1. The Mighty Boosh - Future Sailors Tour DVD

2. King Lear DVD

3. The Writer's Tale - Extended Remix, with which came a packing slip which said:


( Read more... )

Popped in a few weeks ago, on a break between fits of photocopying at the National Library.

Lotus Ceiling. Freakily, I have a pendant which looks very much like this, and happened to be wearing it the day I visited.

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Twelve hands, no waiting.

The goddess Durga slaying the buffalo demon. Note her lion biting said ( Read more... )

At a vegetarian restaurant I picked up one of those teensy free Buddhist books, Liao-Fan's Four Lessons, which dates from the Ming Dynasty. For my tastes it's a bit too much about accumulating merit so as to reap the karmic rewards - the dude keeps detailed lists of his good deeds! - but there were a couple of passages which have stayed with me ( Read more... )

Anne Donovan. Buddha Da.
Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth. Before the Universe.
Lloyd Rose. The Algebra of Ice.

( Books bought and borrowed )

In the grip of mid insomnia around 3 am, I listened to a short talk on the Buddhist idea of Right Speech. As someone with a history of wading into arguments with a sword swinging around her head, and someone who sees all the damage done by teh net.stupid, I'm becoming convinced that Right Speech is the only hope for text-based online communication ( Read more... )

"'The whole point is not to get visions but to get realizations,' she said sharply, referring to the stage when a truth stops being a mental or intellectual construct and becomes real. Only when the meditation dropped from the head to the heart, and was felt, could transformation begin to take place. 'And realizations are quite bare,' she continued ( Read more... )

We were re-watching Sontaran Strategem, and I couldn't think what the heck Sylvia Noble holding the axe reminded me of, until I found this again in Cave in the Snow:"'Of course, Prajnaparamita is female,' she added, referring to the Mother of All Buddhas. 'She's the Perfection of Wisdom which cuts away all our concepts and desires to make something ( Read more... )

"Then there were the martens, which look a bit like weasels only prettier. They were grey with a white front, huge eyes and a big bushy tail. There was one that used to slide open the window, get inside my storeroom and head for the saucepan which had my bread inside wrapped up in a cloth. This marten would take off the saucepan lid, unwrap the ( Read more... )

Biography by Vicki Mackenzie of a remarkable Buddhist nun. Some of the bits I stuck a fluorescent green post-it note on:"... was motherhood a disadvantage to spiritual progress? 'We do different things in different lifetimes,' Tenzin Palmo answered. 'We should look and see what in this lifetime we are called to do. It's ridiculous to become a nun ( Read more... )

Rachel Dwyer. What Do Hindus Believe?.
Vicki Mackenzie. Cave in the Snow.
Zadie Smith. White Teeth.

( Books bought and borrowed )