We can hardly believe that it is almost exactly half way through 2009! Wow! Tonight we bring you a lecture on the letter written by Nichiren Daishonin to the Lay Nun of Ueno. The letter is called, Hell is the Land of Tranquil Light. Some of the subject teasers for tonight include:

• We need to reveal Buddhahood to overcome our karma
• Lets try and remember the names of our mothers
• The icy wind of thoughtless encouragement
• The ten worlds exist in life and death
• Giving 150% . . .in small bursts
• Are you in a prison of someone elses making?
• Changing circumstances won’t change karma
• Attaining Buddhahood just as you are
• It is human to feel grief when someone dies
• Gohonzon is the baseline of Buddhahood
• Chant first, shout later.

We have music for you from the Podsafe Music Network. First up is Carbon Leaf with A Life Less Ordinary. We close the show with Shines Right Through Me by the amazing Great Big Sea! The links we have for the tracks will take you through to where you can buy them on iTunes and the links for the names will take you through to their own website.

Karen and I are busy posting off orders for our new Tshirts! If you have yours and you send us a photograph of you wearing them, we will consider putting it on the artwork for the show (needs to be family friendly!) so send them in to us at jason(at)thejarretts.com!

Thankyou for your comments and encouragement. Thank you for all the support you give us, we really do feel and appreciate it. Please take great care and have the most amazing and wonderful week.

 

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We are back on schedule tonight with the wonderful William Woollard reading Chapter 5, “What do we mean by happiness?”, from his book The Reluctant Buddhist which is now being reprinted and translated into more languages!

We have shoutouts and some great music. Tonight we play Rocket to the Moon by the wonderful Jimmy Golding and Day by Now is Now is on ITunes. Both artists are on the Podsafe Music Network.

We have some great new material to bring to you and we welcome your feedback, reviews, experiences and contributions. For those people who have been asking about a tshirt, you can get them here our thanks to Polly and Helen of Pressoffers for their help with this.

Thank you for your support and encouragement, we do appreciate it so much. Have a fantastic week!

 

 A Buddhist Podcast - The Reluctant Buddhist - Chapter 5: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Tonight we have a lecture on “Letter to Misawa”. This lectures is about many things, but one thing is for sure it does address the three obstacles and four devils. Perhaps because it does so it might explain why it has taken 5 months to write 3 times, why cables went missing right before we started the show and a myriad of others obstacles emerged! Some of tonights themes include:

1. Practicing correctly involves transforming the negativity in the world around you
2. Three obstacles and four devils
3. What is the devil king of the 6th heaven anyway?
4. Nikko takes it to the man
5. Self reliant faith
6. The Gohonzon certifies that Buddhahood exists
7. Some experience of overcoming obstacles
8. What do you want to break through?
9. Why is the Soka Gakkai different?

Its a full show and along with the shout outs we play three tracks tonight from the Podsafe Music Network.

We play Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton on the PMN who sings Code Monkey. You can find Jonathan Coulton also on ITunes. And we play two tracks from Adrina Thorpe  who sings  Coming Home and Fly Fly Fly. Adrina is also on iTunes.

In response to the many requests for TShirts we are now able to offer them for almost half the previous price and twice the quality! Thanks Polly Earnest and Helen Steyner of PressOffers.com who have created the shop for us!

Thank you for all your support, encouragement, comments and input! It is such great good fortune to be able to do this podcast.

 

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On tonights show, William Woollard reads Chapter 4 from his wonderful book, The Reluctant Buddhist. The chapter is called A Question of Faith and its a great listen.

Also on tonight we have an experience from Estelle Jackson, a member of the Students Division in SGI-UK. 

As usual we have shoutouts that criss cross the world and music from the Podsafe Music Network. We play Vittoria Conn’s track called Mirror and a podcasting anthem, Not On The Radio by Geoff Smith.

The show tonight is absolutely packed! We know we have been sometime in getting you a show and so tonights episode lasts for 78 minutes or so, so it will fit on a CD if you want to burn it for a friend!

We have some more shows ready for you and are looking forward to putting them out in the next few weeks! Thank you for your support and encouragement, we do appreciate it so much. Have a wonderful week!

 

 A Buddhist Podcast - The Reluctant Buddhist - Chapter 4: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Welcome to another episode of A Buddhist Podcast. Tonight we continue with our new series of lectures on the Jigage portion of Gongyo by looking at the meaning of the words, Nyorai Juryo hon dai juroku! Haven’t you ever wondered what it means? This poem of life is so amazing. Some of the headings include:

• What does gongyo mean?
• Lotus Sutra for the Latter Day of the Law
• Wisdom illuminates ignorance
• Nichiren Daishonin, the true Buddha
• Causing the sun of hope to dawn
• Shelley on Dante
• A practice to perpetuate
• Every character is a shining buddha
• Living the poem of life
• You can’t use force to create change
• Our victories are your victories
• Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
• Seek out your true self!
• Live like the waterfall

Once again the music for tonights show is a blatant expression of how much we love the music of Cat Malojian! We play Pettigoe and Life Rolls On, which you can find on iTunes!

Thank you for all the comments, emails and messages of support, we truly appreciate every single last one of them. One last point, our love goes out to Dash and Donna, we are so happy to know that Donna is out of hospital and on the mend!

Have a wonderful week.

 

 A Buddhist Podcast - Lifespan Chapter - Part 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Finally, we are back! We are so pleased to do this show tonight, so pleased to be able to share this with you! After 3 years we have decided to finish our lecture series on Gongyo! Tonights lecture is an introduction to the Juryo Chapter, the 16th Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, known as the Lifespan Chapter! Some of the headings include:

• Traveller
• Where do we come from and where are we going?
• How can life be eternal if we all die?
• Overview of the Lotus Sutra
• Eternity is an aspect of life
• Do you ride the shopping trolley of life?
• Mentor and Disciple
• Nichiren the human being
• White knuckle daimoku
• Our lives are one with the universe
• We are the Bodhisattvas of the Earth
• Striving for self worth
• Unprecedented Challenge

Music for tonights show comes from the great talent of Cat Malojian! These two lads from Northern Ireland make great music, and we love it. Tonight they play Who Knows? and Goodnight. If you like their music, pop over to ITunes and buy some!

Thank you for all your messages of support and encouragement, we hope you enjoy tonights show!

 

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Another full show!

Tonights lecture is on Nichiren Daishonin’s teaching called, On The Buddha’s Prophecy. The lecture is about the purpose of Buddhist practice. Some of the headings include:

• A Leap Month!
• Life at Ichinosawa
• Bodhisattva Medicine King
• Former, Middle and Latter Day of the Law
• Doing time in the “When I” Prison
• The teaching, the teacher and the mission
• What did the priests do for 700 years?
• The Soka Gakkai fullfills the Buddha’s Prophecy
• Its time to create happiness

We have President Ikeda’s New Year’s message for 2009, read by Ken George. There are shoutouts and music from Ioda Promonet including “Balance” by Sara Tavares which you can buy here at iTunes Music Store

The second track we play tonight is by Cohen which is also availabe here!Gold Is Where You Find It (mp3)

We are proud members of the Ioda Alliance!

Thankyou for all your support and encouragement! Have a fantastic week.

 

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Tonights show is so full!

Tonights lectures is based on guidance that President Ikeda gave earlier this year about the four points for victory. The four points are Prayer, Action, Unity and the Oneness of Mentor and Disciple. This lecture is about the second theme, Action! The main points of the lecture include:

• Developing our own individual attitude to faith
• Taking responsibility for the happiness of where we live
• The roar of the tiger of death
• Take the initiative and make new friends
• We reveal buddhahood in our behaviour
• The old man in the park
• What is the Buddha’s great teaching?
• Living with my mentor
• Three powerful enemies
• If not you then who?

 

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Have you ever wanted an explanation of where this Buddhism came from to give to your friends or family to help explain your practice? Well that is what the substance of tonights show is! William Woollard reads Chapter 3 from his extraordinary book, The Reluctant Buddhist!

We have shoutouts and the music tonight comes from Beth Thornley. Its not like us to only play one artist, but we liked both of the tracks! So from Beth Thornley we play Mr Lovely and Birmingham. As usual we are very grateful to the Podsafe Music Network for providing us with the ability to play this music on our show.

We are working on two new shows which will be appearing in the next few weeks! Thank you so much for listening to the show and for all your wonderful feedback. Have a great week and take care of yourselves and the people around you.

 

 A Buddhist Podcast - The Reluctant Buddhist - Chapter 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Tonight’s show is a bit of an experiment! For some time now we have had a lot of requests from listeners to provide support for the level 2 study courses that are taking place in Europe at the moment. This study will culminate in an exam in mid November for those who want to take it. William Woollard has also had many requests for support in this activity, so we have got together to produce a special edition show!

The exam consists of 5 sections, A, B, C, D and E. Each section has a number of questions. In the exam you will be asked one question from each section. On this podcast, William has prepared an answer for every question. It is NOT a model answer but the kind of answer that William would make based upon the study material provided. Remember the questions require you to use the study material rather than your existing knowledge.

If you are not a member of SGI in Europe at the moment but you would like to follow along, you can hop over to this site and download the study material we are looking at! Remember you need to look for the Grade 2 material.

If you are doing the Grade 1 study course, you still might find value in listening to the show as both Grade 1 and Grade 2 share the same questions in Section E about the Priesthood.

In between all of this study material, we have still found time for some music. On tonight’s show we play a wonderful track by Black Lab called Lonely Boy and for the second time on the show Great Day by the amazing Jody Gnant. Music courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network

Thank you for downloading the show! We have a great show coming up in 2 weeks so keep an eye out for it! Thank you as well for all your support.

 

 A Buddhist Podcast - Special Edition - Grade 2 Study Support: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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