Monthly Archives: April 2021

From the few posts already on this blog, you will probably have realised that Watashi-wa often feels tense and ill at ease. This can happen on the most perfect day, in the most beautiful surroundings, when really I shouldn’t have a care in the world. It is not so much anxiety, or even depression, butContinue reading “baptism”

As a child, Watashi-wa had complete faith in his parents. As I grew older, I also had faith in my teachers, my schools, the government, the nation, the Western World, humanity as a whole. Little by little, this confidence has been eroded. It is not that I don’t trust people or institutions at all, butContinue reading “as a child”

The monk Shuzan said, ‘If there’s even a hair’s breadth of difference, heaven and hell are clearly set apart.’ There are some advanced Buddhist metaphysics underlying this statement, I am sure of that. But Watashi-wa understands it in a more simple way. Or rather, I would like to rephrase it to express a more mundaneContinue reading “heaven and hell”

Perhaps Watashi wa’s last post sounded a bit defeatist. That was not my intention. I am not saying that we should give up, sit back, and do nothing while we are alive. Quite the opposite. Watashi wa believes deeply that we should never hold back, we should give ourselves and our talents to the worldContinue reading “fundamental sincerity”

Do you also sometimes feel that there are far too many things crowding in on you, needing to be done? Do you feel like you are standing in an unruly queue, constantly being jostled by your obligations and commitments? Do you wish you had nothing on your ‘to do’ list, no unanswered emails in yourContinue reading “‘to do’ list”

I woke up this morning to a message from my dear friend and the father of my goddaughter, informing me (politely) that I had forgotten her 14th birthday. This was bad, not least since just last week I had been communicating with him to discuss the possibility of visiting over her birthday weekend. However, itContinue reading “to my goddaughter”