The Way Things Appear: full moon - Friday 5th December 2025
It is easy to do that which is of no real benefit to oneself; it is difficult indeed to do that which is truly beneficial and good.
Dhammapada 163
When we register just how complex and challenging this human existence has become, the task of trying to change it can appear impossible. There is already enough evidence showing how powerful technology causes fragmentation, both within communities and individuals, contributing to despair. There is also evidence that unimaginably good things can happen. If you have ever broken a bone, the recovery process takes time. Healing doesn’t happen according to our preferences – though healing can happen. The task of addressing the suffering in our world, inwardly and outwardly, takes effort. Let us not just settle for the way things merely appear to be. May the Buddha’s wisdom serve to inspire us.
THE RIGHT SORT OF HEALING: full moon – Monday 13th January 2025
Confusion ceases by maintaining a meditation practice focused in the body, by avoiding that which should not be done, and by mindfully doing that which should be done.
DHAMMAPADA v. 293
The concept of ‘healing’ is obviously helpful. If we break our arm, for instance, we do what we can for it to be healed. Once the break is healed, we feel good. How we relate to those good feelings really matters. As with sunshine, the way we relate to it determines whether or not we risk getting skin cancer. Becoming lost in the pleasant sensation of a little sunbathing could mean we end up having a lot of it, with regrettable consequences. When we become lost in the pleasant feelings associated with a wound healing, we risk wanting to ‘heal’ everything that we find disagreeable. Becoming lost in good feelings risks distorting perceptions, thinking we have to heal everything. Even the Buddha in his old age had painful feelings in his back, which he apparently eased by sitting in the morning sun. Where we find pain, ideally we would want to do what we can to help, though that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any more tsunamis or old age. Hence the Buddha’s emphasis on cultivating a wise relationship with suffering. Embodied mindfulness and wise reflection sustain that cultivation.
Q: "What practices do you recommend during the first few months of intense grief?"
(approx. 9 minutes) KEYWORDS: Q: "After a bereavement I found it impossible to sit in meditation (breath and body scan). There was too much agitation in the mind and no motivation to meditate. What Buddhist practices do you recommend during the first few months of intense grief?" Wound, judging, healing, massage, relationship to pain, perception of absence, allowing, shared predicament.
Q: "How can we learn to really let go of deep trauma?"
(approx. 12 minutes) KEYWORDS: “When you've been affected by a deep personal trauma that results in emotional responses such as ' betrayal', 'deep disappointment ', 'ingratitude', and so forth, how can we learn to really 'let go'?” (approx. 12 minutes) KEYWORDS: 'How can we wisely address our impacted body mind states? Whilst the head can come to a better place, the heart continuously struggles. How can we move beyond regret, and the deluded self?'Vibhavatanha, printing press, self-improvement, in-breath, victims, denied dukkha, Vulture’s Peak, backlog, overwhelmed, sadness, anger, good friends, exercise routine, singing, compassion.