My new book: Making Sense of Meditation
Well, it’s been a long time since my last post on this blog, reason being, I’ve been writing two books – the first volume of a memoir, titled ‘This Perfect Life: Building a… Continue reading
Category Archive: Mental Noting
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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
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
Just Do It
One day, I received an email from a woman asking if we could meet. She said she was eager to discuss Buddhist lore and exchange ideas. And it became clear in subsequent emails,… Continue reading
Commitment Gives Life To Our Dreams
I was watching a movie the other night and something was said that annoyed me. A woman was complaining to a friend about her husband and how their marriage had become stale. To… 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
On Living To Forget
One day 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?” Regardless of its curtness,… 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
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
It’s More Than Relaxation
So, let’s begin with a basic misconception about meditation and build from there. A friend once asked me a very simple question which, nonetheless, is an important piece of the meditation puzzle. He… 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
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
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
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
Making Mindfulness Part of Life
This question came up on my Quora feed, so I thought I’d share it to this blog because I think it’s an important aspect of meditation practice: “How should the practice of meditation… Continue reading
Checking In
‘Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?‘ – David M. Bader One thing that makes meditation easier is if you blend the practice into your day. And, aside from… Continue reading