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Giving yourself permission to rejoice in what’s good…

In the Discovering Buddhism program it’s often repeated that we should regret our bad actions, words and thoughts, but that we can also rejoice in what’s good. Rejoicing is not a part of our Western Culture, especially Dutch culture. The Dutch are very good at complaining, my mom even suspects that this is one of [...]

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Becoming awake for others: Bodhicitta or the Bodhisattva Motivation

It’s time to blog about what they call in Tibetan Buddhism the ‘large scope’ in the Lam Rim. On one level this scope is the only one which we, as Westerners can relate to: it’s all about universal and impartial love. We can think of Christ, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and the Dalai [...]

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Beginners motivation in Mahayana Buddhism

I’ve decided to translate what I learned over the past two weeks at an FPMT Lam Rim retreat into blog posts by simply explaining to you all my understanding of some basic concepts from those teachings. I am of course merely a beginner on this path, so please take this as no more than what [...]

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What we say, do, think and feel – why action matters

“Good intentions aren’t enough. It’s not what we want, say, or think that makes things happen; it’s what we do.” Michael Josephson I remember a friend who promised to visit me time and again – yet never made it to my door. There was always some reason not to make it. This was before mobile [...]

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Ideals, moral issues and psychology

Ideals are tricky things: on the one hand they help us aspire to being something better than we are, which is a good thing. On the other hand, when we can’t live up to them the result is not so good. Because, if you don’t live up to your ideals you start feeling guilty, beating [...]

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The tragic volunteer

I’ve been a volunteer for years. It was a way for me to learn basic human skills like working with people as well as a way to stay in touch with some aspect of society when I was out of a job. It looked good on my resume and so on. So I’m not saying [...]

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Selfish, unselfish, ‘love yourself’, love your neighbour

We’ve all heard it before: you can only love other people, if you love yourself. People saying that are generally speaking not the kind I personally take very seriously. However, as one reader told me in response to my last post (on my Dutch blog), I sounded just like them for a bit. I guess [...]

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Evil is treating people like things, Granny Weatherfax, #discworld Carpe Jugulum

For those of you who haven’t been reading my tweets: Three weeks ago now I developed a serious case of sciatica that kept me (mostly) in bed because of the pain for a day or two. Luckily, it seems the cause is NOT a herniated disc and I now consider myself fully recovered. I will [...]

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Paradoxes of Giving

I’ve pondered for a while the psychological paradox that democrats give less to charity than republicans, that those who eat environmentally friendly food are similarly ungenerous, on average. I’ve not written about this issue before, because it’s so easy to be judgmental about it … Those goody two shoes people aren’t so good after all… [...]

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Conflict resolution and controversy

I remember my grandfather (J.M.S. Baljon) as the keeper of his study, as a gardener who taught me the basics of that craft – and as an ambitious chess and bridge player. When I went to study religion studies at Leiden University, I knew I’d be meeting some of his old students and colleagues. He [...]

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