From one of the last page of David Small’s autobiographical graphic novel ‘Stitches: A Memoir’: ‘My mother died in 1970, age 58. Maturity, reflection and some family research have unearthed a few facts, which gave a slightly different picture of this taciturn and difficult person. Her physical problems were beyond what I could imagine or [...]

In the ‘retelling’ of ‘Beowulf’ by Gareth Hinds, King Hrothgar tells Beowulf the following after they slays Grendal and the monster’s Mother: ‘Take thou, therefore, good heed, O Beowulf, against pride and arrogance. Choose the better path: profit eternal. Now, indeed, thou art in the pride of thy strength and the power of youth; but [...]

From ‘Essex County’ by Jeff Lemire, Annie the nurse says, ‘I lost a patient today… Humph!… I know what you’d say if you could. You’d say, “It’s part of your job, Annie. Won’t be the first, won’t be the last.” But I… well sometimes wonder if I do any good at all. Do I make [...]

From ‘Essex County’ by Jeff Lemire, ‘You know, there are only two ways to be completely alone in this world – lost in a crowd… or in total isolation.’ But there is a better way to be alone, be we in a crowd or isolated. From the ‘Sutra on the Better Way to Live Alone’: [...]

A Tit for a Tat (104) Tit: I had better place the vase out of the way. Tat: Why? Tit: I don’t wanna accidentally break it! Tat: Of course you don’t ‘wanna accidentally break it’? You should purposely not wanna break it! Tit: Which is why I’m placing it out of the way! Tat: But [...]

As many of you know, I run a mailing list with over 28,000 readers (TheDailyEnlightenment.com), which helps to disseminate news of Buddhist activities free of charge. Recently, a relatively new organisation asked me to distribute news of an upcoming activity. As I was uncertain about one of the teachers, I asked a Dharma friend about [...]