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
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
G’day Roger, Sometimes while I’m meditating, my mind is full of instructions about what I should be doing – things like: pay attention to sensations of weight, now pay attention to sensations of… Continue reading
Hi Roger, In the audio course you keep asking us to let go of expectations in meditation. But I’m not sure it is possible to stop my mind looking for some kind… Continue reading
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
Well, I’m finally back online. I’m sorry I’ve been absent for a while, but I’ve been travelling in China, and until recently, was not able to get to my blog, because WordPress.com is blocked… Continue reading
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
In my last post, ‘Hurt’s So Good’, Leena asked a good question which I thought was worth another post: She asked: “Life is Pain, Highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling you… Continue reading
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
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
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
QUESTION: “Hey Roger, just on the thought storms you mentioned last week, do I have to be meditating for them to arise? Because over the last couple of weeks while I haven’t been… Continue reading
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
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
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
Question: ” … I understand the importance of meditation because when I do it, I can feel my body relaxing and my mind unwinding. But mindfulness escapes me. So could you possibly put… Continue reading
Question: “In the early stages of the meditation, I find there’s a lot of things happening at the same time – especially Thinking, Hearing and Rising or Falling of the breath. And I… Continue reading
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
The skill of meditating is not for its own sake. We are not meditating to be excellent meditators. We’re meditating to have excellent lives. Meditation’s just a method, a tool after all –… Continue reading
One thing that keeps coming through the emails I’m getting about the audio course is, people are turning meditation into hard work. They’re thinking too much about it and trying too hard to… Continue reading
In meditation, sensations are everything, and everything should be contemplated as sensations – nameless, characterless and constantly changing. Sensations are life. Life is sensations. Everything else are the illusions we build out of… Continue reading
In a culture like ours, which values excitement and novelty above most other things, a lot of people come to meditation looking for exactly that – the novelty, the new, the wow factor.… Continue reading
I found this extraordinary resource in my wanderings on the net. It’s called Dhamma Talks.net and all of the greatest teachers of Mindfulness meditation are here … what they wrote, what they said… Continue reading
