Frank Liddy was a driving forces in the Twinbrook Residents Association in the seventies and eighties, taking a break for a short period to try his hand as a saxophonist in a punk band, before embracing the study of Zen Buddhism and mindfulness.
He has over 35 years’ practice-based experience with mindfulness programmes that have helped to transform the lives of many people across Ireland.
Frank is the co-founder of the Black Mountain Zen Centre and Compassionate City Belfast. He now lives in North Belfast but a return to Twinbrook is on the cards.
I remember my Zen teacher Ryushin Paul Haller telling a story about two zen monks who were out walking and came to a river that they would have to cross over.
I’m into day four of the Clonard Novena. Some of my good friends ask me, 'How does a Zen Buddhist sit with Christianity?' My reply is from my heart: First I am a human being and from my Zen perspective I believe in nothing and respect everything.
I was sitting in the waiting room at the RVH accident and emergency department last Friday and the police wheeled in an elderly man in a wheelchair whose face was covered in blood.
We don’t have to agree on the way things are, or why they are the way they are, or to agree on how we want them to be. When we are truly present to any given happening, we are speechless.
What great weather and what a wonderful time I had on Thursday being taught at an amazing equestrian centre outside Comber. By a horse.
It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
I received great news the other day: my teacher, Ryushin Paul Haller, will be here in September to lead a retreat at Tobar Mhuire retreat house at Crossgar. This is another good sign that Covid must be over — just as I am witnessing a reduction in having to wear masks everywhere I go these days.
I WOULD be from another planet if I didn’t mention the election and if I didn’t mention history in the making.
May Day bank holiday has its origins the celebration of the feast of Bealtaine and, in latter times, Mary’s Day. Traditionally bonfires would be lit to mark the coming of summer and to grant luck to people and livestock. Officially May Day bank holiday is the first Monday in May.
"My name is Frank and I’m a recovering thinker." That's how I've taken to introduce myself to strangers.
IMAGINATION rules the mind when you’re young.
Rising prices — fuel, food, oil, gas. Everywhere you look the signs are there, the signs of uncertainty.
Back in the early '90s, I got a job working in a therapeutic community for people experiencing mental health difficulties.
I was at a great talk the other night by a miraculous group called Al Anon. What I heard I needed to hear and what I felt I needed to feel. The good news: I came away refreshed and renewed.
On Friday 11 March, seated in the grandeur of the great hall in the city hall at the Ciste Infheistíochta Gaeilge 10 year celebration - postponed from March 2020 due to Covid but now back in all its pomp.