This blog is supposed to support my writing. I have eleven books on Kindle, two of which were published by three publishers. I also has ten or so plays produced when I used to write drama. But it's also a Buddhist blog, about meditation, the six yogas of Naropa, and miscellaneous anything I feel like at the time.
Daisy Chadley at Peter's, Fraser and Dunlop didn't reply to the first email I sent to anyone in this quest to find a literary agent. Wasn't it always thus! If they'd just look at it and then… Read More
I was really looking forward to going back to the Samye Ling a couple of weeks ago after not being able to go there due to the pandemic for a couple of… Read More
There's a wee bit of me that thinks I should be somewhere else. It's always on my shoulder, whispering this in my ear. You know you should be somewhere… Read More
This is a very good time. My allotment is about five hundred yards away. Now that I am healed from the plague and the weather is wonderful, well, what else c… Read More
The lama whose kindness to me over the last eight years, since I met her on the Holy Isle, has brightened my life, came to stay in my flat last night… Read More
Yesterday, I was in a restaurant for the second time in over a year. The first time was about ten days ago and they weren't selling alcohol inside th… Read More
We usually go out to see some countryside, trees at the weekend because my friend works from home and never gets out. The trees, rivers (usually with… Read More
Been weird trying to remember how to navigate around this bloggy thing, considering it's nearly two years since I could get into it. But I remember w… Read More
The last photie is of a dog called Fergus. He had to go to the vet, where the photie was taken. I did not think he was getting out of the vet's, which… Read More
Appreciating the drawbacks to samsara is supposed to be a good way to turn your mind towards practice. Every since I was in India before Christmas, I've fe… Read More
I think it starts with the snowdrops, then come the crocuses and then the daffodils. After that, come hail or snow, I don't care. Everything is getting bet… Read More
I'll be heading home in a couple of hours after spending four nights down here at the Samye Ling. The retreat was sometimes challenging as you'd expect. Th… Read More
This feels like a great time of the year. It's such a relief, such a weight off the shoulders, when there is no more Christmas and New Year looming. Now ev… Read More
These were the folk who had to put up my Scottish accent for a month. They are from the back left:Joachim, Marieanne, Me, the wee lama Rinchen Palmo, Eric… Read More
This is the last day in India. We don't have to leave the hotel till four in the afternoon for a flight at seven, and I am very happy to spend most of that… Read More
This blog is not supposed to be a repository for photies, which is what it really is, but is suppose to be something about writing, and keeping some kind o… Read More
We went to a temple complex beside the Deer Park yesterday. A bit of a tribute to the Sri Lankan guy who revived the Buddhist places. Below is a photie of… Read More
Varanasi seems like a long time ago, but it was only yesterday. We went for a dawn boat ride. We did not see any bits of human beings floating passed, but I did see an almost submerged dead… Read More
The bed in the Monastery. Brilliant bed! Hard and so is the pillow, and the blanket you put over you must be some kind of classic.Out the bedroom window.Getting the shrine sorted in the Deer… Read More
This bottom photie has most of the pilgrims in it. From the left, Eric, Francoise, the German Catherine, Olaf, Catherine, Alexandre, Cecilia, Natalie, Brig… Read More
If you get bothered by ants or flies or mosquitos, well, you've got an excuse to move. I saw this monk at the stupa with one of these mossie nets that fit… Read More
What can you say about Bodh Gaya? Well, if your thing is meditating, you can't really find a better place for that anywhere else on earth. &nb&hell…Read More
These hotels being much the same and the journeys by minibus being much the same ... well, it's the same but different and it's kind of hard to remember wha… Read More
We're in Kushnigar. The longer I am away from off-licences and all that jazz, the happier I am becoming. Last night we got to Kushnigar after visitin… Read More
We arrived in Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, yesterday after about eleven hours in the minibus. It was interesting crossing the Nepalese border. On… Read More
About ten days ago I came back from a week long retreat at the Samye Ling. Drupon Rinpoche was the boss and the schedule seemed somewhat exhausting. The te… Read More
Things have been going so well with my meditations recently that something of a sense of contentment and satisfaction has occasionally intruded to the exte… Read More
I travelled to see my nephew Liam and nephew Neil with their families in Trige, Denmark. You have to get to Copenhagen and then get on a train to Aarhus, a… Read More
Last weekend we were out on Saturday, and went to see Craignethan Castle as well as stopping at a very dry looking reservoir on the Lang Whang. We also wen… Read More
Somebody bought the three buddhisty books on my kindle thing last weekend. I really like that. It's not the money. I think I'd get about 75p, not en… Read More
Aye, it's a rough old game, this meditating! My alarm went off in another room after I'd been sitting in the lobby for bit. My legs had gone numb so I bum… Read More
It was a bank holiday yesterday and the weather was glorious. I was at Newcastle Battle Abbey and the middle photie is of Borthwick Castle. You can see Cri… Read More
The top photie shows the view from the door of my hut these days, now that someone else is working the other half of the plot. I was up the allotment today… Read More
I was hoping to download some recent photies - a main purpose for this blog - and, of course, Windows 10 is effing me around as usual and I only managed to… Read More
About twenty five years ago, I decided to try and get up and meditate for an hour before I went to work. This is probably starting in January with the New… Read More
For most of last year, Saturday was usually the best day of the week. There were green spaces, rivers, beaches, castles and a lot of being driven about nic… Read More
This year has started off not very well. Didn't manage to get to the Samye Ling or the Holy Isle and I'm still dedicating merit from my meditations t… Read More
My friend Heather returned from the States on Sunday and hasn't had a fag for a week! Great! No reason for posting the photie here except that things are l… Read More
Today I was hoping to get through to Bellshill for the funeral of my wonderful nephew, my mother's first grandchild, Malcolm McKenzie. Unfortunately, there… Read More
It was a bit weird seeing folk working on the other half of the allotment this afternoon. They said they'd been on the list for ten years. Anyway, I've now… Read More
Started work on the book again after a lay off over the holidays. Always takes a wee while to get into it, but I'll be there after this evening. &nbs&hell…Read More