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, 20216 min read
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
Jun 11, 20214 min read
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...
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Alistair Appleton
May 27, 20215 min read
On reading James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’
This is another blog fished out of the annals. I probably wrote it about 10 years ago. I have subsequently read Joyce’s magnum opus for...
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Alistair Appleton
May 7, 20216 min read
“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…
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Alistair Appleton
Apr 23, 20214 min read
The Supersumptuous
That voice is all wrong, really. It’s not formal, it’s not ‘correct’ but it gushes and it’s unstoppable. It IS supersumptous. And that’s wh
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Alistair Appleton
Mar 22, 20215 min read
Understanding the weather of emotions: Candace Pert’s “Molecules of Emotion”
that phrases like ‘I’ve got a gut feeling about this’ turn out to be literally correct.
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Alistair Appleton
Mar 12, 20218 min read
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...
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Alistair Appleton
Mar 5, 20218 min read
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, 20215 min read
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 19, 20214 min read
Not a Buddhist boarding school
This is a transcript from this recent recorded lesson at The Mindsprings Practice Space Alistair: You were saying that you were feeling a...
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Alistair Appleton
Feb 12, 20215 min read
Comedy
When I was growing up, the mother of the family across the road, Marilyn Chapman was a teacher at a local school . I remember talking to...
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Alistair Appleton
Feb 4, 20214 min read
Imbolc
It’s over here in Newhaven. The zero winter, when everything is hard-frozen like stone and the rain, when it comes, is cold and steely....
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Alistair Appleton
Jan 29, 20214 min read
Beating ourselves into happiness
This is a transcript from a recent lesson at The Mindsprings Practice Space There’s a lovely teaching, by Pema Chodron about not...
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Alistair Appleton
Jan 14, 20216 min read
Language #3: Thinking and Language as the Bridge of Love
NOTE: I think in this last blog I am in some sense arguing myself OUT of a position that I have thoughtlessly held for many years. That...
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Alistair Appleton
Jan 14, 20215 min read
Language #2: The Real, the Imaginary and the Symbolic
In the first part of this blog on language and thinking, I argued that the human experience of thinking is fundamentally grounded in...
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Alistair Appleton
Jan 8, 20215 min read
Language #1: Cutting your thinking mind some slack
I’ve been grappling with the issue of language/thinking for many decades, but lately have had a few clarifying insights that I’d like to...
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Alistair Appleton
Dec 30, 20205 min read
The Inner Geography of the Spine
This is a transcription from a live teaching session with a question from a student about physical pain and the energy spine. You’re very...
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Alistair Appleton
Dec 22, 20205 min read
Loving the monkey
This is a tidied up transcript of an answer I gave in the Live Sessions in December 2020. Chuck, sitting with his dog in front of his...
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Alistair Appleton
Dec 16, 20207 min read
The Asymmetric Self
There’s a question that comes up often in the Mindsprings meditation sessions: “When I am sitting or lying doing these body-based...
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