Generosity 2: The Pinch Point
This transcript comes from the second week exploring the transcendental action (paramita) of generosity. You can join in the cornucopia...
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Alistair Appleton
- Nov 17
- 6 min
Generosity 1: dana and dzinpa
From the first of two live sessions dedicated to the "transcendental action" of generosity, in November 2023. A recording of the practice...
146 views2 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Nov 9
- 3 min
The Paramitas: where the rubber of practice hits the road of reality
If you've been following our Live Sessions of late, you may have noticed this word paramita cropping up again and again. Apologies if it...
290 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Jun 29
- 6 min
Going Outdoors to Enter the Presence
I am entering one of my periodic periods of great doubt. I have these on a fairly regular basis - once every five years, perhaps - and...
1,273 views28 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Feb 4
- 5 min
The Magic of No Escape
Growing up in a Christian world (I was an Anglican choirboy for many of my most impressionable early years), my mind has been suffused...
669 views12 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Jan 21, 2022
- 4 min
Every broken heart is sacred
The final blog in my series of seven from 2013 is perhaps the juiciest of them all. I was all tender from a very intense, heart-breaking...
233 views2 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Jan 5, 2022
- 6 min
No more future anymore
This is a rather epic blog about the future and the nature of stress. Looking back from the vantage of 2022, I can see how the eight...
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Alistair Appleton
- Dec 15, 2021
- 4 min
But now there is a forest
This is the third of the set of seven blogs I wrote back in 2014 following a chance encounter with one of my Buddhist teachers Ajahn...
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Alistair Appleton
- Dec 15, 2021
- 6 min
Like worms towards the motorway
The sixth of the blogs from 2014. This one is quite self-contained and doesn’t require many annotations from 2022. There is a Nibbana...
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Alistair Appleton
- Dec 3, 2021
- 6 min
Intention destroys the zombie mind
Continuing my excavation of blogs from the past. These are my ponderings following a teaching that Ajahn Sucitto gave in Portugal. If you...
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Alistair Appleton
- Nov 3, 2021
- 6 min
Sucitto Thoughts #1
Today is the birthday of one of my early Buddhist teachers, Ajahn Sucitto, who was the abbot of Cittaviveka monastery in East Sussex when...
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Alistair Appleton
- Oct 28, 2021
- 5 min
In Praise of Idleness
“Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.” Soren Kierkegaard This is a very old book review from...
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Alistair Appleton
- Jul 15, 2021
- 4 min
On not caring: the creativity of upekkha
From the date on the cartoon, this blog was originally written in 2008. An almost mythically long time ago. But the thoughts on caring...
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Alistair Appleton
- Jun 18, 2021
- 6 min
The Prohibition Against Asking for Help
I was on a powerful retreat in the Devon countryside a few weeks back and I had a startling flash of memory from my childhood. I recalled...
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Alistair Appleton
- Mar 5, 2021
- 8 min
Mother Nature doesn’t care about suffering. Buddha does.
I have been really deeply inspired by the experience of leading the Dharma Days for Mindsprings. After my initial introduction to the...
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Alistair Appleton
- Feb 25, 2021
- 5 min
Dynamiting the prison of the present
Karen spoke about feeling trapped in the present. As meditators, we’re always encouraged to stay in the present and “be here now”, but...
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Alistair Appleton
- Feb 21, 2019
- 6 min
Mögu & My Problem with Teachers
The need to be a ‘know-it-all’ I have a problem with teachers. When I was little – for various reasons I won’t bore you with – I always...
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Alistair Appleton
- Oct 24, 2018
- 5 min
The Morning Dread: Shaking Hands with Anxiety
A horrible year of anxiety completely ruined my sleep cycle. I used to sleep like a log. Like my father in fact, who falls asleep...
107 views2 comments
Alistair Appleton
- May 8, 2012
- 5 min
The bittersaltsweetsour of life: mindfulness, dissociation and tastebuds
This is a reboot of a blog I wrote back in 2012 (which seems like another world) after a weekend retreat at the Abbey in Sutton...
63 views2 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Nov 16, 2010
- 3 min
The knotty issue of focus
It comes up again and again in our classes, so I thought it might be worth jotting down a few thoughts about focus. Doing this a hundred...
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