The mindfulness conspiracy. It condemns all mindfulness practitioners/teachers as being obsessed with happiness and acquiescence to the causes of inequality, environmental degradation and oppression. In essence the article is all conjecture – it is based on opinion and without evidence. So, I invite you to consider a few points that I think may cause more…
Mindfulness Meditation – Serendipity and Trust in my Values
When we think of mindfulness and compassion in action, we often jump straight to thinking about gestures of kindness, or caring interventions, or supportive acts, and usually aimed at someone other than ourselves. I sometimes feel there can be something a bit ‘Tom and Jerry’ about this – you know the thing – Tom chases…
Reflections on hearing that Mary Oliver has died. The poet Ezra Pound once said that “literature is news that stays news”. How true – and yet I sometimes notice how quickly significant events can drop out of what we agree to call the daily news. The poet Mary Oliver died on 17th January 2019 aged…
Big blue skies and so much sunlight – it felt good to be alive and waving to my son as he disappeared into school. I turned to one of the grandparents to share my smile. She could not smile or make eye contact. I asked, “are you okay”. “Did you not know that Tom died…
Within the last month I’ve had the pleasure of teaching on two “Insight” courses with Heather Regan-Addis and Choden, both at Samye Ling. These have been as part of the second year of the Aberdeen University MSc in Mindfulness, and the non-academic “Level 3: Seeing Deeply course”, the second of which was run as a…
Oh, to meet the Joy and Pain of Christmas with Compassion by Bill Paterson Suddenly Christmas is on the horizon again! Is it really a year since the last one? Interestingly, I’ve noticed a pattern of contrasting thoughts and emotions wrapped in this winter celebration. Yes, the darkness of winter will be punctured with light,…
Following on from our blog Be Mindful of the Extraordinary, one of our members responded to the Weekly Challenge and contributed this blog. A Mindful Wish “WELL THE PHONE RANG JUST TOO OFTEN as I curled up for some me time, exhausted after decoration and getting the flat back to ‘normal’: moving bags, books, pictures…
In the twenty years that I have studied and followed politics, I would never have believed that I would hear the following in the UK House of Commons. “Mindfulness brought me back from the brink of death”, “Mindfulness becomes kindfulness”, “power and wisdom needs compassion”, “compassion is more powerful than bullets” or “curiosity and kindness…