As I was driving to the station this morning mulling on my blog, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody started to play on my playlist, with the starting lyrics: “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide. No escape from reality”. This resonated with an experience I had this weekend. I was walking…
Mindfulness in nature
One of the results of our social media lifestyles is that we all end up in little bubbles communicating with those who agree with our point of view. This came home to me this week reading about the social media storm around Chris Packham and licences to kill birds. We live in a rural community…
One of the things I love about my home in Scotland is the birds. The little birds that come to feed on sunflower seeds and peanuts outside my kitchen window. The crows cawing in the tall trees as I practice in the morning. The starlings that roll across the sky in their flocks. The birds…
It is my last day in India. We have empowerments this morning with Tai Situpa Rinpoche and then our teachings for this year are ended. This afternoon we have a massage booked and then online check in, packing and hotel check out. I feel immensely fortunate to have received the teachings and to have spent…
These shriveled seeds we plant,corn kernel, dried bean,poke into loosened soil,cover over with measured fingertips These T-shirts we fold intoperfect white squares These tortillas we slice and fry to crisp stripsThis rich egg scrambled in a gray clay bowl This bed whose covers I straightensmoothing edges till blue quilt fits brown blanketand nothing hangs out…
From Mindfulness to Insight I thought I would write a little about how our book From Mindfulness to Insight came to be. The three authors – Rob, Heather and Choden – are co-founders of the Mindfulness Association which was set up in 2010 to run face-to-face and online mindfulness, compassion and insight courses. The original…
I am in India this week for year four of a six or seven year training in Mahamudra meditation. The teachings are from Tai Situpa Rinpoche, the latest in a lineage of teachers that can be traced back to the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. The teachings were systematised 500 years ago, based on teachings brought to…
Building on mindfulness and self-compassion practices, this step-by-step guide to secular insight meditation shows the way to freedom from deeply rooted thought patterns.