Beingfulness vs. Abhidharma - Slicing Up the Meaty, Messy Pie of Our Experience
I was doing this practice with Mingyur Rinpoche, and he was teaching what's known as the Abhidharma, which is a very old form of Buddhism.
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Alistair Appleton
Jan 315 min read
What does Buddhism have to say about sexuality and gender?
New member Fran, coming from a progressive Islamic mosque in Canada, was interested in Buddhism’s stance on gender and sexuality and so I...
960 views14 comments
Alistair Appleton
Jan 254 min read
Worrying is NOT caring
This is an edited transcript of a lovely discussion we had this Tuesday in our anxiety/stress class on Zoom. We were discussing the...
981 views3 comments
Alistair Appleton
Dec 6, 20233 min read
Discipline 2: The Fragrance of Shila
This transcript is from our 2nd exploration of the paramita of discipline or in Sankrit, shila. From the outside, these disciplines, -...
239 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
Dec 6, 20234 min read
Discipline 1 - The Paramita of Shila
In our ongoing exploration of the six paramitas, we have come to the second which is discipline (shila). We can think of shila as a...
200 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
Nov 17, 20235 min read
Generosity 2: The Pinch Point
This transcript comes from the second week exploring the transcendental action (paramita) of generosity. You can join in the cornucopia...
192 views6 comments
Alistair Appleton
Nov 17, 20236 min read
Generosity 1: dana and dzinpa
From the first of two live sessions dedicated to the "transcendental action" of generosity, in November 2023. A recording of the practice...
246 views11 comments
Alistair Appleton
Nov 9, 20233 min read
The Paramitas: where the rubber of practice hits the road of reality
If you've been following our Live Sessions of late, you may have noticed this word paramita cropping up again and again. Apologies if it...
319 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
Jun 29, 20236 min read
Going Outdoors to Enter the Presence
I am entering one of my periodic periods of great doubt. I have these on a fairly regular basis - once every five years, perhaps - and...
1,315 views28 comments
Alistair Appleton
Feb 4, 20235 min read
The Magic of No Escape
Growing up in a Christian world (I was an Anglican choirboy for many of my most impressionable early years), my mind has been suffused...
704 views13 comments
Alistair Appleton
Jan 21, 20224 min read
Every broken heart is sacred
The final blog in my series of seven from 2013 is perhaps the juiciest of them all. I was all tender from a very intense, heart-breaking...
256 views2 comments
Alistair Appleton
Jan 5, 20226 min read
No more future anymore
This is a rather epic blog about the future and the nature of stress. Looking back from the vantage of 2022, I can see how the eight...
101 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
Dec 15, 20214 min read
But now there is a forest
This is the third of the set of seven blogs I wrote back in 2014 following a chance encounter with one of my Buddhist teachers Ajahn...
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Alistair Appleton
Dec 15, 20216 min read
Like worms towards the motorway
The sixth of the blogs from 2014. This one is quite self-contained and doesn’t require many annotations from 2022. There is a Nibbana...
32 views0 comments
Alistair Appleton
Dec 3, 20216 min read
Intention destroys the zombie mind
Continuing my excavation of blogs from the past. These are my ponderings following a teaching that Ajahn Sucitto gave in Portugal. If you...
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Alistair Appleton
Nov 3, 20216 min read
Sucitto Thoughts #1
Today is the birthday of one of my early Buddhist teachers, Ajahn Sucitto, who was the abbot of Cittaviveka monastery in East Sussex when...
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Alistair Appleton
Oct 28, 20215 min read
In Praise of Idleness
“Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.” Soren Kierkegaard This is a very old book review from...
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Alistair Appleton
Jul 15, 20214 min read
On not caring: the creativity of upekkha
From the date on the cartoon, this blog was originally written in 2008. An almost mythically long time ago. But the thoughts on caring...
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Alistair Appleton
Jun 18, 20216 min read
The Prohibition Against Asking for Help
I was on a powerful retreat in the Devon countryside a few weeks back and I had a startling flash of memory from my childhood. I recalled...
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Alistair Appleton
Mar 5, 20218 min read
Mother Nature doesn’t care about suffering. Buddha does.
I have been really deeply inspired by the experience of leading the Dharma Days for Mindsprings. After my initial introduction to the...
38 views0 comments
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