It's been a little while since I last posted and things have happened. I don't feel it is appropriate to apologise for my online silence. I post only when I feel the urge to do so. If I have nothing to say, why try and say something?

My birthday coincided with mothers day in the UK. It was also the day the clocks changed. The latter two mark one of my favourite times of year, the serious onset of spring. mothering Sunday having it's roots in fertility festivals.

On the same day (very busy day!) we celebrated Segaki at the Priory. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to precent at this festival, the first time I have precented this particular ceremony. It's not one of the easiest ceremonies to precent, partly consisting of loud and forceful chanting in Japanese as a prayer of protection.

With so many deaths recently it was also quite a poignant ceremony. It is called "The feeding of the hungry ghosts". I won't go into too much detail about the significance of this in case I get it wrong, but I'm sure there is plenty of information available through search engines. After the ceremony, we had the opportunity to ask questions. I had a rather ordinary question to ask about the names of the Buddhas displayed above the table during the ceremony. One of these Buddhas is said to be the Buddha of clinging. I hadn't heard of such a thing before. If there is a Buddha of clinging, the very act that proves such an obstacle in training, then this really does bring home the fact that Buddha nature is in absolutely everything.

I've resisted saying too much about death here because I feel I have already said enough, or at least experienced enough for a while. I don't want to try and ignore it as we tend to do so much in our culture but I think it is also appropriate at times to move on to other things. Both my wife and myself have been ill the last few days with a nasty 'flu type bug which means I haven't been able to enjoy the changing weather. I'm still not over it but I feel like I can venture outside a little today (unfortunately my wifes recovery is not so quick, please send her your best wishes). I will go out now and enjoy the season of rebirth. I hope anyone reading this is able to do the same.

In Gassho.