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Urthona - A Journal of Buddhism and the Arts

Ratnagarbha

Urthona new issue out soon - Issue 36 Unknown Landscapes

Tue, 20 Dec, 2022 - 11:06

Urthona new issue out soon - Issue 36 Unknown Landscapes

Tue, 20 Dec, 2022 - 11:06

Urthona Issue 36 ‘Unknown Landscapes’ will be out just after Xmas.

Landscapes move and uplift us in ways that are hard to pin down. Artists explore such emotional responses and bring clarity, awareness and transformational depth to the process. They help us to make the appreciation of landscape more conscious and meaningful.

As Christopher Neve in his wonderful book ‘Unquiet Landscape’ says of the work of Paul Nash: ‘pictures, like the landscape itself, enunciate with the greatest clarity a language that is beyond words.’

Join us...

Ratnagarbha

Buddhism and Platonism

Thu, 1 Dec, 2022 - 09:20

Buddhism and Platonism

Thu, 1 Dec, 2022 - 09:20

Just posted a major essay comparing these two ancient systems of philosophy and spiritual practice.

https://urthona.com/2022/11/06/the-buddha-meets-plato/

Ratnagarbha

Cowboy Zen – a unique poetic sequence by Mary McCray

Mon, 26 Apr, 2021 - 10:24

Cowboy Zen – a unique poetic sequence by Mary McCray

Mon, 26 Apr, 2021 - 10:24

Cowboy Meditation Primer – poetry sequence by Mary McCray

(Taster from Urthona issue 35 ‘American Zen’)

A unique sequence of poems in which the hard lives and gritty adventures of cowboys on the trails of 19th Century New Mexico are combined with Buddhist Wisdom.

It’s 1870s New Mexico. A heartbroken city journalist has joined a cattle drive in order to learn how to be a real cowboy. He meets a cattle company traveling up the Goodnight Loving Trail in New Mexico Territory. Not only do the...

Ratnagarbha

Allen Ginsberg – letting Imagination go...

Mon, 22 Mar, 2021 - 10:38

Allen Ginsberg – letting Imagination go...

Mon, 22 Mar, 2021 - 10:38

Highlight from new edition of Urthona magazine ‘American Zen’

see www.urthona.com to order issue 35 and read full article by Acarasiddhi

Acarasiddhi (Tony Press) of the Triratna Buddhist Order grew up in 1950s California. He was too young to be at the famous reading in City Lights bookshop when Ginsgerg’s Howl was unveiled, but he remembers very well the heady atmosphere of 1950s California when the world was opening up in all directions (land, space, imagination…)

Acarasiddhi goes on to give us a vivid...

Ratnagarbha

Where are all the dark paths now?

Wed, 3 Feb, 2021 - 12:26

Where are all the dark paths now?

Wed, 3 Feb, 2021 - 12:26

‘Where are all the dark paths now? The Pure Land itself is near’

Hakuin’s Song of Zazen

Painting shown above: Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land (Sukhavati). C. 1700 Central Tibet; Distemper with gold on cloth,. Dimensions: 56 1/4 × 39 1/2 in. (142.9 × 100.3 cm). Public domain – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchased: Barbara and William Karatz Gift and funds from various donors, 2004

High Resolution image and further details at MMA site:

I would like to include more traditional...

Ratnagarbha

Abhayavajra - Flight of the Gull...

Mon, 25 Jan, 2021 - 11:59

Abhayavajra - Flight of the Gull...

Mon, 25 Jan, 2021 - 11:59

Flight of the gull… for Buddhist painter ABHAYAVAJRA physical activity, image and meaning arise intertwined. Full article in Urthona Issue 35 American Zen - from Square storefront:

https://urthona-magazine.square.site/s/shop

For Abhayavajra, who is based in rural Suffolk, painting is an art of revealing and covering, an exploration of formal relationships :

“Contradistinction (contre-jour) is a familiar and traditional element of painting, whether used consciously or unconsciously. So is the interaction of colours and tones – the way they transform each other when brought...

Ratnagarbha

Urthona 'American Zen' issue published.

Tue, 29 Dec, 2020 - 10:09

Urthona 'American Zen' issue published.

Tue, 29 Dec, 2020 - 10:09

The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.
D. T. Suzuki

Gallery: Click top of border for captions…

Urthona issue 35 is out now. Order at www.urthona.com

FREE seven page sample of new issue

The theme is American Zen. Appropriately perhaps this issue is in virtual e-mag format only due to Buddhist centres (our main outlet for printed mags) still being closed.

It...

Ratnagarbha

Masterpiece – Homer's Iliad

Thu, 11 Jun, 2020 - 10:50

Masterpiece – Homer's Iliad

Thu, 11 Jun, 2020 - 10:50

Just published at Urthona.com an introduction to the epic world of Homer’s Iliad by Dharmachari Dharmavadana

THE ILIAD an introduction

Ratnagarbha

Three Cosmogenic Myths

Wed, 10 Jun, 2020 - 12:18

Three Cosmogenic Myths

Wed, 10 Jun, 2020 - 12:18

Just Published: an in depth essay of comparative mythology in the spirit of Joseph Campbell, comparing the foundational cosmic mythos of Buddhism, Platonism and Gnosticism. A fascinating look at how ancient stories about the origin of the cosmos have influenced different civilisations.

https://urthona.com/culture-science-society/three-cosmogenic-myths/