Bob Dylan and the Buddha

Bob Dylan and the Buddha

As Dylan turns 80, his an icon of honesty in a world hungry for success rather than truth resonates with the Buddha’s rejection of worldly values Prompted by his eightieth birthday, which fell on Monday, I’ve been listening to Bob Dylan and pondering what keeps...
Lincoln in the Bardo – Review

Lincoln in the Bardo – Review

Lincoln in the Bardo, winner of the  2017 Mann Booker Prize, has been widely praised as a remarkable vision of human life and its possibilities that is formally daring but also moving and accessible. It is all those things, but it is also the first truly great western...
Lockdown and the Creative Space

Lockdown and the Creative Space

The Covid-19 lockdown is disturbing. But what are the creative possibilities of the space it creates Like so many others, I’ve been deleting future events from my online calendar and, in place of the busy summer I’d planned, there’s a lot of blank space. Those...
Beyond Competition

Beyond Competition

Thought for the Day 6.12.19 When the four artists nominated for this year’s Turner Prize fell into conversation, they quickly decided that they didn’t want to compete against each other. They asked to be judged as a single collective and this week the Prize was shared...

Bidding Farewell to Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom, a man of letters in the old style and an authentic heir to the great Romantic writers, has died aged 89. He affected me deeply. He has importan for Buddhists and others pursuing a spiritual life in the modern world The sadness I feel at learning of the...