Don’t Fight to Meditate.
Hi Roger .. I’ve been learning to meditate and I’ve been to a number of teachers who keep instructing me to concentrate on the breath. It is supposed to relax me and make… Continue reading
Tag Archive: mindfulness
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Depression: Is it The Immune System?
From The Age News – originally from The London Telegraph One in 10 of us will experience depression at some point. Just what causes this highly debilitating disease, and the best way to treat… Continue reading
Cleaning Up The World from the Inside
“….Pollution! Look at this rubbish!” he said vehemently, “Bloody vandals! Chucking their garbage about!…” I had been wandering along a path, savoring the clear afternoon stillness of a popular national park near Melbourne,… Continue reading
Mindfulness and Habits
Roger – I meditate every day and I think it helps my life. But I’m told by my teacher I should be mindful as well as meditate, and I’m not that sure about… Continue reading
The Breath, Only the Breath.
In my audio course, and in some of the posts I’ve written for this blog, I’ve spoken at various times about emotions and pain during meditation, and described methods for dealing with these… Continue reading
Alan Watts – The Mind and Worrying
I’ve always found Alan Watts inspiring to listen to. When he speaks it sets off little explosions of insight in my head that feed my practice. In this video, he’s speaking about worry,… 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
The World of Worry
In the mid nineteenth century, the word ‘worry’ referred solely to the act of physical harassment, whether of animals or humans – for example, ‘the dog worried at the sheep to herd them… Continue reading
Making Friends with the Bird
Hi Roger, I have gotten a lot out of your audio course, especially the exercises which I use most days, and I’ve had many peaceful moments meditating. And this is what provokes my… Continue reading
Neuroplasticity and Meditation
Neuroplasticity is a subject very pertinent to meditation – particularly meditation as consistent practice. Because rest assured, for all the difficulties you might experience as you meditate, and no matter how hopeless you… Continue reading
Riding the Storm During Meditation
In the early ‘80’s a friend of mine began practicing a popular form of meditation being propagated by a famous Indian guru and his followers. This group had centers all over the world… Continue reading
The Perils of Positive Thinking.
Let’s get it out in the open at the outset. Positive thinking, either as affirmations or visualizations, doesn’t work. In fact, it’s been seen that these strategies actually have the opposite effect for… Continue reading
Our Forgotten Friend
“It is slavery to live in the mind unless it has become part of the body.” -Kahlil Gibran One time, in one of the temples where I was doing Vipassana training in Thailand,… Continue reading
Becoming Mindful
“Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep… Continue reading
Free: A Most Inspiring Book
When I went to Thailand in 2000 to do the first of many silent retreats to train in Vipassana meditation methods, I was awash with information – things I’d read, accounts of other people’s… 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
Meditation is More than Calm
Interesting question came in during the week. “I started meditating recently. Today was my fourth time actually, about 20 minutes long. I was fine afterwards, calm, like I had been the 3… Continue reading
Meditation and Neuroplasticity
There has been a lot of press about the relationship between meditation and neuroplasticity recently. What this means is, where before it was thought that after fully forming itself during childhood the basic structure… Continue reading
Surfing the Storm of Our Self
I received this question from an audio course user, and it reminded me of a very important point to be made, so here goes: “Hi Roger … been using your audio course and… Continue reading
Acceptance is Everything
An audio course participant wrote: ‘Hi, I’ve just begun meditating and I’m finding it quite a hellish experience. I can’t seem to find the calm I imagine should be happening. I end up sitting… Continue reading
Stillness Heals Everything
As I’ve said before, meditation can be summed up in one sentence: ‘Meditation is the skill of being still.’ The stillness I’m speaking of is not the comatose stillness we are in watching… Continue reading
Clearing Away The Crud
Hi Roger, Sometimes when I’m meditating and my mind is running away with itself and I find myself sitting with my mind all over the place. But I’ve noticed during these times, though… Continue reading
Letting Go of Tranquility
I’m sorry I’ve been absent for a while, but I’ve been working on my novel, “The Sweet Burn of Emptiness”. It’s taken eight years for me to get to this final draft, so… Continue reading