Exploring the interface between Buddhist teachings, meditation techniques, academic Buddhist Studies, and the practical application of them into our lives as lay Buddhists
Do you ever get one of those days where your mind just never seems to stop squealing for things, like a toddler in a supermarket? I want one of those, oo, no wait I want one of those, no I want both of those, and one of these too. This is just the workings of … Continue reading Caught In The Craving Storm
The Buddha's teachings are rich with wonderful imagery and inventive metaphors that help us not only to relate the teachings to our own ordinary experiences, but also help us to reimagine an experience from a completely different perspective. I found another one of these rich images last week in a sutta that I hadn't come … Continue reading The Well Made Wheel
We all have times when we wish we could find that magic 'off' switch that would instantly make our minds to go silent. Embodied practices of the kinds I've been talking about in previous weeks are not the silver bullet that we sometimes hope they could be; just trying to put all of your attention … Continue reading Four Types of Thoughts
Present moment awareness, being present, being in the moment, all of these are pretty common mindfulness buzzwords, and it is so easy to habituate to hearing them that we can lose all sense of what they actually mean. We can even become so tired of hearing them that our minds can associate them with a … Continue reading Present (not) Tense
The interplay between the mind and the body is one of the most fascinating and fruitful areas of practice. One spurs the other in an endless loop; one moment you feel that the body is driving the mind, the next the mind is driving the body. I spent a lot of my practice feeling like … Continue reading Watching the body is watching the mind
Kalyana Mitta 