07/12/16Soon we will all be gone
This week, a friend of mine posted on Facebook a new ad he’d seen on the New York Subway. It was by the meditation app, Headspace, and besides a photo of some adrenalised looking character, said I meditate to crush it. The friend in question had added...
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30/11/16Practice like your hair is on fire
I am currently in California. Many dharma friends are grappling with the febrile, turbulent and unpredictable post-election situation, and with the current #NODAPL situation at Standing Rock. Many of us in this living generation, have lived with the highly unusual experience and expectation of...
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16/11/16Buddhist Resources in troubling times: Refuge and the Bodhisattva Vow
You have all no doubt bee impacted by the recent political turbulence and shock. I don’t need to add more words to all you may have already been reading about Trump, Brexit and the worrying rise of political division, fear and polarisation, along with our...
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19/10/16Right now, it’s like this
The more conditions we set for our happiness, the more we feel frustrated and offended when life doesn’t meet those conditions. The more I rely on comfort for example, the more I will struggle when I’m uncomfortable. With meditation too, the more we insist on...
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12/10/16Everything changes. Nothing fully satisfies. Don’t take it personally.
Dharma teachings encourage us to reflect on the 3 characteristics of experience, as a basis for freedom: Annica, Dukkha Anatta. Everything changes. Nothing fully satisfies. Don’t take it personally. Anicca We can contemplate these themes in our own life situations. I’m currently travelling for 2 months, teaching....
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06/10/16SPACE while acting, walking, etc. Applied Emptiness
Busy Life, Spacious Mind I have just finished teaching a retreat in up state New York, and now find myself back in the city. The urban landscape – and none is more imposing than the Manhattan skyline – tends to assault the senses. Traffic noise,...
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28/09/16Trust in the goodness of your practice
Teaching in San Francisco this week, I have been speaking with dharma friends about the importance of appreciating the goodness of our practice. We so easily spend time thinking how our meditation practice could or should be more; how we could sit longer, how we...
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21/09/16Everything is worthy of attention
Last week in Wales, I was walking on a country lane in the early morning. The exquisite green of the Welsh rolling hillsides dipped below pillowy clouds, swallows spun overhead, and the whole scene just invited me to see and hear and feel, letting experience...
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14/09/16Practicing without trying to get anywhere
“While the ideal is for experience to transform, the method is to meet things just as they are, without trying to change anything.” The very word ‘practice’ seems to suggest a doing something in order to improve at it, and of course there is a way in which our meditation...
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