Ten Minutes With The Buddha

NEWSFLASH Something NEW on This Buddhist Life ……. Beginning Thursday 12th August a four session programme outlining Buddha’s meditation practice in a simple FREE step-by-step guide to to10min meditations. To help beginners AND current practitioners I will post four sets of instructions describing a series of building blocks for an ever increasing depth of meditation. Read More

Joy or Happiness? A Puzzle From the Ānāpānasati Sutta

“Breathing in, I experience joy. Breathing out, I experience joy.Breathing in, I experience happiness. Breathing out, I experience happiness."— Ānāpānasati Sutta One of the pleasures of my Buddhist practice is that the more I read, the more questions I seem to discover. Recently I have been reading Awakening of the Heart by Thích Nhất Hạnh, Read More

Creating a Buddhist Meditation Space at Home

I have recently changed my Buddhist meditation space at home. The change came after several weeks of reflecting on why my meditation practice had started to feel mechanical, restless, and strangely uncomfortable. For the first time in many years, meditation began to feel forced. Something was clearly wrong. Being a fairly logical and systematic person, Read More

Buddhist Karma and Punishment: A Reflection on the Dhammapada

“The foundation for a satisfying life is closely connected to the moral qualities that shape our thoughts, speech, and behaviour moment by moment.” One of the Buddhist teachings I return to regularly is found in Chapter 10 of the Dhammapada, often translated as “The Rod”. The chapter centres on harmful actions, speech, and the suffering Read More

Mindfulness of Dhamma: Reflections from Practice

“He dwells contemplating phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly knowing and mindful."Mahasatipatthana Sutra The Four Foundations of Mindfulness form one of the central teachings of Buddhism and are described in detail in the Satipatthana Sutta. They provide a practical framework for observing our experience as it unfolds moment by moment. The four foundations are: • Mindfulness Read More