One of the nicest things about living in London was meeting interesting people from all over the world. I met friends from Azerbaijan, Malta, Mauritius, Morocco, Malaysia, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, France, Italy, Sweden. Since England has so many people residing from it's Commonwealth countries, I also met a lot of people from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand.
One of the nicest people I met, and the most interesting was this opera singer, Joy, who hailed from New Zealand. I met Joy while we were staying at the same hostel for a few months in Hyde Park. One day, I heard someone howling from one of the corridors. But, in fact, it wasn't the howling of a banshee, it was this beautiful voice singing opera. I so admired her from the beginning, for having the chutzpah to practice her singing any little corner she could find. Joy is half Somoan, and half Welsh,and was very sweet, she travelled all over England selling jewelry in castles and would regale me with her adventurous stories, by saying ," What's going on in the universe?" She was a real Bohemian free spirit.I thought I was adventurous, she would still hitch hike all over England. She also travelled to Palestine and Lebanon, and said how she almost got decapitated over there. She's my kind of girl, intelligent,fun, artistic and gorgeous. If that wasn't enough, she could recite Aristotle. She taught me a lot about opera, The Greek Philosphers. Wow !
One night, we hung out in my little flat in Bayswater, and we would listen to both our favorite Aria, from the movie Farinelli.
After a night of partying drinking cider and eating Brussels Pate.
Joy turned me on to Pate for eating instead of Chicken, we would eat copious amounts ofPate, Brie Cheese and crackers.
Sabrina and Katerina, Pizza Express near The Globe Theater- Southbank-London
I had known Katerina Weiss for a very long time. Katerina is from Check Republic. She came to visit me with her Doctor boyfriend in London. We all went out together to Pizza Express. I had known her since 1999, when we worked at Rizzoli's bookstore together. She's very intelligent, childlike and very sweet. She was married to the famous Chekoslavkian film maker, Jerry Weiss, he passed away and now she married his friend. Katerina is very well-read, and always lets me know about the best books. Apparently, she's moved back to Pennsylvania to be with her Doctor boyfriend Peter, and now they live in some farmhouse, in the outskirts of Philadelphia. She's invited me to visit her, but I haven't been able to make it over there yet. I am to busy still writing about my time in London. Ha ! Will find time, in the future, to visit her.
She met me in London along with some other friends, we went to the Globe Theater to watch Shakespeare as a groundling. I think the play was As You Like it.
There hasn't been PEACE in the Middle East for a long time.
We all know that.It's nothing new and most people just get sick
and tired of listening to the endless war of the Palestinians versus
the Israeli in their never ending battle for what they both believe is their homeland since Biblical times.
As a Buddhist we believe in Kosen Rufu(World Peace).We believe Peace starts with one person.When we have peace within ourselves, it is very easy to spread that feeling and experience the joy of the Buddha through out the world, in our families first, our communities,and extend that further into the WORLD and our Global Family.World peace starts with this inner transformation of the individual. And, yes it is a struggle to develop and elevate our state of life, but human revolution is the foundation for world peace and also for individual peace and happiness. It is at the heart of our Buddhist practise. It is about changing our heart and drawing out our humanity.
It is the most amazing feeling as you discover that if the cause of your suffering is within the realms of your own life. then you and only you can change that aspect of your life. This is the most freeing feeling. This is human revolution and the door to your Buddhahood.
A way to change your own inherenent negativity wheter it's about your own life or about other people is to chant. Every Monday Night there are Prayer sessions for Peace in the Middle East in Brixton, London and in people's homes.
You may not know this but there are indeed Buddhist in Israel.Apparently they are very silent about thier Budddhist practice.To my surprise there are a lot of Israeli Buddhist living in London. I personally grew up in Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles. Often people have often mistaken me for being a Jewish girl and going to Fairfax High School they would often invite me to their Hillel Club. I thought that was very friendly, but I declined not being a Jew.My first job when I was 16 years old was working for an Israeli family tutoring their daughter.So, in some ways I have always been connected to Israel and the Jewish culture. I have often been mistaken for being a Jewish lady, I am sure probably have had a past life or two, being a Jewish man or maybe working as a Bookseller or a writer in some aspect. Who knows.
In recent years, I have often been intrigued by The Middle East and especially what has been going on in Palestine and Israel. I have read and done a lot of research on the two countries. Trying to invesigate both sides instead of being blindly partial to one and disregarding the other's opinions. I try to stay neutral,but know like a good mother that her children have often been bad. Reading the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish stroke a chord with me. When he writes about being bombed by Israel from air, land and sea for three days.
I realize that in 2009, many people were very angry at Israelis for the destruction and apparent misuse of power. Bianca Jagger, former wife of Mick Jagger, Model,and Human Rights Activist spoke vehemently against the torture of innocent Palestinians during the massive attacks on Gaza last Janaury 2009. She spoke in Poets Corner in Hyde Park to a massive crowd of Londoners. She states,"Why did US give the Green light to Israel to kill innocent civilians?"
If you are interested in finding more about praying for Peace in the Middle East Tozos, please leave comments.
