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HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I have written and spoken a lot about how the News Industry does not mirror reality and that one of its main drivers is to make people anxious and watch more news. This is why I am an avid support of Reasons to Be Cheerful and Positive News, two excellent outlets of what has been going right. So please take a moment to look at the Positive News' round up of 2024. Not to make us complacent - but certainly to give us hope! https://www.positive.news/society/what-went-right-in-2024-the-good-news-that-mattered/

https://share.descript.com/view/DHACn8PIgax

https://share.descript.com/view/ra4Uw5JyuDF

I was filming in France, for escape to the country, and discovered – to my delight – thatI was filming in France for "Escaoe" and discovered- to my delight - that our hotel was only 10 minutes drive from Plum Village, the Zen Buddhist community set up by Thich Nhat Hanh. And I manage to visit for an hour or two. The little French "hamlet" was overflowing with visitors on Bastille Day but what a serene and illuminating place. And I could feel Thây's presence in every spot. Especially the bamboo grove and the exquisite lotus pond. To be in a place overflowing with Dharma was magical.

My BBC colleague Ben picked a fabulously sunny day to visit Holy Isle and meet Zangpo and crew. The Island looks stunning of course. I hope it inspires lots of people to make the journey! The island part starts at 33'. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rmhk(https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rmhk)

In a single instant, the light of a lamp can illuminate A house that has been dark and uninhabited for a thousand years. Just so, realizing the luminous nature of your own mind for even an instant Will purify an aeon’s worth of negativity and obscurations.

Beautiful calm area, being outdoors and appreciating nature.

… and no broken limbs! This Monday sees us moving the Beingfulness lens to our thoughts and mental formations (the 4th Field). And on Tuesday we’ll be completing our tour of Somatic Practice. And Thursday - fanfare🎺🎺- continues our Satipatthana exploration with the Seven factors of Enlightenment.

Since it was Halloween, we did some practice that involved deliberately scaring ourselves. Deliberately going into the things that annoy, trouble us and swinging back and forth from a safe place into homeopathic doses of over-egged scare. (The Practice will be in the video library later this week) - here's my Halloween thoughts: https://share.descript.com/view/pKemEHE8iwg

Johanna asked me to publish some of the talk we had yesterday - on Bonfire Night in the UK and Election Night in the US - about how we navigate these big global events with an open heart. So here it is: https://share.descript.com/view/tQugrMCxcro

Following a lovely exchange with Zana Frood in this morning exploration of the Noble Eightfold Path, we ended up talking about understanding right view (the first thread of the eightfold weave) as a fitting understanding of how reality works (i.e. through constant impermanence/emergence). This understanding then allows us to stop faffing with all the constituent bits of our existence (form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness = the aggregates in Buddhist jargon).