Padraig O’Morain, Irish Times
‘Discuss your problems and meditate together each morning to empty the mind of all your problems.”
This is the advice given to Prince William and Kate Middleton by Britain’s senior Buddhist monk, the Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala.
The picture of the two young royals sitting down to meditate each morning seems an unlikely one. Yet they could do a lot worse, and there is much in Buddhist philosophy that can help them or anyone else to negotiate the sometimes stormy waters of marriage.
For stormy waters there will be, meditation or no meditation. A point will come when they will start to irritate each other and the age-old question – Why can’t you be more like me? – will become the battle cry.
Buddhists also have rows and sulk and break up, though I believe, without having statistics to prove it, that they have at their disposal approaches which make a break-up less likely.
Take their attitude…