Category: Videos

Glimpses of now along the way to New Norcia

The Camino Salvado is an Australian version of the famous Camino Santiago de Compostella across France and Spain. Much shorter than the iconic European pilgrimage the Camino Salvado is a seven day pilgrimage from Perth to New Norcia, West Australia, the only monastery town in Australia. Continue reading “Glimpses of now along the way to New Norcia” →

Glimpses of now in the west of Ireland

Beauty does not always cloak itself in grandeur; it can be even more striking when glimpsed through the veil of the everyday. Life’s incandescence glimmers in every ordinary moment if we’d but see it.

This short film was taken on morning walks over two weeks in June and July, 2014 in the beautiful west of Ireland, near the village of Shrule on the border of Galway and Mayo. The Irish might not agree, but the misty and cloudy days seen here were to me possibly even more beautiful than the cloudless skies we saw day after day this summer. No accounting for taste I suppose. Grace and peace to you.

The Spirituality of the Earth

Image“The spirituality of the earth refers to a quality of the earth itself, not a human spirituality with special reference to the planet Earth. Earth is the maternal principle out of which we are born and from which we derive all that we are and all that we have. We come into being in and through the Earth. Simply put, we are Earthlings. The Earth is our origin, our nourishment, our educator, our healer, our fulfilment. At its core, even our spirituality is Earth derived. The human and the Earth are totally implicated, each in the other. If there is no spirituality in the Earth, then there is no spirituality in ourselves.”

From Thomas Berry, The Sacred Universe.

Prayer for the end of suffering

The Buddhist vision of transcendence is the cessation of suffering, which is not an end to the life circumstances that may trouble us but a deep, transcendent acceptance of life as it is. This video is an exquisite blending of spoken word, chanting and images from the films Earth and Baraka.

‘May the sound of this bell penetrate deep into the cosmos. Even in the darkest spots living beings are able to hear it clearly, so that all suffering in them cease, understanding comes to their hearts, and they transcend the path of sorrow and death.’

The Great Bell Chant: Chanted by brother Phap Niem. Translation read by Thich Nhat Hahn.

Russell Brand riffing on awakening to spirituality

In music a ‘riff’ is a brief harmonic phrase that is repeated, often beneath a lead break. Philosophers and other teachers of wisdom from Jesus to Nietzsche did something similar with the ‘aphorism’ a brief, pithy statement, a one-liner that encapsulates a big idea.

Here is the adrenalin-energised Russell Brand dealing in some aphorisms about connecting with the transcendent.

Thank you to my friends at http://www.spiritbath.com for this one.