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My partner Freddie is attending the meditations for the first time after a stroke. He has been advised by the medical team that meditation should help with some of his symptoms. Unfortunately, he currently only has quite limited movement in his right side and cannot easily stand. I noticed in this mornings Zoom session there was a fair amount of movement in the warm up and that Freddie struggled with this part. He said after that this left him feeling "strange". I am just wondering if there are suitable movements that he could do during the warm up which take account of his physical disability, please?

Hello from Moscow Russia!

For me it was a lovely session this morning. Thanks Alistair. And oddly enough found my book The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts! Time to re- read it. 🙏

This is a transcript of this Monday's Beingfulness session - or a part of it. The sound quality has been a bit wonky because ( I discover) of a loose connection. So the recording wasn't good. So I transcribed the little teaching I gave on anchoring. The Erotic of Anchoring. It's an interesting thing, anchoring, because you’re not excluding anything. You’re just focusing on one thing. It’s almost like you’re giving yourself permission to be very simple. Although you’re not excluding your thoughts, you’re not following your thoughts. Not in a wilful way but because the simplicity of “being with one thing” is easier. More pleasurable. And I think the key with anchoring is the pleasure element. You are resting in a pleasurable unity of awareness and an object. Again, it doesn't really matter what the object is, but it’s the pleasurable quality that we are cultivating. Thoughts will come, but the way it works for me is to find the almost erotic quality of attention and awareness. Placing awareness of one object and absorbing into one thing – there's something erotic about it, in the best sense of the word erotic. Because one of the few times that we completely absorb into the present is during sex, good sex. When we are completely lost in the other. Being completely in the moment has an erotic quality. There's something erotic about resting in the present moment, resting in the sounds. The normal state of non-erotic life is: Zing, zing, zang. "I've got to do that. I've got to do this. I should be doing this. I should be doing that" – that's very unerotic! [laughs] But the resting quality of “Aaaah…“ has a silky, sensuous quality. This quality of just this. Just this one thing. Just for now. All those other things can wait, but just in this moment I'm lost in sexual pleasure, or any kind of pleasure. It's a tuning out of everything else, all the other thoughts drop away and you are just with your beloved, or with your orgasm, or whatever. But in this practice, you are just with sounds. And this is what I meant when I said that there is a quality of "familiar, but forgotten". When we really rest in sounds there is: "Oh, I remember this. I remember this being with things in a very direct way. But I’ve forgotten. I'm so lost in my distracted thoughts.” And this quality of remembering something that you have forgotten, perhaps from childhood - perhaps that was the last time, you were really absorbed into things in this way, – is the quality of anchoring. There is a remembrance of the simplicity and pleasure that is really key. Because if we don't have that pleasure, we’re not going to do our practice. Why would we do it? But if we can find the erotic quality of staying with experience -and I mean, erotic in its widest sense of full of life, and full of love, – then our Beingfulness practice goes in leaps and bounds. "I can't wait to practice again because it's so pleasurable…” #teaching #beingfulness #anchoring #eros #erotic #awareness #rememberance #simplicity

Just to remind you folk that we've got our Online Retreat this weekend, 18-19 February, which is a great chance to learn the "Three Marks" practice and carve out some quality time for your mind's health and benefit. There's lots more info about the course here or you can book below....

Greetings of peace! I am a new member, and a progressive Muslim living in Canada, near Toronto. It is a pleasure to share space with all of you as we learn about mindfulness and meditation from our profoundly gifted teacher, Alistair!

Hello from Michelle in Toronto, Canada 🙂 Feels a bit like walking into a room full of strangers and randomly shouting out my name, so hoping a librarian isn't about to tell me to pipe down. Although I would, of course, immediately. Arrived here via the gorgeous poem by Gillian Alnutt that Alastair posted - thank you 🙏. Me, wishing the photo could be downsized a bit.

So happy to have found this community. I moved back from Australia in 2020 after living there for 30+ years. I'm an aromatherapist and meditation teacher. I have, in the past suffered extreme anxiety and meditation is definitely one of the things that got me to a more peaceful place within. I also love yoga, animals and being out in nature. I very recently moved to Ludlow, Shropshire where I'm about to start a new business. New beginnings all round for me. Looking forward to meeting you all. Carol x