I've spent a couple of weeks near to where I'm from in Scotland and was blessed with unusually decent weather 😍

Oh, it's so good to recognise the familiar names gradually appearing on the new website. Hi Jason, hope all is well with you since you, also, underwent surgery recently. ❤️🙏

I did and thank you for asking! The stone got moved but not broken up or passed so there’s yet more pain, discomfort, uncertainty and waiting before surgery, which is probably now inevitable. But I guess those qualities always were inevitable too. I really hope lovely Kitling pulls through, G and I are both rooting for her! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

And that is why one of your countrymen, William Blake, said “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” We perceive through our biocomputer, which is different from the biocomputer of other beings, and to complicate things more, the software of our mind is molded by our culture, by the time we are living, by our very own DNA! That is why it is so important to go back, and back and back till the source of all perception recognizes itself. Since you mentioned the Vedanta parallels and Ramana Maharshi, let me recommend to all this extraordinary Advaita Vedanta teacher, which during this meditation mentions an analogy similar to the one of the banana, but using a flower. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3vddQwxA48 Please take the time to watch it, it is worth it. I send my best to all.

Greetings of peace, everyone. While studying the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, and listening to Thursday morning's teachings about Atisha, the Path, and the Seven Branch Prayer, I am left with several questions which I am hoping can be answered. They concern the acts of making offerings at a shrine, prostration, and prayer. I sincerely wonder: to what or whom does a Buddhist make an offering? To what or whom does a Buddhist prostrate, and to what or whom does a Buddhist pray? Why is an exterior shrine necessary when the path to enlightenment is an inward journey? Why prostrate to another, even if they are a Teacher or Supreme Practitioner, when all human beings are equal, and according to Buddhism, there is no deity? And prayer? To what entity or energy? I would be most grateful for guidance on the Path. Thank you!