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...
BLOG
Search
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...
59 views0 comments
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...
11 views0 comments
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...
9 views0 comments
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...
9 views0 comments
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...
6 views0 comments
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...
8 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Oct 11, 2021
- 6 min
Coming out is (still) good for you
This is an article I wrote almost 10 years ago but it still seems to hit the right note. COMING OUT IS GOOD FOR YOU. This article was...
46 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Aug 13, 2021
- 11 min
Same world, different sunglasses
This is a transcript from a Mindsprings Practice Space session. I’ve got a great question from one of our community, who submitted it in...
3 views0 comments
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...
7 views0 comments
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...
18 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Jun 11, 2021
- 4 min
You are a child of the universe
A blog piece refurbished from the archives. But no one tires of hearing about amazing teenagers and the vast sweep of the future that...
8 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
- May 7, 2021
- 6 min
“Being incarnate is a business”, Iris Murdoch.
Adrian’s boyfriend was telling me about epiphytic plants which are not directly parasitic on the tree they dwell on but rather hop on…
7 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Mar 12, 2021
- 8 min
Freud
This is a tidied up transcript of an answer I gave in the Live Sessions in February 2021. Tamsyn mentioned her dislike of reading Freud...
6 views0 comments
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...
8 views0 comments
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...
2 views0 comments
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...
1 view0 comments
Alistair Appleton
- Oct 24, 2018
- 5 min