Marathon Monk and the Pointless Pole
How does meditation work? I’m sure there are loads of scientific papers and sutra commentaries on the subject but I have one mundane
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Mindfulness & Buddhism
Marathon Monk: June 2017
Having started on the Summer Solstice I’m going to blog each month to keep track of the progress. Sometimes this might just be
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Marathon Monk Index
Just to reiterate I’m not a monk and I’m not running 26.219 mile marathons – which makes the title a bit of lie.
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Setting Off on Project Marathon Monk
Pick a date, any date. I pick this one. A nice astronomical date. This is when the series of “marathons” begins. Summer Solstice
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Lay Pedestrian resolves to mug Marathon Monk
By far the most common metaphor for a life is that of a journey. After all it has a beginning, middle and end.
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Lay Pedestrian meets Marathon Monk
There’s a great art house film called Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter. It is about a Japanese woman who obsessively watches an flaky video
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Marathon Monk: Back story
I remember a story about a guy who set off to walk from the centre of the USA to the ocean relying on
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Wiston Lodge: Turning towards retreat
I’m just back from a four day retreat at Wiston Lodge lead by Dene Donalds that I found very powerful. My sinuses were
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No IR Film required
These trees are the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh were a vivid yellow/green and just a red filter in post process produces this effect.
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Size is important
To encounter something living that is massively larger than you are on your way to nursery but change you.
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One year old today
I took lay ordination into the Order of Interbeing as True Embracing Oak (Chân Sồi Bao Dung) on 28th August 2015 – a year
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Present moment – it may be just what we think it is.
I enjoyed this video from Veritasium it complements a blog post I wrote back in 2010 – The present moment does not exist – which
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Secular mindfulness needs a rethink
I’ve been reading Christian literature again. This is an odd experience. Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis and now Abbot Christopher Jamison have been working
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Hedonic Treadmill: Are there just Happy People and Sad People?
In searching around for a subject to talk on at FameLab Scotland in January I stumbled across the fact that I had possibly
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The role of the artists
I came to see that the human imagination is not paramount in the creative process: that what is paramount is “The Creation” and
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Freedom of Choice
We are constrained by the choices we have made but the most constraining choice is choosing not to choose.
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Sister Coa Nghiem
I’m just back from a week at Plum Village. I’d hoped to do some portraiture but didn’t really have time. Retreats are busy
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Buddha – a life of and for peace
I gave a talk to the Uniting for Peace Inter-Faith group meeting at the Theosophical Society in Edinburgh. I made a recording so
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Unsung Hero
Can’t believe I haven’t embedded this before:
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Josephine: May 2015
Final day of the Wiston retreat.
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Jerry: May 2015
Just having received the 5 Mindfulness Trainings.
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Roland: May 2015
Is this Roland? Looking out the door at the end of the Wiston Retreat.
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Mia
I’m amazed I pulled this image out of the series I took of Mia as she was larking about – like usual. Always
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Faith to get point shoes
I’m doing some clearing out and came across this shot of Faith from a few years ago which triggered more gratitude for eyes
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Jane at the end of the Wester Caputh Retreat
I grabbed this shot of Jane (who is one of my fellow Interbeing aspirants) at the end of our Wester Caputh retreat last
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Feather Frost
I can’t remember whether I have seen it before or not but I was walking in the woods by the river Tay when
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Brother Steve
My brother Steve came up to visit in October and we had a nice time together for which I’m really grateful. He’d lost
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View from the bathroom window
Something to be grateful for first thing in the morning.
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Gratitude Blog?
It is a navel gazing time of year but this year I feel more reflective than usual. I’ll be 50 in less that
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Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism
The Order of Interbeing ( Tiếp Hiện (接现) Order) was founded in the mid 1960’s, in Vietnam, by Thich Nhat Hanh (a.k.a. Thay). The
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