Dear Friends in Bodhicharya
This is my last editorial for Many Roads. I did try to give something a little different in my last attempt at an emagazine and in all the posts etc under the umbrella of Many Roads. I hope it was of some help and interest to some of you at least. But I realize now that maybe it is no longer needed.
So, this is my goodbye to you all and Bodhicharya. My last link has gone. It has been good to know you all. I really mean that.
Love and hugs.
Margaret F x
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As promised last month, I’m very happy to be able to publish another issue of Bodhicharya’s Many Roads. With many thanks to the contributors; Albert Harris, Vicki Mc Kenna and Shelagh Gardiner who kindly share their work here.
Albert tells us about his recent trip to Singapore in An Interview with Johnny Ho. Vicki, a regular contributor, gives us advice on Living in a Technological World. And I hope you will find my take on Twitter, Tweet your Heart Out, of some interest. Lastly, Shelagh, who has been involved in a number of editing projects with Ringu Tulku over the years, has sent us her beautiful poem, Teahouse Blossom.
Please do send me any articles, poems, reviews, photos or anything you would like to share with the Bodhicharya Sangha. You can leave comments at the end of each article or send them to me and they will be posted in our next issue.
All contributions and comments to: manyroads@bodhicharya.org
With very best wishes,
Margaret Ford
For Bodhicharya’s Many Roads
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Hello Dear Friends,
Hoping you are all well. It has been nearly ten months since I last wrote anything for Bodhicharya’s emagazine, Many Roads. I have been ill most of this time and now am happy to report that the condition is in remission. So, for now, I enjoy life again. A number of people have told me that they miss the emagazine and I am happy to revive it again if that is what others want. But I need your help. I need contributions from people who want to share how they feel about life and Dharma. I need to hear from people who think they can say something that will help others, or just want to start a conversation. If your first language isn’t English there is no need to feel left out as we have translators and editors who will be happy to work with you. So, are you ready to take Many Roads on its next journey and to bring us together?
If so, please email me with any contributions to manyroads@bodhicharya.org. If you have any questions about how you can contribute please email me and I’ll be happy to answer anything you have to ask!
wishing you all best wishes and love,
Margaret Ford
For Many Roads and Bodhicharya
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As I type this, I can see the golden leaves shimmering in the bright Autumn sunshine in my garden. It is a beautiful time of the year and one I’ve always loved. So, maybe it’s fitting that it’s during this season of so many changes that I’ve decided to take a break from the work I do for Ringu Tulku and Bodhicharya. It’s mainly due to continuing ill health but also because I believe that there comes a time in one’s life when you know that you have to move on and do something different. And it’s that time for me now. After many years of working for RTR and Bodhicharya; I’m taking a year ‘out’ but I have no plans. I will take life as it comes. So, this will be the last issue of Many Roads, for a while, but it’s a great issue.
As usual, we have another article from my dear friend and our regular contributor, Vicki McKenna. Vicki writes here about A Capsizing World and what we can do to help us ‘maintain a sense of order and harmony’ in our changing world. Also, another great interview by Jet Mort ,who this time speaks to Lama Tsultrim of Bodhicharya France.
Many of you will have seen recently a post in the Bodhicharya web site about the retreat with Rinpoche in Sikkim this December. Last year, there was a similar retreat in Sikkim in October/November, also organised by Erika van Greunen from South Africa. Mary Heneghan, one of Rinpoche’s students from Oxford, England, attended that retreat and Mary’s very personal account of her time in Sikkim can be found at Vajrasattva Retreat with Ringu Tulku Rinpoche at Bodhicharya Retreat Centre.
I am very happy to include more of the poetry that has already been posted in the Writers and Poets Community of the Bodhicharya Communities Website. Firstly, Ani Tsering Paldron’s very beautiful poem, The Unbearable Love Poem (Manjushri’s Song). Next, Ani Karma Tsultrim shares her poem written while she was receiving treatment for cancer, Bring Sickness onto the Path. Mustapha Zaidi shares too his Dharma inspired poem Leaf and Anne H was equally generous in allowing us to publish here Out of My Mind, Unique Falling.
And, I would like to end here with something very special. Last week, Mary Heneghan (of the Sikkim retreat above) sent me some inspiring words written by her daughter, Katie, aged eight. I was so touched by Katie’s Rules that I wanted to include them in this last issue. Of course I have Katie and her mum’s permission. I especially like Katie’s first rule; ‘If you drop anything or go off course, you must go back to the beginning’. Maybe that is what I’m doing?
With many grateful thanks to all the contributors to this issue and all previous issues of Many Roads. It has been a pleasure working with you all and so very nice to share this space with you here.
I would like to wish you all the very best of health and happiness whatever you do and wherever you are.
Love,
Margaret Ford
For Many Roads
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As the lazy days of August gradually fade, I am very happy to send you a slightly ‘thinner’, but none the less, an entertaining issue of Many Roads.
Our regular contributor, Vicki McKenna gives us some food for thought in her article, Letting go of Being Right. This is a topic close to my heart because, of course, I always think I’m right! And, this month, I’m taking the opportunity to write about something else very close to my heart; Kindness. Very often I find myself wondering, why can’t we just be a bit kinder to each other? Let me know what you think.
Once again, we have a surfeit of beautiful poems. Firstly, Madeline Schreiber shares her very recent poem in praise of HH Karmapa: Nomad Dharma King. Then, David Gardner makes me smile with his poem House of Meringue. And Colin Moore, whom you will remember from last month’s issue and his article Sustainable Living, this time shares a poem Awake in the Dark.
As many of you will know, Bodhicharya has set up a new network of communities at http://bodhicharya.intouch.net which includes a community for writers and poets. So, I am very pleased to include three poems here that have previously been posted on the Writers and Poets Community. We have; Devotion by Isabel Rodrigues and two Haiku by Tharlam Gyamtso and Minna Stenroos.
I hope you will find some things of interest in August’s issue of Many Roads and I would like to thank all our contributors this month. I would also be very grateful for any articles or poems or anything you would like to share for forthcoming issues.
Please email me your contributions to manyroads@bodhicharya.org
With all best wishes,
Margaret Ford
Bodhicharya’s Many Roads.
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I am very happy to send you all the July issue of Bodhicharya’s Many Roads. There are so many great pieces this month and it is a bumper ‘poetic’ issue!
We have another article from our regular contributor, Vicki McKenna. Vicki reflects on All the Time in the World and how we can change our perception of time. Next, an article from Colin Moore which I know will interest many of you. It is Sustainable Living and Colin explores ‘ how Buddhist teachings can shed light on the various ecological and social disasters looming ahead, and how they might aid our responses to them.’
The first of our poems is from Shelagh Gardiner and is a beautiful poignant study of impermanence in Passing. Then, a very clever poem from David Gardner called May the Jewel of Compassion arise in the Lotus of your Heart. In Snapshots from Journey to Sikkim by Marion Knight, Marion shares with us two of her very lovely poems written during and following a retreat at the Bodhicharya Meditation Centre in Sikkim.
In our Reviews section, Vicki Mc Kenna returns to review Gesar Mukpo’s documentary film Tulku. If you have also seen the film, your comments would be welcome. My favourite part was actually the extended interview with Dzongsar Rinpoche in the ‘extras’.
So, July is almost gone. It has been a strange month, overshadowed of course by the tragedy in Norway. But, I wish you all the very best for the coming month and I hope to be able to share more articles and poems and whatever contributions I might receive at the end of August. So please do keep sending them to me at manyroads@bodhicharya.org
With many thanks to all the contributors this time. Also, thanks to Minna for her technical help and to Jack Ford for patiently helping his mother with the layout of the Sikkim poems.
Now, enjoy!
Margaret Ford
For Many Roads
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As we roll into the Summer months the days are longer and, even in Scotland, we are enjoying some (very occasional) sunny days. Now is the time to feel good to be alive! But, if you are not feeling so happy then Vicki McKenna’s article on Happiness will be just what you need. Also, if you have time to look at those lovely clear skies, then you may be interested in my ramblings about how I deal with some of the biggest changes in my life in Sky-Watcher.
We are very rich in poetry in this issue; firstly, another great poem from Madeline Schreiber titled Quartz. Then, Maribel González shares with us a poem she dedicated to Ringu Tulku, A Poem for Rinpoche. Rinpoche enjoyed it so much he asked her to send it to Many Roads. And Lastly, an amazing poem from Nepal, The Beggar by Laxmi Prasad Devkota, which has been translated by Albert Harris from the original Nepali.
I hope to continue to publish more of your articles etc over the coming months, so please keep sending them to me at manyroads@bodhicharya.org With grateful thanks to all those who contributed this time.
Enjoy!
Margaret Ford
Many Roads
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This last month has brought some significant changes in my life. Not only have I taken early retirement from my job in the civil service but my two sons, both in their mid-twenties, have also moved out of the family home into their own place.
If I’m completely honest, leaving my paid work after 30 years in an office environment has been more of a relief and one I don’t regret. Sure, the work was ‘okay’ and the regular salary was nice, but the freedom of not being tied to a (flexi) nine to five existence is really great. My sons leaving home has been another matter. I’ve been a mother for nearly 38 years (I have an older daughter who left home about 15 years ago) and I guess my main focus has always been about caring for them; feeding, cleaning, clearing up after them. So, now there are no ‘children’ I begin to wonder, ‘what do I do now?’ And before you all shout that Dharma practice is about accepting change , I can only say that I know, I know, but…………………….. Maybe I’ll write more about big changes in another issue.
And of course I have more time for Many Roads and this Spring issue is bursting full again of brilliant articles, poems and art. Vicki McKenna, who has agreed to be a regular contributor (thanks Vicki!), shares again some of her down to earth wisdom in Get Yourself Connected. Dirk de Klerk has sent us a very beautiful and moving piece about his friend Jean Paira Pemberton in The Enjoyment of Sound and Anne Vosse has written a fascinating article about teaching BEING happy in her school in Germany.
I am really pleased to include an image of a beautiful painting by Andrew McConnach and I’m including details of his web site so you can see more of his work. And, two great poems; firstly, another poem Electronic Consorts, from Madeline Schreiber who is fast becoming my favourite poet. Also, Broken Heart Poem from Heidi Trondsen from Oslo.
With many thanks to all our contributors. Thanks also to Jet for her help and support with this issue.
Please do keep sending me your articles, thoughts, comments, poems, painting, photos and anything you want to share. Please send to manyroads@bodhicharya.org
Wishing you all well.
Enjoy
Margaret Ford
Many Roads
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In April’s issue of Many Roads we have the third and final part of Annie Dibble’s Sikkim Conference Report. The first and second parts are still available to read if you have missed our previous issues.
We also have an enchanting article by Annette Tamuly Jung about the ‘Oasis of Long Life’, an innovative Dharma venture in the centre of France. This is a place of peaceful residence for elderly Buddhist practitioners that has received the blessings of many, including our own Ringu Tulku Rinpoche. If, like me, you are of a certain age you will be very interested in this.
Pat Little shares with us her delight in a BBC programme about tigers in Bhutan, in the Lost Land of the Tiger. I do hope they will show the programme again as Pat made me want to know more about these magnificent creatures.
And finally, a beautiful poem, Lifetimes, by Madeline Schreiber from Novia Scotia in Canada.
With many thanks to all the contributors.
I really need your articles, poems, reviews and musings, so please continue to send them to me. While Rinpoche is now into his Spring teaching tour, it would be great to hear about your experiences of attending the teachings and meeting up with other practitioners. All photos will be gratefully received.
Please email at manyroads@bodhicharya.org
Now, put your feet up, relax and enjoy!
Margaret Ford
For Many Roads
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I’m a little late with this issue of the magazine but it’s worth waiting for! Here you will find a photo diary of Rinpoche’s time in Thailand in February. It’s full of beautiful photographs and details of the many varied places and people who hosted Rinpoche while he was there. Thanks to Andy Lowe for sharing with us.
Also, the second part of Annie Dibble’s Sikkim Conference Report. Part three will follow soon.
And lastly, we have poetry from Shelagh Gardiner and Tim Barrow.
In a week when there has been such sad news from Japan, let’s open our hearts and be grateful for all and who we have.
Enjoy!
Margaret Ford
For Many Roads
Please keep sending me your contributions for the Many Roads Magazine to manyroads@bodhicharya.org
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