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
Tag Archive: kindness
4 Comments
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
Attention and Awareness
The Monkey in Our Mind The aspect of mind we’re working with in meditation is our meddlesome, hyperactive and mischievous attention – the part of the mind we were nagged about all through childhood, all… 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
Beginning To Meditate
Recently I sent out an email to all the people who bought the Practical Meditation Audio Course, asking them if they had any questions, so i could post my replies for everybody. Since… Continue reading
A Little More
I was looking through a meditation journal from one of my retreats in Thailand the other day and I found something that made me smile – a vibrant little note scrawled in my… 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?’ An interesting question, which gives… Continue reading
Expansiveness is the Lifeblood of Meditation
A question came the the other day that made me think. It was about a very common problem to do with uncomfortable tightening of the breath each time the practitioner meditates. I won’t… Continue reading
Acceptance is the Beginning of Release.
In the two decades I’ve been teaching meditation, the common thread that runs through the motivations of most of the people I’ve taught, is they want to be released in some way. Whether released from a sense… Continue reading
Accepting the Battle
In most of the emails I’ve received about the variety of problems people have when they meditate, I’ve noticed a common thread. Whether it’s restless mind or restless body or an attention that… Continue reading
Thinking is not Necessarily Knowing.
QUESTION: Hi Roger, Just wanted to touch base on something that’s happened. I’ve been meditating for a long time using a Samatha type method and only recently switched to the Vipassana methods in… Continue reading
The Sound of Silence
Following is an interesting article from the Age Newspaper about taking a short 3 day Vipassana meditation retreat, and what happened. I strongly recommend, if you’re at all serious about Vipassana meditation, that… 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
The Mind … and the Mind …
Following is a particularly curly question about something which always seems to become an issue in meditation, however briefly: “Hi, Sometimes while I’m meditating it feels like I’m using my mind to try… Continue reading
Hurts So Good!!
QUESTION: Though the Practical Meditation Audio Course has an MP3 dealing specifically with pain, I’ve received a couple of questions to do with chronic pain, in which, generally speaking people are unsure of… Continue reading
Forget Enlightenment … It’s Already Here.
Every so often I get asked about enlightenment, or nibbana, or nirvana – which Wikipedia describes as: “… a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, communication with or understanding of… Continue reading
Tightness in the Breath
QUESTION: “Hi Roger … I’ve been having problems with meditation, in particular, watching the breath, for many many years and am at a loss to figure out what is wrong, and it’s only… 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
The Wavelike Nature of Progress in Meditation
There seems to be a pattern to some people’s relationship with meditation, and it goes a bit like this: 1. Enthused by the novelty of it all, they go at it like a… Continue reading
Between the Thoughts
I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people complaining about how they cannot stop thinking in meditation. They have the view that in some way, meditation should be helping them to stop… Continue reading
Free download of Acharn Chah’s Teachings
Though I never had the opportunity to practice with Acharn Chah, I wish I had, because his understanding of meditation, and the tricky mental obstacle course it can be when we practice it,… Continue reading