Last week a Buddhist friend organised a celebration of the elements, inviting contributions to his Facebook page. This stimulated me to look out some favourite works, mostly modern and mostly poems. Here is an cento on the Buddhist elements – earth, water, fire, air, …
David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten is a novel for the interconnected, globalised times in which we are buffeted among billions; it offers a neural network of thought, not so much an argument as ideas whirring like minds, and interacting like electrons. Was it the first Dharm…
What is Shakespeare’s Wisdom and how does it match up to the Buddha’s? In this article I explore Shakespeare’s Richard II as a play about belief and identity, which are core concerns of Buddhism, and suggest parallels between Shakespeare’s insights and those of the B…
Dickens’ moral vision mirrors the Buddhist teaching of karma: every character is a moral actor, whether they know it or now, inhabiting a fictional world that is imbued with a meaning and where every action has significance.
David Breuer Weil is a powerful artistic presence: heir to London-based Jewish like Freud and Epstein. As a new book and exhibition showcase his work, I reflect on my own friendship with David and the significance of his monumental images