Jeff Foster gives a beautiful analogy for how we can learn to relate to our difficult emotions, all those that we have learnt to see as unwanted and unwelcome, bad or shameful – pain, anger, fear, hatred, shame etc. He talks of […]
In this week’s blog we return again to the Loving Kindness practice. The Buddha described the well wishing one feels in this practice as being like the love a mother would feel for her only child. The Loving Kindness practice […]
Last year I started to explore lucid dreaming. This is a state where one becomes conscious that one is dreaming and is able to make conscious choices in the dream, knowing that it is a dream. One night I had a nightmare, which […]
Over the last few months I’ve been discussing with a friend a one day workshop we are putting together that will explore mindfulness and therapy. The central theme will be looking at how we can learn to hold with kindness […]
The theme over recent weeks has been “we are wounded in relationship and we heal in relationship”. Last week I reflected on how the Buddha placed compassion and non-violence at the heart of his teaching. The Loving Kindness practice was […]
Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox. Mind precedes all mental […]
When I was living in the monastery a therapist from the Karuna Institute, a Buddhist psychotherapy centre, used to visit us to run sessions. He always said “we are wounded in relationship and we are healed in relationship” It was […]
This week we continue with the theme of compassion. Since leaving the monastery and being open to romantic relationships I’ve realised just how much the longing to be held and loved comes from the unheard parts of my being looking […]
This week we turn to the second of the Divine Abiding meditations, compassion: the heart’s response to suffering. Compassion (Karuna) Here one opens the heart to its capacity to be with suffering (one’s own and others) rather than run from it or […]
Last week we considered the value of silence and spending time alone. This week we see that our practice also brings us into contact with others. In the class this week I’ll lead the compassion practice after the tea break. […]
