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
Category Archive: Effects of Meditation
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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?
Another Quora question, which prompted the 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 and negative.… 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 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
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
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, meditation is about finding balance. For example, obviously, to meditate, we must use effort – but we find that if we use too much effort, we create tension and anxiety – and… 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
Yoga and Meditation Can Change Your Genes, Study Says
By Amanda Macmillan, time.com View Original June 16th, 2017 Yoga and meditation may do more than just help you feel relaxed in the moment. A new scientific review suggests that these and other… 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
Get Some Sleep!
“It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.” … 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
The Brain Changes Itself
Meditation is not a panacea or any kind of quick fix. Nor is it simply a relaxation exercise, as it’s often marketed. When we meditate, we’re training the mind to be more efficient.… Continue reading
Don’t Fight to Meditate.
Hi Roger .. I’ve been learning to meditate and I’ve been to a number of teachers who keep instructing me to concentrate on the breath. It is supposed to relax me and make… Continue reading
Meditation the Journey
” The things that trouble our spirits are within us already. In meditation, we must face them, accept them, and set them aside one by one. Cristopher Bennett I was thumbing through a popular tabloid news… Continue reading
Cleaning Up The World from the Inside
“….Pollution! Look at this rubbish!” he said vehemently, “Bloody vandals! Chucking their garbage about!…” I had been wandering along a path, savoring the clear afternoon stillness of a popular national park near Melbourne,… Continue reading
Mindfulness and Habits
Roger – I meditate every day and I think it helps my life. But I’m told by my teacher I should be mindful as well as meditate, and I’m not that sure about… Continue reading
The Breath, Only the Breath.
In my audio course, and in some of the posts I’ve written for this blog, I’ve spoken at various times about emotions and pain during meditation, and described methods for dealing with these… Continue reading
Fail Gladly to Succeed
Just found this wonderful interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates on the writing process, in which he says: “I always consider the entire process about failure …” Like with any skill, I also believe this to… Continue reading