Many years ago I taught myself to draw using a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. Her premise is that anyone who can hold a pencil and make a straight line can draw. The problem is that we don’t see what is in front of us because our thinking mind – the left side of the brain – hijacks our perception. The mind thinks it already knows what things look like and that blinds it to the actuality. Look at a straight-sided mug, for instance. It appears to have straight sides with an ellipse at the top and a partial ellipse at the bottom. But if you draw that you get ..read more

What would your life be like if you had no problems? And what if I suggested you that you have no problems? I don’t mean that all the tough stuff stops happening, I mean that it ceases to be a problem for you because you don’t see it as such. How would you define the term problem? I think it is something along the lines of an unpleasant, unwanted or unexpected situation that is painful or difficult to deal with. It also carries an implicit sense that something is wrong. Maybe I think that something is wrong with me. Or I think that something is wrong with the world that delivered me up t ..read more

Right Effort is the effort to think, speak and act skilfully. It is traditionally described as the effort to prevent and overcome negative states of mind and to cultivate and maintain positive states of mind. So it is primarily concerned with mental, rather than physical effort. So what does this mean in practice? When we are doing seated meditation it is pretty obvious that right effort is the effort required to keep our mind in the present moment, letting go of thought as it arises and paying attention to our inner landscape in a completely non-judgemental way. As we go about our daily live ..read more

These posts tend to be short. So much has been written about Buddhism and it is easy to find out more about any aspect of the teaching that you may be interested in. Sometimes I give book references. What is more important is that you find out your own true nature for yourself. This is what I am trying to give pointers towards ..read more

Right livelihood is one of three steps of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path that are traditionally considered to be concerned with morality, the other two being right speech and right action. Right – or skilful – livelihood asks how do we make our living? Does our job cause harm to anyone, including ourself? Is it beneficial to others? Does it require us to break the Precepts? Is it helping us in our spiritual practice or is it so stressful, for example, that we find it difficult or impossible to act mindfully and compassionately? I think the question of right livelihood is quite complicated ..read more

Campaigning for the general election is in full swing here in the UK and I can’t help being struck by the harshness of speech that has become the norm for politicians. I also feel deeply that it does not have to be this way. In the Noble Eightfold Path the Buddha set out a complete guide to a compassionate way of living that will bring the most joy and fulfilment to oneself and others and lead to the realisation of our true nature. I believe these steps can be practised by anyone, whatever their walk of life and regardless of the way that their colleagues choose to conduct themselves. One of ..read more

Great Master Dogen’s expression dropping off body and mind has captured the imagination of many who have heard it and has been the subject of much study and scholarship. The expression appears to originate with Dogen’s master Tendo Nyojo, occurring many times in Dogen’s record of his conversations with his master. Dogen himself uses the expression in a frequently quoted passage from Genjokoan, a key chapter in his Shobogenzo: To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things. To be verified by a ..read more

When we do walking meditation we step from one moment into the next, leaving the last moment behind and stepping into this new one with an open heart and mind. We tread softly, we carry nothing with us. We feel the ground beneath our feet, especially if we go barefoot. We feel our muscles and joints keeping us poised. Perhaps we are aware of our clothing moving against our skin, or the touch of the air as we move through it. We walk in harmony with those around us, neither slower nor faster than they. Thoughts may come and go, but we simply walk. Walking meditation is a beautiful practice and ..read more

Further to last week’s post on relaxing tension in the body and mind, I’d like to talk briefly about how the way we breathe is linked to how much relaxation or tension we experience. When we do zazen the instruction regarding the breath is to let ourselves breathe naturally through the nose without trying to manipulate the breath in any way, and I am not going to suggest we do anything differently when we are meditating. What I am going to suggest is that you pay some attention to the quality of your breathing as you go about about your daily activities. What is your breathing like when ..read more

We all know the benefits of relaxation, but perhaps we don’t associate relaxation with meditation. However, being able to relax our body in meditation goes a long way to helping the mind to be calm and open. Don’t get me wrong – a relaxed body is not a prerequisite for meditation and if we have pain or tension from an underlying condition that we can do nothing about then we can certainly meditate with that pain and tension. What I am talking about is what I have heard referred to as volitional tension, the tension we have a choice to hold or let go of, even if that choice is not immediately ..read more