Heaven or Hell?
Heaven or Hell? It’s a simple choice we make many times every day. We may say that we want inner peace, so why do we continue to wage war? In this new talk taken from my Tai Chi and Mindfulness DayRetreat, I explore how we can learn to ride and transform our emotions and reactions, only when we can sit with them and gently hold their hand. There’s a guided Body-Scan practice at the end which I hope you find useful.
Your Meditation is None of Your Business
Life is a vast interconnected field of relationship, in which separation does not exist. You didn’t make your body, life did. You didn’t create your mind, life did. This means that there is no separate “self” in here running the show. If this is the case, then who is it that meditates? Who lives? Who is reading these words?
Is this Perfect?
What is perfection and where do we find it? In this new talk I explore the limitations and fragility of our own personal preferences, and the freedom which comes from admitting that we don’t really know what things are, or how they should be.
Look What You Made Me Do!
In this new talk from my weekly zoom group I explore the Default Mode Network, free will and the illusory self, as well as the deep peace which comes from no longer saying “look what you made me do!” I hope “you” find it useful.
Happy New Moment!
It’s not only a New Year, it’s brand new moment of the unfolding cosmos, never to be repeated. Blink and you’ll miss it! In this new talk taken from my weekly zoom group I explore the value of becoming empty and seeing the world with a beginners minds.
What is Spirituality?
What does the word spirituality mean to you? Do you have a ‘spiritual’ practice? Often what we mean by spirituality is an attempt to transcend or escape our ordinary reality and access mind-expanding experiences instead. But what if this moment here and now is the mind-expanding experience we’ve been searching for?
Myself, No Self, Many Selves
In Buddhism they talk about the truth of No-Self, in Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way they talk about the experience of many fleeting selves. Both point to the lack of a substantial solid entity directing our lives from within and the discovery of the still, steady ground of being.
Sitting Beneath The Rose Apple Tree
The Buddha spent years as an ascetic attempting to find freedom by controlling his mind and starving his body. But then one day a childhood memory bubbled up and changed everything, resulting in him abandoning his self-mortification and reaching full Enlightenment. The question is, what happened?
You’re An Animal!
How can we change our relationship towards our animal natures and learn to unhook from the bodies endless cravings, desires and impulses? In this new talk I explore why following our appetites doesn’t lead to genuine fulfilment because they are based on concepts, not bubbling and shifting realities.
What Are You Waiting For?
Even if you could be reborn 10,000 times as a King or Queen or Emperor, you would still have to deal with your ordinary sense experience; your thoughts and emotions, body and world, birth and death. In this new talk taken from my weekly Zoom group, I explore why everything you need for your own liberation is already here.
Sitting Quietly, Transforming Everything
Who would have thought that the simple act of sitting still and concentrating could transform our mind, body and world? In this short talk taken from my weekly zoom group, I go back to basics, exploring the value of breath-awareness, the body-scan and open awareness.
Everybody Look What’s Going Down
And what is going down? The mind is constantly spinning dramas, daydreams and fantasies and we are taking them to be concrete truths. Only by calming the thought-stream and observing its flow can we begin to unhook from its craziness and find peace.
Your Wish is Minds Command
Your mind is the most powerful tool you possess, it creates your world. So, what are you doing with it? In this excerpt from my weekly zoom group, I explore the practice of Affirmation and how we can use our mind to generate a range of powerful, life-enhancing qualities.
Exploring Non-Duality
How can we live in a state of Oneness all the time? In this short talk, taken from my weekly online group, I answer a question about Non-Duality and explore why the duality we see all around us, isn’t really an obstacle at all.
Maybe!
A short talk about the idea of control, and how the Corona Virus epidemic present us with an opportunity to wake up to our precious lives.
Opportunity
Finding ourselves stuck at home with all of our stressors and triggers, can seem like a dead-end, but actually it can be a booster for our practice and lead the realisation that our own ordinary lives are the very things we are searching for.
What is Meditation?
Is meditation something we do in a quiet place with our eyes closed, or is it an approach to life itself, and all the ordinariness we find there?
You Don’t Have to Know Anything
Mindfulness is the practice of putting the mind down with all of it’s stories, memories, hopes and dreams. What remains, is what is.
The I Cannot See Itself
The method of self-inquiry does not show us what we are but reveals what we are not. When there’s nothing left, there you are!
It’s All You!
The dreams we experience each night are nothing but the creative display of our own minds. This waking moment is no different. Pop the bubble of small mind and marvel at the glory of Big Mind.
Relax into Life
We presume that we’re in charge of life and yet it doesn’t always do what we want it to. What happens when we let go of the need to control everything and everyone and relax into the flow of each moment, each breath, each cup of tea?
Three Questions to Measure Your Practice
How can we measure our spiritual progress? In this short talk I offer three questions to reveal our relationship to the mind, the body and life itself.
Awareness, knowing itself
First we recognise that everything comes and goes through our own vast open awareness. Then we recognise that our vast open awareness is appearing as everything.