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A Letter To A Dying Man

Bassui wrote the following letter to one of his disciples who was about to die:

"The essence of your mind is not born, so it will never die. It is not an existence, which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither color nor form. It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pains.

"I know you are very ill. Like a good Zen student, you are facing that sickness squarely. You may not know exactly who is suffering, but question yourself: What is the essence of this mind? Think only of this. You will need no more. Covet nothing. Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dissolving in the pure air."

When my daughter was around 5 years old, I made up a game for us to play together. I called it “the beautiful game”. We would take turns picking out one thing we could see, smell, taste, touch, or hear, that we found beautiful. It had to be something that was before us. Those things could be conventionally beautiful, such as birdsong, but it was always better for the game if we chose other things. Mundane, even ugly things. And whatever we chose, we had to give one reason — a considered reason — why we found that thing beautiful.

I enjoyed this article. Enlightenment through changed perception.

British comedian Russell Brand has posted a video denying "serious criminal allegations" set to be made against him in an upcoming television program.

"But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute," Brand said.

"These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies.

"And as I've written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.

....

ruh roh, Russell.

The Australian Financial Review reported on Thursday that a senior manager at Mr Gurner's wellness and anti-ageing network Saint Haven had sought to assure staff that their founders' comments were not directed at them.

"I want to start by saying I've had the pleasure of working with Tim for almost two years now and can hand on heart say that his care and love for both the Gurner Group and Saint Haven team is immense," the manager reportedly said, adding that Mr Gurner's comments "were in no way directed at our teams".

Gurner Group says its development and management portfolio is worth more than $9.5 billion.

Previous 'smashed avocado' comments were also slammed

Mr Gurner was criticised by many in 2017 when he suggested first homebuyers were struggling to enter the property market because they were "spending $40 a day on smashed avocados and coffee and not working".