top of page
BLOG
Search
SMELLING SALTS #6: Carl Sagan
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time. When the United States is a service and information economy;...
Alistair Appleton
Apr 10, 20191 min read
1 view
0 comments
From the Scarborough Retreat
[This is an excerpt from the recent ‘Tender Heart’ Scarborough Retreat held in March 2019.] Q: You mentioned the Earth being already...
Alistair Appleton
Apr 3, 20195 min read
1 view
0 comments
Alistair Appleton LGBT video: Survival of the Gentlest
Alistair Appleton LGBT video Survival of the Gentlest A few people have mentioned this YouTube clip of me giving a LGBT ‘sermon’ at the...
Alistair Appleton
Apr 1, 20191 min read
2 views
0 comments
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...
Alistair Appleton
Feb 21, 20196 min read
8 views
0 comments
Wordsworth’s Prelude: Stealing a Boat on Derwent Water
Wordsworth is a key figure in Reggie’s understanding of dharma. Strange that a 19th Century Cumbrian poet should feature so strongly in a...
Alistair Appleton
Feb 13, 20192 min read
10 views
0 comments
From Retreat 2019: Winter on the Island
Friends whispered that Winter on the Island was the most magical I’ve been going to Holy Island for almost two decades – sometimes twice...
Alistair Appleton
Feb 13, 20195 min read
1 view
0 comments
Ben the Protector Dog
The sweetest, fondest, brightest dog I’ve ever had Ok, so we have a dog. A puppy. A 40kg puppy. My husband promised that our Spanish...
Alistair Appleton
Feb 7, 20195 min read
1 view
0 comments
Happy Year of the Earth Sow!
Sitting in the winter garden with a head cold I am planning to write a set of blog posts about my 2 week retreat on Holy Island this...
Alistair Appleton
Feb 5, 20193 min read
1 view
0 comments
SMELLING SALTS #4: Viktor Frankl
Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies all our growth...
Alistair Appleton
Dec 7, 20181 min read
2 views
0 comments
SMELLING SALTS #3: James Baldwin
People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the...
Alistair Appleton
Dec 1, 20181 min read
1 view
0 comments
SMELLING SALTS #2: Alice Walker
Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise. ALICE WALKER I’d love to know your thoughts about Alice Walker. Drop me a message with any...
Alistair Appleton
Nov 26, 20181 min read
1 view
0 comments
SMELLING SALTS #1: Elizabeth Bishop
Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by. ELIZABETH BISHOP I’d love to know your...
Alistair Appleton
Nov 21, 20181 min read
4 views
0 comments
Leaving the Toddler Mind at the Porch of the Church
An art historian with a spooky and potentially kinky relationship I was just reading a lovely article by the New York composer Nico Muhly...
Alistair Appleton
Nov 7, 20186 min read
1 view
0 comments
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...
Alistair Appleton
Oct 24, 20185 min read
133 views
2 comments
The pleasure of being scared in the dark
Frensham Pond in Surrey was where I felt it. Feeling pretty crappy after a weird virus that left me with really sore knuckle-joints and...
Alistair Appleton
Sep 27, 20185 min read
2 views
0 comments
After a lifetime of searching, Alistair finds himself
I have spend four decades (probably more) looking for the self, to find myself There’s a great cartoon I saw recently which shows a man...
Alistair Appleton
Sep 4, 20183 min read
5 views
0 comments
Working with emotions using meditation
The evolutionary background of working with emotions using meditation. We are emotional creatures. From an evolutionary perspective,...
Alistair Appleton
Aug 30, 20186 min read
4 views
0 comments
My Teacher Reggie
Some basic facts about my teacher Reggie Ray I’m about to head off across the Atlantic and spend three weeks in the Rockies with my...
Alistair Appleton
Jul 20, 20188 min read
3 views
0 comments
Are you sitting uncomfortably? The perils of being comfortable
A failure to empty the dishwasher correctly amounts to a War Crime There’s a great Milan Kundera quote: “The longing for order is at the...
Alistair Appleton
Jul 16, 20185 min read
2 views
0 comments
Football and Buddhism: A post-match analysis
England 1-Croatia 2: how football and Buddhism mix Like great swathes of the UK, I was watching the football World Cup Semi-Final this...
Alistair Appleton
Jul 14, 20185 min read
30 views
0 comments
bottom of page