Autumn and Impermanence Thick morning mist drifts across the fields from the River Thames. After a week of rain, the countryside has changed almost overnight. Grass that seemed tired and dry is green again, with new growth appearing in only a few days. My feet are wet. I make a mental note that my walking Read More
Tag: poetry
Impermanence in Nature | What Can a Harvested Field Teach Us?
Reflection on Impermanence In Nature The midday heat shimmers above the empty fields, the combine having left only golden stubble behind. I walk across the harvested land, breathing in the dry smell of earth. Last spring my feet sank into soft mud here; now the ground is hard beneath them. The crops have come and Read More
How Can I Be Mindful When Everything Is Happening At Once?
Reflection On Mindfulness and Distractions The first of my three seats is beside the largest lake on my morning walking route. It is not particularly peaceful in the conventional sense. There is almost always something happening: trees rustling, leaves falling, birds calling, water birds squawking, coots diving and ripples spreading across the surface. Sometimes a Read More
Stillness Haiku|The Empty Cushion
After meditation the room appears unchanged, yet something has shifted within. This haiku reflects the quiet transformation that can arise through Buddhist practice, long after the candle has been extinguished and the incense has faded. “Incense slowly fades-only the empty cushionknows where I have been”From “Stillness | Moments of Buddhist Practice in Verse” "Stillness is Read More
Stillness Haiku|The Buddha Smiles
The Buddha’s teachings are often discovered not in books but in the quiet observation of our own minds. This short Buddhist meditation poem reflects my daily meditation practice and the realisation that wisdom grows through experience, mindfulness and ordinary living. “Each morning I sit,watching thoughts become my teachers—the Buddha smiles still,not from books upon the Read More