A primer on dependent arising
1 Sept 2024
Here's a talk I gave recently as a short introduction to the 12-link model of dependent arising. It carries an example throughout each stage, something I've borrowed from the insight meditation teacher, John Peacock. Soon, I want to write about a different model of dependent arising that I have found very helpful and insightful.
Introduction
I'm going to talk about dependent arising today, also...
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The effort to be aware
18 Jul 2024
So, what's been happening? A few weeks ago I felt as though I'd fallen in love with simple mindfulness again. It seemed so natural to be present with moment-to-moment experience. When sitting on the cushion, I didn't really long for anything else to happen outside of this quiet contentment. No longing to get anywhere or trying to create a special feeling.
It's hard to know what creates these...
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Creating a practice plan for the day
22 Jun 2024
Just this week, I've started being a bit more formal about my intentions for practice in the day ahead. I've started looking at the specifics of the day ahead and planning how I will bring mindfulness and other aspects of Buddhist practice into that situation and how I intend to negotiate any obstacles. The idea came to me when I realised I don't necessarily have to have the perfect approach to...
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Non-identification and working with the aggregates
15 Jun 2024
I've been drafting a few complicated pieces for this blog, about the signless concentration of mind, about meta-cognition, about systems thinking. These are all topics I want to say something about, but might also require a lot of detail and scholarly effort. Instead, I'm sitting in the garden in the sunshine, writing in a notebook and listening to Miles Davis and the theme I want to discuss is...
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How I am practising
6 May 2024
In two meditation groups I belong to, people recently expressed an interest in learning more about how other people practise. So I decided to write a little snapshot of what I’m doing—more or less—on the cushion at the moment.
On the cushion
When the house is quiet in the morning, I sit on my meditation bench and begin to let the mind settle while tuning in to what’s here. It may be that a...
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