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I had a interesting exchange on the way to work. I was taking this picture of a window – just interested in the symmetry and tone – and when I took my camera down a guy said “I wonder what you were finding interesting in that?” to which I spontaneously replied “I’m an artist”. He…
Read More I’m an Artist
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Not sure what to say this month. Not quite to 200 days – although I am on the 200th as I type. Here are two photos.
Read More Marathon Monk: August 2018 – 199 days & 1,194 mindful miles
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Much more upbeat in July. Walks have been really regular and been feeling good again. First time back at yoga on 31st. I weigh 1lb more than last month @ 14st 4lb (90.7kg). I’ve noticed that I have nearly exactly the same attitude to a tub of ice-cream or packet of biscuits that I used…
Read More Marathon Monk: July 2018 – 182 days & 1,092 mindful miles
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A year on the road. Not the road in the picture. That is the A383 in the Highlands. It has been a time of reflection. The summer solstice on the 21st June marked the first year of this Marathon Monk project and I was hoping to have completed 200 days and over a thousand miles…
Read More Marathon Monk: June 2018 – 166 days & 996 mindful miles
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I don’t feel I really understand something until I have had a go at it so, having watched some YouTube videos on Afghan Box Cameras, I had the urge to “waste” a couple of weekends building one. Now it is more or less working and I’ve learnt my lessons I can move on to something…
Read More Afghan Box Camera a.k.a. Cuban Polaroid a.k.a Camera Minutera
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May is the month that I lead the Two Feet, One Mind walking workshops in the Botanics so, strangely, I do a few less marathon monk days. The workshops are for two hours, 6-8pm, and it is just too much to walk there and back as well as a days work so I go on…
Read More Marathon Monk: May 2018 – 152 days & 912 mindful miles
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Five years ago I made a commitment to do a 20 minute mindfulness walk ever day during my lunch hour at the Botanics. I put a blog post on the Wild Geese website inviting people to join me and occasionally they have. I’ve managed to stick with it through all weathers although I don’t always…
Read More Marathon Monk: April 2018 – 137 days & 822 mindful miles
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I don’t have access to a darkroom at home so pre-flashing paper negatives to reduce contrast is difficult. I wondered whether using a piece of opal perspex and flashing in camera would help. These are notes on the tests I’ve done. I’m using The Anticipation Camera. I have an Intrepid 4×5 camera on order but the…
Read More Pre-flashing Multigrade Paper Negs
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Why bark if you have a dog? We need to be reminded to let someone else take over and do a job rather than doing everything ourselves. But sometimes it isn’t the right thing to do and we should get our hands dirty. I like making images and it has become so easy today that…
Read More Sometimes you should bark yourself
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Finally coming to the end of taking excess holiday allowance. Married Gustaf and Ainsley on Saturday 31st at St Marks Marathon Monk Posts by Date
Read More Marathon Monk: March 2018 – 125 days & 750 mindful miles
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I’m teaching myself to make podcasts. Like many things this is harder than I thought but I like learning stuff and the way I force myself to get on with it is to share what I’m doing. This morning I put together a podcast that chops up a BBC news bulletin. This is a cunning…
Read More Does the BBC broadcast propaganda?
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On Tuesday 6th February I passed the 100 walks mark when, if I was a real Japanese Marathon Monk, I would have asked formal permission to continue. I thought about marking the day in some special day but in the end it was just a normal walk. Perhaps I’ll do more of a celebration when…
Read More Marathon Monk: February 2018 – 112 days & 672 mindful miles
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This is a quick recording of my thoughts on the Four Nutriments discourse of the Buddha. I had written some notes and couldn’t face typing the whole thing up so thought I’d try a recording. Thich Nhat Hanh Audio has a whole section on talks where Thay has mentioned the Four Nutriments so if you…
Read More Four Nutriments Sharing
Grange Cemetary
Another short month as far as marathon monking is concerned. After the Christmas and New Year break took a chunk off the start of the month I got the call to go into the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and have my inguinal hernias fixed. This had been looming for nine months. It was an elective surgery…
Read More Marathon Monk: January 2018 – 97 days & 582 mindful miles
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I was really losing it at work in the run up to Christmas. No motivation, just staring at the screen or surfing the web. I have a load of leave to use up and a colleague said “Just go now” so I jacked in 2017 on Wednesday 18th December and will go back to work…
Read More Marathon Monk: December 2017 – 89 days & 534 mindful miles
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I’m having fun with a couple of mics making some binaural recordings. Here is the first one that is even worth sharing. You need to wear headphones to get the effect. Close your eyes and you are almost there.
Read More First Binaural recording attempt – Christmas Market
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Not quite 500 miles. I had a slow week near the beginning with the virus still coming back occasionally but am now back to 100%. The stopping at shines seems to be taking a new form. I pause for longer waiting for the orange juice to clear as Thay would say. I don’t count as…
Read More Marathon Monk: November 2017 – 78 days & 468 mindful miles
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A bit of a wipeout month. The first few weeks I went down with a virus that made me very weak. I had my left parotid gland swell up like I had mumps. I had dreams of being a child again that I guess were linked to when I had mumps in the 1970s. …
Read More Marathon Monk: October 2017 – 62 days & 372 mindful miles
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September has been a busy busy month with many distractions around running the Project Soothe Exhibition. Rewarding but tiring. As I reached the end of the month the walking is getting to my physically an I miss a few days by jumping on the bus to get home. Marathon Monk Posts by Date…
Read More Marathon Monk: September 2017 – 47 days & 282 mindful miles
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Quite a month for distractions both good and bad so I’ve only increased my total to 33 days or about 198 miles since starting on the summer solstice. The month was always going to have the good distraction of a week in Stourbridge at the Nourishing Happiness retreat. Here I got to walk and practice each…
Read More Marathon Monk: August 2017 – 33 days & 198 mindful miles
Path at National Trust property in the lakes - would be lovely to walk this every day.
I’ve completed the first full calendar month of walking with a break for a week in the English Lake district. I’ve walked 22 days since I started which is around 132 miles. It feels like they are taking the town apart around me which increases my sense of solidity in a weird way. The Three…
Read More Marathon Monk: July 2017 – 22 days & 132 mindful miles
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I often hear people say that there are too many people in the world or even that responsible “people” should have fewer children. There is never the opportunity to explain fully why this is such an inappropriate thing to say but now I’ve had a rainy day with no distractions I can share my explanation.…
Read More Why we shouldn’t advocate “people” have fewer kids
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How does meditation work? I’m sure there are loads of scientific papers and sutra commentaries on the subject but I have one mundane theory I’d like to share. We all self-talk all the time. I find it hard to believe the occasional person I meet who claims they don’t. The problem with this is two…
Read More Marathon Monk and the Pointless Pole
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Having started on the Summer Solstice I’m going to blog each month to keep track of the progress. Sometimes this might just be posting a total of the days I’ve walked other times I’ll reflect on how it is going. I started by using Google Fit on my phone to deliberately measure the distance. I…
Read More Marathon Monk: June 2017 – 8 days & 48 mindful miles
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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. I’m walking to work as a Buddhist training exercise inspired by the Tendai Buddhist Marathon Monks of Mt Hiei in Japan. This is the Marathon Monk Index page so the associated posts…
Read More Marathon Monk Index
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It was 20 years ago today, not that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play but that I submitted my PhD thesis. Of course that is not what they are talking about in the papers. They are all talking about J.K. Rowling and a mildly successful tome Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that just happened…
Read More Harry Potter and the Hairy Rhodies
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Pick a date, any date. I pick this one. A nice astronomical date. This is when the series of “marathons” begins. Summer Solstice 05:24 Wednesday 21st June 2017 I’m taking as my muse the Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei in Japan. I’m going to use some of their rituals to turn my journeys to and…
Read More Setting Off on Project Marathon Monk
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By far the most common metaphor for a life is that of a journey. After all it has a beginning, middle and end. It appears to go through different terrain, run at different paces and our paths often cross. Sometimes we leave things behind. Sometimes we can’t. But we can confuse a metaphor with the…
Read More Lay Pedestrian resolves to mug Marathon Monk
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There’s a great art house film called Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter. It is about a Japanese woman who obsessively watches a flaky video of an American thriller. Eventually she snaps and travels to the USA to dig up the money she saw being buried on screen. I really enjoyed Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter. It reminded me…
Read More Lay Pedestrian meets Marathon Monk
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I remember a story about a guy who set off to walk from the centre of the USA to the ocean relying on the kindness of strangers for support. He was curious to learn more about his country and himself. At first he found it very difficult. People were suspicious and unhelpful. Then he learned…
Read More Marathon Monk: Back story