Tag Archive: kindness

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

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

Change Your Self, Change Your Life

A wonderful movie showing how the process arising from Vipassana meditation methods can change the way we are. It’s by Eilona Ariel & Ayelet Menahemi, the story of a strong woman named Kiran Bedi,… 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

Make Friends With Yourself

So, let’s go back to basics. Meditation is not a big deal. All we’re doing is learning to sit still, and be still, mentally and physically, without it making us anxious. We’re teaching ourselves to… 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? …………………………………………………………………….. 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

Forget Reality … It’s All Fiction

A fascinating conversation with Michael Talbot, the author of ‘The Holographic Universe’, pertaining to the way reality is constructed by us, and the profound interconnectedness of everything. The reason I’m posting this is… 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!!

AUDIO COURSE PARTICIPANT’S 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… Continue reading

Walking the Walk

A lot of people think meditation is all about sitting still in a quiet darkened room for long periods of time – and for sure, a lot of methods do indeed concentrate on… Continue reading

Forget Enlightenment … It’s Already Here.

Every so often I get asked about enlightenment – or nibbana, or nirvana – all of which Wikipedia describes as: ” … a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, communication with… Continue reading

Tightness in the Breath

AUDIO COURSE PARTICIPANTS 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,… 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