Category Archive: Mindfulness

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

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

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

Practicing Mindfulness During the Day

Got this question today: ‘Hi Roger, do you think a daily meditation is enough to develop mindfulness?’ And my reply: Put simply, no. Mindfulness must be actively applied during the course of each… 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

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

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

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?

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

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

Routine

‘The big things that come our way are the fruit of seeds planted in the daily routine of our work.’– William Feather One of the biggest problems people have with meditation is it… 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

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

Dealing with Dukkha

This post came in response to a question from one of my other posts, ‘Why Does Meditation Make Me Angry’– which, without fail, is, along with another similar post, ‘Why Does Meditation Make… Continue reading