The two big questions for meditation beginners.
One of the MIndsprings members asked a very pertinent question today about starting out on her meditation journey: Where am I going to do...
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Alistair Appleton
- Jan 21
- 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...
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Alistair Appleton
- Jan 5
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Sep 5, 2017
- 4 min
Talk at the British Museum
One of the lovely things about being a teacher for a while is that ex-students pop up in unusual places. I was really incredibly...
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Alistair Appleton
- Aug 28, 2017
- 4 min
Ryan#5: Dharma Poetics
These are the Silence Islands where what outsiders would consider almost imperceptible aural amusements land like coconuts on the...
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Alistair Appleton
- Aug 25, 2017
- 4 min
Start of Term
It feels like the start of term. After our unseasonably early Summer and hot spells, the year seems to have been teased into running a...
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Alistair Appleton
- Dec 2, 2016
- 2 min
Ten Reasons Why Samadhi is so Necessary Right Now
Samadhi, the forgotten twin sister of mindfulness practice, is a meditation approach that focuses on spaciousness and steadiness. In this...
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Alistair Appleton
- Dec 2, 2016
- 3 min
What Mindsprings Stands For
A couple of weeks ago I went to a day-long conference in Brighton hosted by the political journalist, Paul Mason. There were a number of...
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Alistair Appleton
- Nov 3, 2016
- 6 min
Samahi and the Sacred
It’s been a couple of week’s since I left the Island. And the resonance and awareness of what we explored there seem to be growing. First...
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Alistair Appleton
- Nov 1, 2016
- 1 min
Samadhi Tip #8
Being lost in our storyline is usually boring and fusty-dusty. The ego is characterised by a mirthless and relentless quality. Space is...
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Alistair Appleton
- Nov 1, 2016
- 1 min
Samadhi Tip #6
Central to the project of samadhi is recognising the scrunched-up, constricted feeling of being ‘lost in your thoughts’. Spend time today...
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Alistair Appleton
- Nov 1, 2016
- 1 min
Samadhi Tip #7
In contrast to yesterday’s feeling of constriction, take time in your meditation practice (lying or sitting down) or at any other quiet...
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Alistair Appleton
- Nov 1, 2016
- 1 min
Samadhi Tip #5
Like all practices, samadhi builds up over time. We are cultivating the mental habit of placing our awareness where WE chose to place it...
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Alistair Appleton
- Oct 28, 2016
- 1 min
Samadhi Tip #4
The key tool in samadhi practice is coming to recognise that where we breathe is parallel to where awareness flows and settles. The...
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Alistair Appleton
- Oct 27, 2016
- 1 min
Samadhi Tip #3
The defining emphasis of samadhi is on dropping down into space. Practice here is relentless and repetitive from the ego’s point of view...
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