Category Archive: Buddhism and Science

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 Practical Illusion of Self

Hi … I haven’t posted for a long time, largely because, this being question-based blog, most of the questions I’ve been sent of late have already been responded to in other posts, which… 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

Rhythm of Breathing Affects Memory and Fear

NEUROSCIENCE NEWS DECEMBER 7, 2016Summary: A new study reports the rhythm of your breathing can influence neural activity that enhances memory recall and emotional judgement.  Source: Northwestern University. Breathing is not just for oxygen;… Continue reading

Change Your Self, Change Your Life

A wonderful movie showing how the process arising from Vipassana meditation methods can change the way we are. It’s by Eilona Ariel & Ayelet Menahemi, the story of a strong woman named Kiran Bedi,… Continue reading

Free: A Most Inspiring Book

When I went to Thailand in 2000 to do the first of many silent retreats to train in Vipassana meditation methods, I was awash with information – things I’d read, accounts of other people’s… Continue reading

Stillness Heals Everything

As I’ve said before, meditation can be summed up in one sentence: ‘Meditation is the skill of being still.’ The stillness I’m speaking of is not the comatose stillness we can find ourselves… Continue reading

Reality is Created by Actions, Not Thoughts!

Question:  Hi Roger, I read something the other day about the Law of Attraction, which basically states: you attract what you think about. What’s your view of this? …………………………………………………………………….. Interesting question, which gives… Continue reading

Forget Reality … It’s All Fiction

A fascinating conversation with Michael Talbot, the author of ‘The Holographic Universe’, pertaining to the way reality is constructed by us, and the profound interconnectedness of everything. The reason I’m posting this is… Continue reading

Forgiving the Monsters

I was looking through all the emails I’ve received from meditators over the last few months, and it occurred to me that a lot of the problems we have in meditation, as varied as they… Continue reading

Just do It. Do What? Stop!

A nice little film which, perhaps, over-rhapsodises the benefits of meditation, but nevertheless, it’s quite motivating. ______________________________________________________ ‘BEING STILL – MEDITATION THAT MAKES SENSE’, Roger’s new book, is available now. ______________________________________________________ ‘BEING STILL’… Continue reading

The Problem of Other People

Sartre once said in a play he wrote, “Hell is other people.”  and indeed, when it comes to meditation, hell can sometimes be other people, particularly when they don’t understand what you’re doing,… Continue reading

Get Some Sleep!!!

People keep asking me about sleep – how to sleep when they can’t, whether meditation can be used to replace sleep, or whether meditating will make it such that they don’t NEED to… Continue reading

Mindfulness Meditation Creates ‘Happy’ Brain

“Last year, a Harvard study confirmed that there’s a clear connection between mind wandering and unhappiness. Not only did  the study find that if you’re awake, your mind is wandering almost half the time, it… Continue reading

Where Science and Buddhist Mind Meet

All too often, Buddhism gets lumped in with the other religions, Hinduism in particular.  But even though Buddhist view arose from within a Hindu environment, Gautama Buddha’s insight went far beyond the god-oriented… Continue reading