On Living To Forget
A short while back I received an email with this very curt question: ‘I read your book. Interesting. One question. Why do you talk so much about how hard meditation is?’ Aside from… Continue reading
Category Archive: Acceptance
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The Immaculate Inbetween
Question: ‘Hi Roger … In stories of the Buddha that I’ve read, enlightenment seemed very easy to people. Just by listening to the Buddha, they used to suddenly become enlightened. Is this just… Continue reading
What Are You?
Everywhere I go, in various iterations, I keep hearing the same question: ‘Who am I?’ People pose this question as if somehow, if only they could find an answer, it would solve all… Continue reading
The Monk and The Bell.
Back in the 90’s, when I was researching stuff during the writing of my first book on meditation, ‘Happy to Burn’, I happened to find a fascinating article, (long since lost) which clarified… Continue reading
Keep It Simple
Meditation is very simple – just sit still with your attention resting lightly on the breath. Notice what arises in the mind and body, accept that it’s there, let it go and return… Continue reading
Being Mindful
I replied to this on Quora, and thought it might make a good addition to this blog (the drawing to the right has nothing to do with it … it’s just something I… Continue reading
The Trap of Wondrous Meditation Experiences
“Hi Roger … I notice in your book you deal with the presence of pain and anxiety and the lack of calm that most of us experience in meditation, but you don’t describe… Continue reading
Life Is A Monastery
Interesting observation of my new book, ‘Being Still’ which I think I’ve commented on before, but which I think I will again:‘Hi Roger … read your new book and loved it, but I’m… Continue reading
The Main Game
A while back, while sitting in a café having a coffee, I overheard a group of people arguing about meditation. It seemed as if they’d been to some kind of meditation retreat, and… Continue reading
Meditating Without Faith is Like Breathing Without Air
It occurred to me today, that one thing I’ve neglected to write about on this blog is perhaps, one of the most important requirements of efficient meditation. And that is the notion of… Continue reading
Why Does Meditating Make Me Anxious?
Got this question in an email from Marc. “Hi Roger … I recently started meditating and frankly I find it makes me even more anxious than I usually am. But I persevered and… Continue reading
Can Positive Thinking Work as Powerfully as Meditation?
This was another Quora question, which prompted my following reply. There’s a problem with positive thinking – and that is, your mind is not an idiot. It knows all of you, both positive… Continue reading
The False God of Happiness
‘If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.’– Edith Wharton Got this question today, and thought it might be worth a post: ‘Roger, I’ve been meditating… Continue reading
Practicing Mindfulness
‘Mindfulness isn’t difficult. We just need to remember to do it.’ – Sharon Salzberg Mindfulness gets a lot of media attention these days. Everybody’s talking about it, books have been written about it,… Continue reading
The Physicality of Mentality
As you might have noticed I’ve been absent for quite a while, travelling, finishing a book and dealing with life things. Added to which, I felt as if most of the questions I’ve… Continue reading
Just Sitting
“Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect any praise or reward. If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot,… Continue reading
Kindness, the Giver of Life
‘Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. – Theodore Isaac Rubin I was told the other day that about half of what we do… Continue reading
Windmill Stumblebum … and Other Creatures
Sorry I’ve been absent for so long, but I’ve been writing a book, and considering most of the 100 or so posts on this blog answer most questions I receive, I took a… Continue reading
Dealing with Dukkha
This post came in response to a question from one of my other posts, ‘Why Does Meditation Make Me Angry’– which, without fail, is, along with another similar post, ‘Why Does Meditation Make… Continue reading
It’s Not Wrong to Feel.
To all my regular readers, I’ve been away for a couple of months because my eyes were developing cataracts and I had to have an operation. It’s an amazing thing, for the world… Continue reading
Siddhârtha’s Gift – The Middle Way
Essentially, the path through meditation requires balance. Take the act of meditating for example – for sure, we need to apply effort – but if we use too much effort we create tension… Continue reading
Meditation Needs Love
When I first began meditating I had terrible difficulty with it, and almost gave up at one point, because I felt as if I just didn’t have what it took. It wasn’t… Continue reading
Sensations and Suffering
A wonderful, and quite forensic breakdown of the how sensations become suffering., and the role our conditioned reactions play in that transition. Essential viewing if you’re as fascinated by the processes within Vipassana meditation.… Continue reading