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Lovely recording of him being interviewed by Tami Simon in Sounds.

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Hi all have now sorted my profile so I don’t appear as a gaming boy anymore! I’m Kay, a slightly frazzled around the edges 51 year old. I have worked in the NHS for the last 25 years in various ways from a sick childrens nurse, child and adolescent mental health nurse and health visitor and am now a 5 to 19 specialist public health nurse, lots of emotional health issues and a lot of child protection work too. For the last year or two I have found anxiety working it’s way into my personal life and it’s quite frankly a pain so am hoping to find new ways to manage life in general!!!

(Ref. Alistair's selected poem this week about mushrooms growing in the shed) I've been catching up with The Big Scottish Book Club on BBC i-player, in my view the only really good book programme around, so catch it if you can! Anyhoos, one of the authors in the last series (Cal Flyn) has published a book about nature regrowing in contaminated abandoned areas which sounds fascinating and sad but hopeful. It's called Islands of Abandonment, have a look at what it says on-line. Have a happy day if you can!🤗

What a wonderful being he is! And who knew that I only have to worry about 7% of what I teach!

I have a book, Lam Rim Year, Making Life Meaningful by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It has 365 lessons on the Lamrim. It’s been a really useful daily teaching. Today is Day 85 and I’ve copied the text below my comments. I’ve been really erratic with my practice in the last couple of months - too tired, too busy, too disconnected, too grumpy, too unwell. Although more of a reference to material things, today's teaching was a good reminder that I have everything I need right at this moment regardless and I thought I would share it with my Mindsprings gang. A couple of months back I didn’t know anything of Milarepa; todays teaching made more sense for doing so. The text copied (clever camera thing) is a bit long but summarized in the first and last sections. Day 85 ‘All our material possessions are nothing compared to the most precious possession of all, the human body with its potential for real happiness’, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The great yogis of the past owned nothing yet were incredibly happy. The most famous example is Milarepa, the great Tibetan meditator who became enlightened in one brief lifetime of this degenerate age. Other than a place to meditate and a cooking pot, he had nothing-absolutely no money and not even any clothes other than a thin ragged cotton shawl. Yet he was unbelievably happy because he had the freedom to practice Dharma, and he had this freedom because he had, and valued, his perfect human rebirth. Because of this he was able to attain enlightenment in one brief lifetime. Perhaps we think that Milarepa was somehow special or that it was easier to gain realizations in those days, whereas today things are much more difficult. But we have exactly the same kind of body and mind that Milarepa had. With the body that we have right now, we can achieve anything we want. We don't need any special circumstances other than the freedoms and richnesses we already have. Right now, at this moment, we have it all. And what we have is worth more than all the wealth of all the universes combined. This perfect human rebirth is that precious. What greater wealth can there be than renouncing the source of suffering, understanding the nature of reality and cherishing others more than ourselves? What can be of more value than acquiring the most precious mind of all, bodhicitta, the mind that seeks enlightenment in order to help all other sentient beings? These are riches far beyond skies full of wish -granting jewels. Yogis of the past such as Milarepa owned nothing but were unbelievably happy Our freedoms and richnesses are more precious than the wealth of all universes The greatest riches of all are renunciation, bodhicitta and understanding reality

If you have the opportunity to see this film do go and see it. Filmed in Bhutan. So tender and beautiful.