My 2014

2014 has been both a good and a bad year for me. The low point was the fire that severely damaged the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society premises. It has meant a drastic cutting back of the Society’s activities for the rest of the year, and for me it was a close shave with the Grim Reaper. Repairs are ongoing and hopefully we will be able to return to our old place in  March or April. On the positive side I managed to complete three books this year; Like Milk and Water Mixed; Buddhist Reflections on Love, Nature and the Environment in Early Buddhism and Good Kamma, Bad Kamma! What Exactly is Kamma? This third book will only be published when our Society is able to return home, as that is the only place we have to store the books. I have also written an essay entitled ‘Water in the Religions of Sri Lanka’, my contribution to a large coffee  table book on water in Sri Lanka which will be edited by my friend Sarala Fernando and which is due out in the middle of next year.  In November I attended a conference in Pune, India, organized by the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. Others attending were Richard Gombrich, Dr. Alexander Wynne, Jeffrey Race, and various academics from Pune and Mumbai universities. While there I also met Pankaj Padghan who is busy translating Good Question Good Answer into Marathi. With luck the book should be published next year. Another translation, my Guide to Buddhism A to Z into Indonesian as Ensiklopedi Mini Buddhisme, is due out in January. Apart from joining family in France and trips to Cambodia and Indonesia, the most interesting trip I made this year was to Korea. I and members of the BDMS spent 10 days visiting some of South Korea’s famous Buddhist sites. The highlight of the trip was seeing the 81,2058 wooden printing blocks of the great Tripitaka Koreana at the famous Haeinsa Monastery. Later, I climbed the beautiful forested hills behind the monastery and met some of the hermits who have their small temples there. In October, just after my 63^rd birthday I had my first ever complete medical check-up which showed that other than being slightly overweight I am in good health, a state that I hope shall continue in 2015 and beyond. Mentally? Well, that’s another story! * I have spent much of this morning trying to get the pictures in the right place but without success. Sorry about that.