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: Emotions
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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
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
Suffering And Kamma – A Wonderful Talk by Ajahn Jayasaro
The words ‘suffering’ and ‘kamma’, as core principles in Theravada Buddhism, are very much misunderstood by many. In this illuminating talk, Ajahn Jayasaro brings them to life as aspects of the path to… 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
May We All Live Well This New Year
Well, here we are, alive and breathing at the end of another year – a particularly insane year of stupid wars and narcissistic politicians arguing in their eternal political games – and perhaps… Continue reading
Perfect World Syndrome
A long time ago, I had a client who was constantly angry. She was quite wealthy, lived in a big house, drove a Porsche and had a family who loved her – but… Continue reading
Reactive Cycles
Question: ‘Hi Roger, in your book you talk about reactive cycles. I’ve not heard of them before and it’s an interesting idea, so I was wondering if you could flesh it out for… Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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
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
Be Here Now
Recently someone emailed me the following question: Hi Roger, I’ve got this friend who drives me nuts because every time I do something stupid, he pipes up with this cliché, ‘be here now’,… Continue reading
Does Meditation Alter Reality?
Got this interesting question from a reader: ‘Hi Roger, I’ve been interested in doing meditation so I’ve been reading a lot of material including your blog, and I have a question. The idea… 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 a Meditation?
The question that forms the heading of this post came up in my Quora feed, and it touched upon an interesting issue, so I’ll post my reply here in this blog: There’s a… Continue reading
The Physicality of Mentality
As you might have noticed I’ve been absent for a while, travelling, finishing a book and dealing with life things. Added to which, I felt as if most of the questions I’ve received… 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