Roger Hyam – Page 5

Marathon Monk: December 2017 – 89 days & 534 mindful miles

Roger Hyam, 2018/01/012018/01/01

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…

Edinburgh

First Binaural recording attempt – Christmas Market

Roger Hyam, 2017/12/062017/12/06

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.

Project Marathon Monk

Marathon Monk: November 2017 – 78 days & 468 mindful miles

Roger Hyam, 2017/12/01

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…

Project Marathon Monk

Marathon Monk: October 2017 – 62 days & 372 mindful miles

Roger Hyam, 2017/11/032017/11/03

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…

Edinburgh

Marathon Monk: September 2017 – 47 days & 282 mindful miles

Roger Hyam, 2017/10/062017/10/06

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. …

Project Marathon Monk

Marathon Monk: August 2017 – 33 days & 198 mindful miles

Roger Hyam, 2017/09/032017/10/06

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…

Project Marathon Monk

Marathon Monk: July 2017 – 22 days & 132 mindful miles

Roger Hyam, 2017/08/012017/10/06

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…

Misc

Why we shouldn’t advocate “people” have fewer kids

Roger Hyam, 2017/07/162017/07/16

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…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Marathon Monk and the Pointless Pole

Roger Hyam, 2017/07/052017/07/07

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…

Project Marathon Monk

Marathon Monk: June 2017 – 8 days & 48 mindful miles

Roger Hyam, 2017/07/012017/10/06

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…

Misc

Marathon Monk Index

Roger Hyam, 2017/07/012017/07/01

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…

Edinburgh

Harry Potter and the Hairy Rhodies

Roger Hyam, 2017/06/302017/06/30

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…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Setting Off on Project Marathon Monk

Roger Hyam, 2017/06/202017/07/01

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…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Lay Pedestrian resolves to mug Marathon Monk

Roger Hyam, 2017/06/182017/07/01

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…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Lay Pedestrian meets Marathon Monk

Roger Hyam, 2017/06/172018/04/11

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,…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Marathon Monk: Back story

Roger Hyam, 2017/06/162017/07/01

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…

Mindfulness & Buddhism

Wiston Lodge: Turning towards retreat

Roger Hyam, 2017/06/152017/06/15

I’m just back from a four day retreat at Wiston Lodge lead by Dene Donalds that I found very powerful. My sinuses were playing up for much of it which may have added to the impact but I actually had some good sitting and walking. Often you can tell a…

Gratitude

No IR Film required

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/20

These trees are the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh were a vivid yellow/green and just a red filter in post process produces this effect. They were spectacular.

Green Space

Frosty morning at Loch Ness Shores Campsite

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/202017/05/20

Stepping out for a few minutes before breakfast can be magical. Camping makes this more likely.

Gratitude

Size is important

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/202017/05/20

To encounter something living that is massively larger than you are on your way to nursery but change you.

Photography

Updated my theme

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/202017/06/15

I just used the Fukasawa theme on the Botanics Stories blog so I decided to update my own blog to something else – anything really to make it a bit different.

Photography

How to lie with a photo

Roger Hyam, 2017/05/152017/05/15

What I like about photography is it is so often about what you want to say and not what reality is. Mixing this up with my current obsession with politics and how our media portrays it I just had to put this lot together. It starts with a blog post…

Biodiversity Informatics