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Author name: Christopher

Christopher Titmuss, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, teaches Awakening and Insight Meditation around the world. He is the founder and director of the Dharma Facilitators Programme and the Living Dharma programme, an online mentor programme for Dharma practitioners. He gives retreats, participates in pilgrimages (yatras) and leads Dharma gatherings. Christopher has been teaching annual retreats in Bodh Gaya, India since 1975 and leads an annual Dharma Gathering in Sarnath since 1999. A senior Dharma teacher in the West, he is the author of numerous books including Light on Enlightenment, An Awakened Life and Transforming Our Terror. A campaigner for peace and other global issues, Christopher is a member of the international advisory council of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. . Poet and writer, he is the co-founder of Gaia House, an international retreat centre in Devon, England. He lives in Totnes, Devon, England.

The Aussie Prime Minister gets the boot

Political / /

I am not a fan of democracy. The belief that the vote of the majority is the best form of government is questionable to say the least. Poverty, violence, addictive behaviour, unhappiness are widespread in democracy. Do our politicians express the will of the majority? There is an epidemic of alcohol abuse, drug addiction, depression and compulsive spending. Wisdom and compassion ought to be the criteria. If democracy is not working, why on Earth do we want to convert with missionary zeal the rest of the world to a two party state, corporate ownership of all resources and individuals into consumers? Our mad ideology with its belief in self, choice and status expresses a pathological form of conditioning that goes unexamined. …

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The Aussie Prime Minister gets the boot Read More »

“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Daily Life / /

Thankfully, the flight touched down right on time at Brisbane Airport at around 6.30 am. My mother greeted me. “I need to go to the doctor and the hospital,” I told her.At the clinic, the doctor gave me an examination. “Without x-rays, I cannot be sure of what the problem is, he said. “ From my initial examination, it could be that you have a swollen liver.”

“A tumour?” I responded.

“That diagnosis is a long way down the line. Nothing can be ruled out.” I then gave a blood, stool and urine sample to go to the laboratory. The doctor arranged for me to have x-rays the following day. …

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“Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Read More »

PAIN, PAIN,PAIN

Daily Life / /

By 5 pm on the Saturday afternoon of the weekend retreat with Nicole in Germany, I could unmistakably feel that there was major distress in the body. Intense pains and a sickening nausea began emanating out of the stomach area. I could feel myself wanting to retch. Two or three hours later, I experienced the wrath of the body as intense pain raced through the body. Every cell seemed on fire.

At times, I bent double with the pain or kept walking up and down in my room at the Waldhaus retreat centre, an hour from Bonn, or retched over the toilet with nothing but spittle emerging. These were a different level of sensations to those experienced on the meditation cushion. The pain had spread throughout the stomach area into the diaphragm, the liver, and back and to the top of the shoulder. …

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PAIN, PAIN,PAIN Read More »

The Buddha and the Rugby Player

Dharma Reflections / /

I picked up The Times newspaper on Saturday, October 22, 2007. It had a rather large picture of Johnny Wilkinson, the handsome and much loved English rugby footballer, who was playing with the English team in the World Rugby Finals in Paris that afternoon.

In the previous World Rugby Finals in Australia, four years ago, Johnny scored the winning points in the very last seconds of the match against Australia. English fans went ballistic. Wilkinson joined the Realm of the Gods in sport.

In large print on the photograph on the front page, it said: “Buddha and Me. Johnny Wilkinson exclusive. I had to buy a copy of the paper. …

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The Buddha and the Rugby Player Read More »

Overturning the Begging Bowl

The Buddha, Spiritual / /

As a former Buddhist monk, I bow down with the greatest respect and reverence to the thousands of Burmese monks who silently and respectfully walked the streets of cities and towns of Burma to communicate unequivocally their profound disapproval of the treatment of the citizens of the country by the military government.

I saw the picture of a senior monk in Rangoon with an upturned begging bowl leading a march with thousands of monks following in his steps. It was an extraordinary picture. …

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Overturning the Begging Bowl Read More »

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