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Compassion: for others, too
While self-compassion is undoubtedly important, kindness towards others is not only the right thing in a moral sense, but also therapeutic.
Apr 13 min read


Compassion: obstacles and objections
A striking fact about meditating on kindness is how little people do it. Even experienced meditators seem to avoid the practice
Apr 16 min read


A profound cliche
Meditation is a microcosm of life, in that you get to see how your mind works, do your best to manage it, and along the way find out what...
Mar 274 min read


Enjoy what you have
In my last post , I suggested that in meditation and in life you should hew to the cliché about putting one foot in front of the other ....
Mar 273 min read


When meditation is awful: attitude
A lot of the time, meditation is no fun at all: you're tense, uncomfortable, distracted, and bored. You can't stay focussed on the...
Mar 273 min read


The single most useful thing that I have learned from meditation
The single most useful thing that I have learned from meditation is to feel my body, and to feel my emotions in my body. This is an...
Mar 174 min read


Silent retreat: what you need to know
My first silent retreat was challenging, and yet I have gone back for more again and again. Try your first silent retreat, and perhaps you w
Jun 30, 202414 min read


An honest guide to mindful parenting
Before I became a parent, I was pretty mindful. I meditated each morning for as long as I wanted, and I maintained my practice throughout...
May 31, 20245 min read


Effort in meditation: in praise of doing and striving
I was practising in a very goal-focussed way for a while, aiming for kensho, which is the breakthrough experience of Zen, in which the...
Dec 30, 20235 min read


Mindfulness isn't what you think
Most people who are interested in mindfulness know that it comes from Buddhism. Fewer know, however, how far the modern, popular...
Dec 11, 20234 min read


Compassion: a load of techniques
In my last-but-one post , I offered three general principles to apply when cultivating kindness in meditation. In this one, I'll be more...
Oct 13, 20234 min read


The single most useful thing that I have learned from meditation, part 2
In my last post, I made a rather speculative case for body awareness as a natural state, to which we should all wish to return. In this...
Sep 30, 20237 min read


When meditation is awful: investigation
I've already written about how "bad" meditation is in fact invaluable because it teaches you how to relate to unpleasant things . But...
Sep 28, 20232 min read


Waking up Sam Harris: what Sam Harris gets wrong about awakening
Cmichel67 (Christopher Michel), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons First, let me say...
Aug 10, 20235 min read


Compassion: cultivation
If you've read my last post , then hopefully you've started to work on building up some awareness of your emotions in the area of the...
Aug 8, 20232 min read


Compassion: the heart
To cultivate kindness, you really need to involve the body, and more specifically, the heart. Because that really does seem to be where...
Jul 24, 20233 min read


Compassion: even unto the watering can
I once read in a book about Zen that after you do the gardening, you should clean your tools with great gentleness and care. It's a nice...
Jun 20, 20235 min read


Compassion: getting stuff done
The most basic benefit that you'll get from cultivating kindness in meditation is that it will help you to keep on meditating. Whereas...
May 26, 20233 min read


Compassion: a nit worth picking
I said in my last post that we don't need to split hairs or pick nits when it comes to kindness, but there is one nitpick/hairsplit that...
May 17, 20233 min read


Compassion - beyond nitpicks and hair splits
Warm, fuzzy feelings have always been an integral part of meditation and mindfulness, and not just because meditators are hippies....
Apr 27, 20233 min read


How to become a consistent meditator
So, you’ve learned how to meditate. Great. But now you face the big challenge of actually getting yourself to do it. Here are some tips...
Mar 5, 20236 min read


Mindfulness quick-start guide
What is mindfulness? There’s a lot that could be said about mindfulness, but let's start by saying that it means not being tangled up...
Mar 5, 20234 min read


The benefits of mindfulness
I've written already about what mindfulness is, and how meditation strengthens it, but why should you want it? If mindfulness is one of...
Mar 5, 20235 min read
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