Welcome to my Blog. I'm a practising member of SGI-UK a lay buddhist organisation practising the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin. It is often described as a practise of Active Humanism which I think reflects it perfectly. The basic practise is the chanting of 'Nam Myoho Renge Kyo' on a daily basis and putting the practise into use in our daily lives thereby making this a practical rather than esoteric form of Buddhism. For more information, please follow the Buddhist links on the right of this page


“Prayer is the courage to persevere. It is the struggle to overcome our own weakness and lack of confidence in ourselves. It is the act of impressing in the very depths of our being the conviction that we can change the situation without fail. Prayer is the way to destroy all fear. It is the way to banish sorrow, the way to light a torch of hope. It is the revolution that rewrites the scenario of our destiny... Believe in yourself! Don't sell yourself short! Devaluing yourself is contrary to Buddhism, because it denigrates the Buddha state of being within you.”.
Daisaku Ikeda.

Shop With Me

Ok .. once again .. apologies for not blogging .. I will catch up soon.

In the meantime, I've discovered Amazons Astores where you can set up your own stores and get paid a small fee for each book sold through your astore. So if you want to have a look at my somewhat ecletic bookshop .. feel free to buy too :-)

http://www.chant4.co.uk/charliesshop

or for Buddhist Books > http://astore.amazon.co.uk/chantingbuddha-21

Katchup/Kunishima

Ok ... update time I guess ... so where was I ? .. Oh yes last post 22nd mmmm what's happened since ?

Well ..first of all I missed the Eric Taylor gig that I'd been looking forward to .. partly because no one else wanted to go and partly because I was knackered and seem to be out most evening at the moment .. oh well .. next year I guess ! The next night was out at the jazz watching Clark Tracey. Good gig though for me, somewhat dissapointing as Zoe Rahman had double booked so Steve Melling stood in on piano which was OK but much prefer her style .. less busy that Mellings but still a decent gig.

Then a Buddha day on the 28th when we had our HQ day which was pretty good on the whole .. especially enjoyed the lecture by Yasu Hirayama who I've heard a couple of times before and always find inspiring.












Unfortunately that evening I sensed a sore throat and that just developed into full blown 'man flu' which meant that, well, I did sod all for about three days though it did give me a good excuse to watch an awful lot of daytime TV from under the duvet .. even though the worst day co-incided with my birthday .. shame really as there's less of those left :)

Just about recovered in time for a Mayfair meal on the Wednesday though which was very good ... and especially spicy which suited me as my taste buds had gone a bit .

Then last night was another Jazz night .. with Taeko Kunishima. Have to say it was a frustrating gig as she was excellent but the first set had her piano so low in teh mix it got lost. Also a japanese flute doesn't make a very good lead instrument I'm afraid as it's not variable enough .. and the rythm, section were .. let's say mediocre to be kind. Thankfully, teh second set saw her piano a lot louder and that combined with a couple of Whiskys did make things much better .. just hope she gets invited back with a better band. You can here some of her music at http://www.taeko.co.uk/music.html or http://www.myspace.com/taekokunishimaquartet

And that's me up to date. Going to Taplow Court tomorrow for the district leaders assembly meeting so more on that later.