I WAS VERY PLEASED to receive a review copy of Vishvapani's (i.e. Viśvapāṇi ) new book on the life of of the Buddha. I was involved in ...

Here are two follow up notes to previous essays, one on the -e ending in mantras, another on the name Gotama; and lastly a brief note on dat...

In the Pāli texts his followers called him Bhagavan. Other people tended to call him Gotama or 'sāmaṇa' depending on whether they w...

Sometimes Buddhism and Buddhists can seem a bit dour - a half smile is permissible, but a belly laugh might be out of place - which can be p...

Almost two years ago now I attended a series of lectures by Prof. Richard Gombrich which I find still resonating around in my psyche. One of...

I have been doing a lot of reading around the practice of recollecting the Buddha and making the links between this practice and the develop...

Lately I have been pondering the mandala of the five Jinas. Something was puzzling me. Amitabha and Akshobhya represent a set: compassion an...

The full-moon this month marks the 2550th anniversary of the most crucial moment in the biography of the Buddha - his Awakening to the true ...

This blog post summarises a longer essay on the Buddha's Last Words . Last week we celebrated the Buddha's Parinibbana - his final...