a search party looking for a missing person. He decided to help, and for several hours wandered through the woods until some search party members began calling out his name, "Beyhan Mutlu".

Most of the year our culture obsessively shies away from death. But for one day every autumn, a brief window opens to acknowledge, allow and even celebrate the timeless fact of time’s most faithful promise.

The deep contemplations we aspire to here can be surprisingly powerful, for better and for worse, so it's worth knowing how to help ourselves and each other when difficult experiences arise.