I am in India again for teachings with Tai Situpa Rinpoche on Mahamudra. Yesterday he was telling us about what it means to be a yogi in the Mahamudra tradition and he made a joke that we were all 5- star yogis, as our teachings are taking place in the 5 star Leela Ambiance Convention…
How can our mindfulness skills help to resource us for making positive change in the world? There may be many things happening today in our world that feel deeply concerning and huge at the same time. These might include climate change, social and political injustice, poverty, animal welfare issues… topics with no easy answers, no…
Following a recent Thursday evening online sit, we started discussing the role of concentration in our practice. Afterwards it was suggested to me that I write a blog about this, as we talk a lot about mindfulness in our training (for obvious reasons), but it’s possibly not always apparent where concentration fits in. The first…
Paul Gilbert is a friend and mentor of mine. I first met him at a Neuroscience and Buddhism conference in Holy Isle in 2008. I remember going swimming with him off the sandstone rocks at the north end of Holy Isle (he loves swimming!). I recall too his energy and enthusiasm, and how he decided…
Today I am travelling from Manchester, via Munich to New Delhi in India. I am just descending into Munich as I write this. I was up at 3.45am to get to the airport for the 7am flight and so when I just did my practice, a lot of it was drowsy, with regular nodding off…
I was at Samye Ling at the weekend teaching on the Masters degree programme we deliver in partnership with the University of Aberdeen. It started in 2010 and our seventh cohort of students began in September last year. They did a module on Mindfulness last year and this weekend they were starting on their second…
This last week I have been delivering the Compassion Based Living Course (CBLC) teaching skills retreat at Samye Ling with my colleague and good friend Choden. He is a great person to be delivering the retreat with as he is an expert in this field, drawing on his extensive experience as a Buddhist practitioner and…
I am in Cape Town for a month and the weather has been sunny and hot every day. It is like a different world to Scotland. I have been spending time with my mother and old friends. I have also been spending time with Rob Nairn working on the structure for a book on Insight.…
For as long as I remember I have been on a quest to understand my place in life, the universe and everything. This started from an interest in science, space, alien life and the archaeological remains left by ancient peoples. My first degree was in mathematical physics with astrophysics, which I loved, but which I…