To Succeed, Learn to Fail
Most people, when they decide to try meditation, assume it’ll be easy. And the books and spruikers and ads for meditation and mindfulness classes certainly make meditation seem easy. After all, how hard… Continue reading
Category Archive: attention
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Changing the Nature of Thinking
Question: I go to a Zen teacher here in Seattle. He tells us that we should observe our thoughts during meditation? I’m not sure what this means. How can I observe my thoughts… Continue reading
Building Awareness To Change Habits
Everything we are, and everything we do, arises from a habit.All our skills and abilities, our cravings and addictions, whether good or bad, as well as our physical form, our emotional profile and… Continue reading
The Path To Enlightenment
In bumbling through YouTube last night, I happened upon an extraordinary video. I say ‘extraordinary’ because the information it conveys is so unusually lucid – particularly given the subject of the video is… Continue reading
How Do I ‘Watch My Thoughts’?
Hi Roger, I’m hoping you can help me with a confusing thing that happens when I meditate. I go to a local meditation group and the teacher told us to watch our thoughts… Continue reading
It’s All Drugs
Question: Hi Roger … I like your blog and I bought the audio course a couple of years ago. I still have difficulty practicing meditation though and part of the reason is I’m… Continue reading
The Meditation Audio Course is Back
A few years ago, (well, almost a decade ago – golly how time flies), after I closed Practical Meditation & Counselling and began travelling (again), I recorded the entire course as a series… Continue reading
Knowing Yourself
Throughout a life, we accumulate habits. Some work for us, other’s don’t. And the key to a good life is being able to nurture those habits that work for us, and weed out… Continue reading
Letting Go of The Struggle
The question: Hi Roger. I’ve been meditating most days for a while now and it feels like I’m in a losing battle with my mind. No matter how hard I try my attention… Continue reading
Beware of Beautiful Information
I got an email the other day, from a woman who was keen to bounce her knowledge of Buddhist lore off me, and engage in an exchange of ideas. And she knew a… Continue reading
Experience The Experience
‘Experience the experience’ was the epitaph my father wanted engraved on his headstone when he died. And indeed, it was the creed he tried to live by. He was constantly pushing himself to… Continue reading
Releasing The Breath
I recently spoke with a friend who had just begun meditating – she was having difficulty with using her breath as a main object. She said as soon as she turned her attention… Continue reading
Our Attention Creates Our Reality
I think there is a core principle in meditation, and in life, and it’s this: Our attention energises whatever we attach it to. Whether it’s a thought, an idea, a feeling or emotion,… Continue reading
The Way to Stillness
Question: Roger, I read your book and I get what you’re saying about how meditation isn’t all fairy dust and bliss, and how we’ve got to build a mental and physical skillset to… Continue reading
Routine is Everything
So let’s get back to basics.Essentially, meditation is no big deal. The problem is, people keep making it into a big deal – investing all kinds of significance into a skill which, ironically,… Continue reading
Using Mindfulness to Deal With Anguish
Question:Roger, I suffer from chronic depression. I’m not sure what triggers it – it can happen anywhere. All I know is it usually happens when I’m among crowds of people. When it happens… Continue reading
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
Coping With Insomnia
The following question about insomnia came through the other day, and I wondered why I’ve never addressed it before. So here it is: ‘Hi Roger … I’ve suffered from insomnia for the last… Continue reading
Using Mindfulness To Temper A Quick Temper
I’m not sure if I’ve written about this subject before, but I got the following question, so if I did, I’ll do it again Question was: ‘Hi Roger … I’ve recently been meditating… 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
It’s Not About Relaxation
I think for this post I’ll get back to basics. It’s in response to a question a friend asked me the other day … a very, very … very … basic question which… Continue reading