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...
938 views14 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, -...
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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...
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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...
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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
Apr 19, 20238 min read
Can we meditate while the world is burning?
A participant in the last retreat I led asked a very good question that often arises in retreats. “It’s all very well us pondering our...
476 views6 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...
703 views13 comments
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...
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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...
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Alistair Appleton
Jan 14, 20216 min read
Language #3: Thinking and Language as the Bridge of Love
NOTE: I think in this last blog I am in some sense arguing myself OUT of a position that I have thoughtlessly held for many years. That...
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Alistair Appleton
Jan 14, 20215 min read
Language #2: The Real, the Imaginary and the Symbolic
In the first part of this blog on language and thinking, I argued that the human experience of thinking is fundamentally grounded in...
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Alistair Appleton
Feb 19, 20207 min read
On Being a Teacher #3: Emptiness and Bodhicitta
Impermanence and the awakened heart I’m halfway through my Edinburgh weekend and sitting back in the Salisbury Centre guest room, resting...
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