Mindfulness and meditation are powerful practices. Right from the start we sense we’re engaging with something very profound – and also very simple. In this post and the linked talk I suggest how these experiences can become a path to liberation Listen...
The criticisms that can be legitimately levelled at Mindfulness Based Approaches boil down to a single issue: the entire mindfulness movement is based around eight-week courses. Teachers of secular mindfulness, along with others such as Buddhists, need to face this...
The Christian Passion is a dramatic story touching on powerful emotions. Is there a similar drama in the Buddha’s story? Pause for Thought, BBC Radio 2, April 2013 A highlight of my holiday in Southern Spain last Easter was seeing the parade in Malaga. The whole...
Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom By Rich Hanson and Richard Mendius New Harbinger Publications, 2009 There is a buzz around the application of neuroscience to meditation. It works in a couple of ways: meditators are being...
Imagine you are Bradley Manning in 2009: a low-ranking US intelligence officer stationed in Iraq with access to vast amounts of diplomatic and military data. You discover much that you consider unethical. So do you keep quiet, or do you leak the information, risking...
Buddhism has traditionally opposed abortion, while tolerating its practice. Exploring this difficult territory means looking at ethics from a Buddhist perspective and considering how we balance compassion for the unborn child and for the mother In the grounds of the...
