In four hour-long teaching and practice sessions, we learn how Metta or Meitri may become real and vibrant in our lives: As a mother protects her child with her life, so may we, with boundless heart and mind cherish all living beings radiating kindness over the whole world.
The four brahma-vihara are expressions of our awakened heart and mind Loving-Kindness - arises when we experience goodness Compassion - arises when we sense suffering Sympathetic Joy - when we open to that vastness which includes both Equanimity - the balance of heart and mind that is non-reactive and thus able to give rise to these other expressions of love.
Death and Funerals
Advanced funeral wishes form that, if filled, makes arrangements easier for whoever deals with affairs after a death.
Howard Thurman interview with Landrum Bolling, 1962
- Bolling's introduction (1 min)
- Boyhood (5 mins)
- Death of his Father (7 min)
- His grandmother (6 mins)
- Hope and Psalm 139
(If you wish to view the original video of this two hour interview, go to Howard Thurman in Mark's Links. It has been split into the labeled audio links above for convenient personal listening or group discussion.)
kosmos monogenes - A meditation on a Greek two word fragment from the lost writings of Basilides of Alexandria who lived in the first decades of the second century CE. 'Kosmos' - the world as we have come to know it + 'monogenes' - the only one birthed or birthed from one Source. These two Greek words resonate with our emerging understanding of our Gaian identity. This meditation draws together themes from James Lovelock's Gaia Theory; Anne Primavesi's work on Sacred Gaia, Gaia's Gift and Gaian Identity; Thich Nhat Hanh's 'Interbeing', a commentary on the second century Buddhist text 'The Heart Sutra'; Ellen Chen's translation and commentary on the Tao Te Ching; and on 'Giving Thanks' - a Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp.
Our Gaian Identity 1 - a meditation on who we are, linking our experience of "breath", Thich Nhat Hanh's "interbeing", and Jim Lovelock's appreciation of Earth as Gaia.
Our Gaian identity 2 - a meditation to awaken us to an understanding and appreciation of our place on earth our home (and within the universe), how we are gifted by our ancestry and by those alive today, and how we in our turn gift others.
- Dame Judi Dench reads Shakespeare's sonnet 116: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds".
Jesus and his friends - Richard Baulkham talking about the relationship between eyewitnesses to Jesus and those who wrote the gospels
Jesus Remembered at Christmas - Some thoughts about Jesus' birth reimagining who he was and how his first friends thought of him implied but not told by the nativity stories (Mark Primavesi)
Questions we want to explore to help our reimagining the Lost Tales
Lost tales time lines - Thoughts on the sequence of transistions in the development of Jesus-following
Was Jesus married? Was Jesus married? Mark D. Roberts' careful look at the real evidence
The Lost Tales: Ancient texts reimagined
A lesson in economics - A rich young man hires labourers in the market place (Jennifer Henderson)
Epiphany in Titus - How Insight into God's Unearned Love became clear and bright (epiphany) in an early community of Jesus students. A word-for-word expanded translation from the Greek of Titus 2:11, 3: 4-8 (Mark Primavesi)
The Healing of Blindness - Linking the Indian NAMASTÉ greeting with a story of enlightenment told as the healing of a blind man - John 9 (Mark Primavesi)
The Hole in the Roof - A crippled boy's perspective on the tale of a paralysed man let down through a roof - Luke 5:17-26 and Mark 2:1-12 (Jennifer Henderson)
A Question of Stature - The story of Zacchaeus, a tax collector - Luke 19:1-10 (Jennifer Henderson)
The Visitors - How villagers remembered two who had come on a mission - Mark 6:7 (Jennifer Henderson)
