Mindfulness and meditation in the midst of life

True rest

7 May 2025

Restlessness is one of the hindrances. We need to rest. It’s interesting that an always-on culture has interpreted restlessness as being purely a mental agitation, a habit to be corrected instead of being an actual need to rest, physically and mentally. This is a cultural blind spot for us. If we hear the dhamma filtered through our cultural conditioning, we will hear something like, "Keep...
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Creating space: inclusion in the dharma

2 Apr 2025

Who is the dharma for? If the dharma isn't for everyone who shows an interest, then something has gone astray. Fundamentally, a teaching about the emptiness of all phenomena—about the lack of a fixed reality to any distinctions we make—should not be in the business of harmful discrimination. To discriminate on the grounds of a person's characteristics is clearly harmful and against the ethical...
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Refuge in wakefulness

25 Mar 2025

What do we take refuge in? What is it wise to take refuge in? In Buddhism, it is said that there are three refuges we could rely on: buddha, dhamma, and sangha. We can understand these as: The wakeful mind (Buddha) The teachings that lead to a wakeful mind (dhamma) The community of practitioners that value and help each other to develop wakefulness (sangha). So, what do I take refuge in? It's...
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The hindrances are the lever; the obstacle is the way

12 Mar 2025

There is no wisdom in attacking a well-defended king if you are only moves away from being checkmated yourself. In game theory, a minimax strategy seeks to rule out your worst outcome. It means minimising the maximum you can lose. It's an inverted way of approaching our goals. Instead of reaching for the highest, we protect ourselves from the most unwanted outcomes first. Game theorists von...
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Three functions of the citta

19 Feb 2025

I recently came across some notes I had made on the three functions of the citta, what translators refer to as "the heart-mind". I'm not sure where this teaching comes from, but I suspect it's linked to the Thai Forest tradition. The three main functions of the citta are described as: Feeling sensory impingement. Responding to sensory impingement. Understanding. Now, the interesting...
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