Categories
July 2025
: “We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things …
: The dog sleeps, dream barking in her bed, paws twitching as she runs who knows where…
: “We go on—not upward, not forward, but just on…” — Anon
: “The self doesn’t produce thoughts, it’s thoughts that produce the self.” — Robert Saltzman
: Three friends have each had a dear pet pass away in the last three days 😞
: Why would we trust positive thoughts any more than negative ones? Why one set of stories over …
: “I myself was the murderer and the murdered.” — Carl Jung
: Working with individuals that have a wide range of neurodivergent conditions including bio polar, …
: Not something yet not nothing.
: A kind of magic Just want to make a quick shout out/ thank you/ mention to @manton for the ease with which I was …
: Consciousness is not a problem to be solved. That’s like a ruler trying to measure itself. …
: Our greatest teacher is always with us, for it is no more and no less than the present moment.
: Fresh dew soaked morning after the rain. The dog sleeping soundly after breakfast. Silent house.
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Enjoying this. Alas, UK only I fear 😕
: It doesn’t take much reflection to reveal how much of our experience is made up of our opinions …
: This morning, gentle rain. The brook babbles a little louder. Cars hiss by while the dog snores.
: If we don’t assimilate and integrate traditional ancient wisdom into the ordinary reality of our own …
: Paying close attention to our mind and the myriad thoughts that arise, it’s possible to see the …
: So much unnecessary fear, anxiety and suffering (as well as groundless hope and optimism) is caused …
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This is how I see all brands, slogans and advertising.
: “Finding meaning is merely a matter of finding a better story. Stories put your pains and pleasures …
: “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never …
: “Here is not an ‘Either-Or’ crossover but, rather, a ‘Both-And’ revelation.” — Dennis Gallagher
: Non duality “Non-Duality. That place where we see that the One manifests as the many and the many are …
: Happiness has nothing to do with pleasure.
: There was a time (even before the printed word) it was thought that the written word signalled the …
: Our thoughts and ideas are the least of us. Always late to the party that’s already in full swing, …
: “In my psychotherapy practice, I saw this play out daily. Clients spoke of loneliness, but what they …
: Spot the difference between: “Is this all there is?” and “You mean there’s all this?!”
: “We don’t have ideas. Ideas have us.” — Carl Jung
: Where do you want to be? I work with someone who spends all of their time on holiday despite actually being on holiday for …
: “When you argue with reality, you lose, but only 100% of the time.” — Byron Katie
: How to be unhappy Compare yourself to others Compare the present with the past and the future Believe your thoughts …
: “I speak not of transcendence, but of what shimmers before the mind moves to name it. Not the …
: “The way out of our cage begins with accepting absolutely everything about ourselves and our lives.” …
: There is no thought, idea, concept or story that can survive the raw actuality of experience. Not …
: Self interest is a dead end.
: “Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.” — Haruki Murakami
: “Silence is not freedom from sounds. Silence is not freedom from thoughts. Silence is freedom from …
June 2025
: “…it becomes vividly clear that in concrete fact I have no other self than the totality of things of …
: Looking back over old journal entries from years ago I see a completely different person. …
: Ouch This morning I stubbed my toe. Badly. You know, the kind that hurts beyond all reason. The stubbing …
: We all take our feelings very seriously but what are they?
: What stories are we all telling ourselves this morning?
: After a hectic weekend at work enjoying a slightly slower start this morning with coffee and a cool …
: “I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” — Mark Twain
: We project our trance onto the machine and find it blinking back. This is the danger: not that …
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This old girl is 16 years and 3 months young. She just keeps on truckin…
: Things are finite. Being is infinite.
: “Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given …
: It’s fascinating to watch how quickly and automatically direct experience is transformed into a …
: “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness …
: ”Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” — Rainer …
: You can only wake up to your own life.
: “My job is not to run around doing things. I am a human being, not a human doing.” — Paradigm shift
: Thinking is great fun. Watching thoughts pop up out of nowhere and then disappear again just as …
: “Light only has meaning when it illuminates something dark and enlightenment is no good unless it …
: “Any idea we have right here and now of what next looks like, is a painting made by our mind, and …
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Looking forward to this. Shifty, the new film/ series from Adam Curtis. UK only I fear 😕
: “When we turn 40 we stop saying ‘hi’ and start saying ‘bye’. — Martin Amis
: The point of utopias and dystopias is that we end up somewhere in the middle. What we fail to …
: We cannot rid ourselves of anything that happens because we are everything that happens.
: Perhaps the greatest piece of advice ever, from Carl Jung, of course 😉 One lives as one can…”
: “The observer is the observed and therein lies sanity, the whole.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
: The shift from a busy, confused and overwhelmed mind to that of open, clear, spaciousness is …
: “The boundary to what we can accept is the boundary to our freedom.” — Tara Brach
: Being alive is the only adventure.
: At meditation this evening I felt an exquisite intensity of the moment – of everything happening all …
: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” …
: “Different strokes for different folks or for different moments. One moment you need Zen. The next …
: Things go away. Everything is always here.
: Ever tried looking for yourself and not come up with either thoughts, ideas, stories, memories or …
: Nothing has to happen yet everything does.
: Recognising the eternal now is exquisitely palpable yet utterly ungraspable. Reality is fully …
: Even in contemplative/ meditative spheres there is a tendency to fetishise certain conditions, like …
: Whatever progress may or may not be, it is only made when one drops the idea of making any.
: Today will be spent mostly hauling building waste to the dump. Oh, and coffee of course. And maybe a …
: “The mark of the moderate man, according to the Tao, is that he has no ideas about himself. None. …
: You can’t do what is already being done. You can’t become what you already are. You can’t allow what …
: Spiritual/ meditative/ contemplative insights are not reserved for sacred texts, ancient traditions, …
: The presence or not of suffering is beside the larger point that there is anything to experience at …
: “You’re on Earth. There’s no cure for that.” — Samuel Beckett
: What is lost in the individual tends to be society’s gain and vice versa.
: Everything, including you, is just happening without any effort whatsoever.
: There are no distractions. Only a seamless continuum of experience.
: “In my estimation, the wisest among us are those who live without answers to ultimate questions, …
: There’s what you should do, what you shouldn’t do and what you’re going to do anyway.
: Body feeling battered this morning so attempting to take it easy today before work tomorrow
: Challenging but amazing yoga session this morning and then six hours hacking and wrestling the …
: “You can only be afraid of what you think you know.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
: Who am I? What am I? In all honesty, only everything that is happening.
: “The cure for the pain is in the pain.” — Rūmī
: We will remain forever blind to the unintended consequences of our actions be they good or ill.
: “Why do you meditate?” “To see what happens.”
May 2025
: “We go on—not upward, not forward, but just on…” — Anon
: There is no elephant in the room. The elephant is the room.
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Thursday night is darts 🎯 night.
: Recognising the difference between thinking you are a thing to which other things happen and being …
: At the close of meditation this evening this thought, somewhat paradoxically popped up, ‘…the …
: “Happiness can exist only in acceptance.” — George Orwell
: It is said that AI doesn’t know what it’s doing or how it’s doing it. I would suggest that neither …
: Bring the noise Sitting in silence and stillness is all very nice but there is nothing intrinsic to these conditions …
: Adam Curtis’ new series ‘Shifty’ looks fun.
: “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” — George …
: “If we trust life, we know this for a fact: Everything that happens, happens for the best.” — Trust
: “Don’t miss what is here now, in wishing it was otherwise.” — Andō
: You can’t be what you are if you think of yourself as anything in particular.
: The sound of welcome rain The welcome sound of rain
: ”I am not one and simple, but complex and many.” — Virginia Woolf
: Sitting quietly in my car Drinking coffee Cars hiss in the distance Nothing to be done
: So apparently Apple is a successful international technology company. And it also appears that their …
: The sad thing about getting promoted to the Premier League is the inevitable dissolution of the …
: “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” — …
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Making the most of the last of the glorious weather today before the traditional bank holiday …
: A day of chores, chopping wood and carrying water. Not really, more like laundry and mowing the lawn …
: “I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not …
: “Living itself means nothing other than being questioned; our whole act of being is nothing more …
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Good morning. It’s been raining.
: What is here, now? Nothing less than your whole life. Everything that could possibly be happening for you is right …
: Does contemplation have a place in the world? ”We don’t need more teachers, we need more …
: ”The universe is wider than our views of it.” — Henry David Thoreau
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On her favourite sheepskin rug.
: Contemplatively/ meditatively speaking, the secret to getting somewhere is to go nowhere.
: “Humans love to add, to expand, and to clarify. And in doing so, we create complexity… The irony is …
: “Wherever you are, is the place you need to be.” — Anon
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It’s a long way down for little old arthritic legs…
: The end of a tiring week of work. Pretty knackered but, as always, rewarded and fulfilled. The …
: ”No matter how many years you sit doing zazen, you will never become anything special.” — …
: “You never truly need what you want. That is the main and thoroughgoing key to serenity. — Albert …
: Contemplation runs through all of life.
: I don’t know anything about tech but this made me smile Justfuckingusehtml
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This month’s cult cinema club is showing Pedro Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown …
: Not being bullied At school I was a prime target for bullies. To avoid the inevitable I somehow managed to develop a …
: “Before I studied Zen, mountains were mountains and rivers were rivers. When I had studied Zen for …
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‘TIL THE END
I’m not going to get carried away by my team, Sunderland AFC, making it to the playoff final at …
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Spent the day battling the garden and have the bramble scars to show for it! Exhausted but glad to …
: ”I have been filled with hopes, fears, despairs, longings, happiness. Expansive moments, contracting …
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The Assembly
Originally a one off on the BBC but now a series on ITV, The Assembly is currently my favourite TV …
April 2025
: There are few greater pleasures than sitting in the sun, with a gentle breeze, favoured drink of …
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The wild garlic by the brook is blooming.
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Making the most of the last rays after work.
: Feel what you feel, don’t feel what you think.
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I have always, mysteriously, loved Magnolias without having any idea why. This shone some light on …
: Am I the only one who finds the Tapestry app ugly? I’m sure it’s technically amazing but it just …
: There’s a difference between being comfortable in your own skin and being pleased with yourself. The …
: The most pertinent questions AI raises are about us. What are we?
: We must make our experiment. We must make mistakes. We must live out our own version of life. And …
: Now, more than ever, cultivating resilience is perhaps our most important endeavour.
: The ego is the workshop where the self is made. — Carl Jung
: Experience is a spectrum not a hierarchy.
March 2025
: The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. — George …
: Despite being a massive fan of Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan I didn’t overly enjoy their stage …
: “It is by no means certain that the man with good intentions is under all circumstances a good man. …
: “When a man lacks self-knowledge, he can do the most astonishing or terrible things without calling …
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This was 16 yesterday. No more mountains or hikes left in her but she keeps on trucking, ever more …
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eveningSatoru Hasegawa https://gram.social/p/Tsbasatoru/808639683390295453
: “Don’t try to create and analyse at the same time, they’re different processes.” — Corita Kent
: The glory of a beautiful Spring day would not exist if not for all the bleak, grey winter ones that …
: Investigate, question, examine, interrogate anything for long enough and sooner or later it …
: We educate and pass on our values to our children not by lecturing but by example, how we live, how …
: We could almost be forgiven for thinking Spring is in the air…
: A civil and humane society is held together and sustained less by its laws than by the everyday acts …
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Still cold here so jumper mode has been activated having been practically shaved this afternoon.
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Tonight Toast bringing her door stop skills.
: “The journey into the self, into the nameless and the formless, is first and last an act of …
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A still, cool and unnervingly quiet day out there…
Off to see Mother Vera later at the Borderlines …
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Extraordinary. She’s not underneath anything.
: Let no idea take you hostage lest you develop Stockholm syndrome to an ideology.
: So, not altogether unpredictably I ended taking an unscheduled ice bath by falling into the brook! …
: Coffee first and then I have to chop/ prune/ wrestle a fallen tree out of the brook. Typically I …
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I’m sorry but I have no idea what’s going on here.
: Huh. Never heard of Próspera before until I read this. When hell looks like a Caribbean holiday.
: “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” — …
: Humans are optimised for survival not truth.
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Toast has claimed her spot and is not moving.
: Another beautiful day out there. What feels like a balmy 12 degrees, a gorgeous blue sky scuffed …
: Lovely post, as always, from Mike Farley at An Open Ground. “Part of the trouble, it seems to me, …
: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” — Philip K. Dick
: “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
: “I don’t know… I think I’d like to say only that they (children) should learn to be alone and try to …
: It’s become very clear that my mind is incapable of thinking geo-politically or in terms of …
: “One has to discover everything for oneself. And get over it all alone.” — Too-Ticky/ Tove Jansson
: “Reality does not need to be solved. It does not require a conclusion. The mind may demand answers, …
: Looking forward to this. So many comedy heroes, particularly Chris Morris. Imagine
: “Why is it that so few people follow their own star? Why is the star such a heavy burden? Because …
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I’ll take as many of these freezing, clear dawns as the universe can give.
: If we really, really accept and embrace the reality of our finitude, our death; then our being, our …
: Few things have upset me as much recently as seeing Trump and his henchmen ambush Zelensky in such a …
: “Thoughts are natural events that you do not possess, and whose meaning you only imperfectly …
: Controversial/ contrarian opinion alert! Care is more important than love. I’ve seen so many people …
: If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company. — Jean-Paul Sartre
: A price is being paid by millions simply from one man growing up with wealth, privilege and …
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What a world. Went to bed last night having watched a tiny, frightened, weak and cowardly bully …
February 2025
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I absolutely adore this photo.
NightSatoru Hasegawa …
: Went to a new meditation session this evening at the local yoga centre. Really good. …
: “Memory is a liar. It’s a heap of dog-eared, smudged, incessantly revised fictions.” — Peter …
: Back to work tomorrow and it’s my weekend to work. Here’s hoping the sun keeps shining and the land …
: There must always be humour. Some way, somehow humour must be allowed.
: Zen doesn’t answer questions, it dissolves them.
: It’s a beautiful day out there. A walk across the fields in the sunshine for coffee seems like a …
: “Meditation is not about becoming a better person or a more spiritual person. It’s about becoming a …
: I enjoy Day One Journal’s On This Day feature popping up, as it does, entries from years past. The …
: “You’re on Earth. There’s no cure for that.” — Samuel Beckett, Happy Days
: “The point of Zen is not to escape life, but to live it completely, to taste fully the richness, the …
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The brook is back to running low and clear now.
: It’s relatively easy to live with other people compared to living openly and honestly with oneself.
: Whatever a tree does, whatever a fly does, whatever the sea does, whatever a penguin does, whatever …
: “Meditation/ contemplation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the …
: I like being in art galleries in the same way I like being in churches. And I like having no idea …
: “If we have one job in times like this, it is to be bearers, through our careful grief, of love, of …
: So, made it into work after all, dodging lots of standing water most of the way. Thought it would be …
: The only teacher you need, and that never goes away, is the present moment.
: The brook now running brown and a little faster and higher. Another twelve hours of this rain and …
: “It boils down to waking up moment to moment. Being present, open, unprotected. Allowing the …
: Wet and windy out there so keeping warm and dry indoors watching the footie. Newcastle flying …
: “And that to me is the healthy heart of contemplation (a.k.a. meditation). It’s an allowing. It’s a …
: I swapped the sea for mountains and rivers and thought I’d regret it but have never looked back.
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Lovely evening watching our favourite local band, Peiriant, play a homecoming gig. And, bonus, …
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What a glorious sunny day. Yoga, coffee, fixed gutter, coffee, fires, logs, laundry, 5k run, lunch …
: ”Now is simply now. You are simply you. And tell me, since you want to leave the place where you …
: “…today’s ‘self-realisation’ might be tomorrow’s ‘what the hell was I thinking?’” — Robert Saltzman
: There is no elephant in the room. The elephant is the room.
: The whole idea of so-called ‘Productivity’ is, not only just plain bullshit, but a distraction from …
: As I periodically do from time to time, I’ve mercilessly stripped out loads of feeds from my Reader. …
: “The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have.” — Henry James
: Boredom is wanting something that isn’t there. Contentment is having everything when nothing is …
: Madrid are a cat toying with City as if they’re a mouse.
: Apropos something completely unrelated, a couple of words popped up that accurately describe my …
: As far as philosophy is concerned I’ve always thought Wittgenstein drew a rather neat line under the …
: Over the years (since around 1999) I’ve had countless blogs (ie. I’ve lost count). Using, in no …
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Dog and bed in perfect harmony.
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Fires, logs, laundry, shopping, pharmacy, run and walk across the fields into town for coffee.
: What stories and narratives of self will you be holding onto as you’re dying? Which begs the rather …
: Wow, a Red Kite just swooped down onto the road in front of me to grab a scrap of roadkill. I slowed …
: “People don’t have ideas, ideas have people.” — Carl Jung
: It’s a strange feeling being surrounded by people who seem to have a lot to say about everything …
: “Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its …
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What an extraordinary morning. Seeing the actual sun for the first time in what feels like many …
: The specific qualities of experience pale in comparison to the simple presence of everything, the …
: “Embrace your losses as fair payment for the surplus of being alive.” — Kieran Setiya
: I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it. — Evelyn …
: Never confuse your own character and personality with those of the society and culture in which you …
: My favourite Prince anecdote comes from an interview when he was asked what Rolling Stones song he …
: Been revisiting Prince for the first times in ages. For my money, throughout the six year period …
: Really savouring Mary Oliver’s Dog Songs. Great poet that she is, she manages to convey the human …
: “Awakening is highly overrated. And it is credited with a lot more than it is actually responsible …
: I’m finding it enormously freeing and conducive to a profound lightness of being to not try and hold …
: If one is in the business of finding answers to life then, if they exist at all, they surely reside …
: Logs chopped and laundry done, now just time for coffee and cake before a late shift.
: Only when that time comes, then and only then will we know what we will do and who we are.
: Enough is more than everything.
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Very happy with my Valentine gift from my wife.
: The best advice ever: There’s what you should do, there’s what you shouldn’t do and there’s what …
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Not living anywhere near London anymore I’m really excited to have got tickets to see the National …
: In terms of one’s immediate phenomenological experience in this moment, there is no difference …
: Woe betide anyone who thinks they know better.
: …the right-populist turn seems to be the effect of improved material, and especially technological, …
: My wife is doing an MA in Contemporary Craft. This little window into academia is slowly but surely …
: “We suffer from the delusion that the entire universe is held in order by the categories of human …
: Fire lit. Dog fed. Feet up. Footie on…
: “Churches speak most convincingly when there’s no one in them.” — Keith Ashford
: “Can we imagine a life with no content?” — More, please
: Great episode of A New Way Of Being podcast, interview with Shiv Sengupta, a writer I have a lot of …
: A rainy, grey day. Yet there is egg, bacon and coffee at my local cafe before the cleaning of fires, …
: “I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need it.” — John Cage
: So today was spent mostly getting dirty, taking stuff to the recycling centre, clearing up after the …
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So this old girl (16 in March) got her new meds and top up jabs (oh, and treat or two from the vet) …
: Can’t believe I’ve only just now been introduced to the amazing Lola Young, thanks to my wife who …
: Our unconscious exerts itself on us whether we want it to or not. Indeed, the degree to which we …
: “Both men are conspicuous for the degree to which they still resemble children, having retained a …
: “You can’t define a person. You can’t sum anyone up. Life is non-summative—it is infinite.” — James …
: The Dark Enlightenment is now happening, live.
: There is no avoiding anything. Everything reaches you in the end.
: “The real truth, that dare not speak itself, is that no one is in control. Absolutely no one.” — …
: “Original experience has not been interpreted for you, and so you’ve got to work out your life for …
: What we are does not exist in language. Not everything has a story. Not everything needs a story.
: In every fleeting moment question and answer are the same thing.
: “We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we …
January 2025
: Tonight is Severance night. Loved Season 1 and I’m carrying on watching it but I’m beginning to kind …
: To bastardise/ rewrite Alan Watts: “Poetry is perhaps our greatest folly. The art of saying what …
: Maturity, at any age, is nothing more than realising that both you and life are not what you thought …
: “If one is looking for final answers and somehow, unfortunately, finds them, that is religion, not …
: Feel I have to give another shout out to The Kissing of Kissing: Poems (Multiverse) by Hannah …
: “When we live our life as a whole, there is no longer an aspect that gets singled out as …
: And suddenly the smallest mounds became hills to die on…
: “No war was ever started by someone who couldn’t give a fuck either way.” — John Cooper Clarke
: “How can I be substantial without casting a shadow? I must have a dark side too if I am to be whole; …
: Nothing in particular to do today. Got a run of long shifts coming up so taking the opportunity to …
: “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness …
: Yoga this evening was part brutal, part glorious with moments of hilarity. All life was there.
: “Thus to enter a realm of immediate experience is most stimulating for those who have done their …
: “This may be no more than his household, his own tortured psyche, or the lives that he blights with …
: The one thing I know. I don’t know anything.
: “One lives as one can…” — Carl Jung, Your questions are unanswerable
: Today: cleaning out fires, chopping logs, laundry, signing off on our roof work and then maybe a 5k …
: Not integrating and assimilating traditional ancient wisdom into the ordinary reality of your own …
: The closest I came to an esoteric or so-called spiritual experience when I was a child was when, …
: Another variation on the same theme. “Just being alive is enough.” — Shunryu Suzuki
: The absurdity of accumulating and hanging onto items, things, stuff…
: Flipboard’s new Surf app is all very nice now but it will just turn to shit, like Flipboard did, …
: Consciousness and phenomena are so intertwined, interdependent and co-emergent as to be …
: “Suffering doesn’t disappear from life, it disappears into life.” — Barry Magid, Ordinary Mind …
: Being/ life is exactly what it is, exactly what it appears to be in each moment and yet we have no …
: “The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, …
: The more one learns about the great spiritual traditions in tandem with examining the raw …
: SUERZA n. a feeling of quiet amazement that you exist at all; a sense of gratitude that you were …
: “It is in the nature of political bodies always to see the evil in the opposite group, just as the …
: Words always fail. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes catastrophically.
: So. What a weekend. We had workmen doing repairs on the roof last week that didn’t get finished and …
: The restless, seeking mind settles when it realises there’s nothing to find.
: Get out of your own way and let yourself unfold…
: “Where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t …
: Looking forward to getting back to the meditation group tomorrow. A series of consecutive late …
: “No, it isn’t. No combination of words can be a fact because words are not facts and facts are not …
: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. — George …
: I don’t know if this makes any sense but, ‘react’ and ‘respond’ are not synonymous. For me a …
: There’s no cure for being human.
: Wherever we go, whatever we do we always take ourselves with us.
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Sometimes there’s only one thing that matters.
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And let’s not forget Toast in black and white…
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Some old black and white photos…
: Ignorance and certainty. Wisdom’s way: Believe nothing. Doubt everything. — Twins
: “To remain still, to turn from knowing to simple awareness – without choosing, without direction, in …
: “I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” — Mark Twain
: “In other living creatures ignorance of self is nature; in man it is vice.” — Boethius
: If we allow them the vicissitudes of life make us instead of break us.
: “Thoughts are natural events that you do not possess, and whose meaning you only imperfectly …
: “The advantage of so-called ‘free will’ is indeed so obvious that civilized man is easily persuaded …
: The best teacher is always the present moment no matter what is happening.
: Feel what you feel, don’t feel what you think.
: You can’t edit life. You’re either all in or all out.
: Look close enough and all things disappear.
: The problem is all the arguments and conflicts between people who think they have the ultimate …
: Booked tickets to see Robert Eggers' remake of Nosferatu on Tuesday. Can’t wait!
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As much as I love his films, I can’t get enough of David Lynch’s paintings and photography either…
: Sadly I’m struggling to find a way to watch David Lynch’s Eraserhead and Lost Highway. It seems …
: “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people. It …
: “Man’s fate has always swung between day and night. There is nothing we can do to change this.” — …
: “Deeply ingrained in the infantile psyche is the conscious or unconscious assumption that the cure …
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Current status: Coffee before work
: “We should not try to “get rid” of a neurosis, but rather to experience what it means, what it has …
: “If you look for meaning, you miss what happens.” — Andrei Tarkovsky
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Can’t fault her commitment to keeping the door open rather than relaxing in her bed.
: RIP David Lynch. Things were never quite the same after seeing Eraserhead.
: “Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic …
: No matter how small and simple a life may appear to be, it is whole and infinite.
: We are not Black Holes. Our darkness does not consume light. Rich and fertile, it is the very stuff …
: “Only what is really oneself has the power to heal.” — Carl Jung
: “…we uncover the essential impermanence of everything that arises; and that of course includes …
: ‘Just enough’ technology seems exactly the right amount. Or of anything for that matter.
: The only way I found that successfully dealt with the whole To Do/ Tasks/ Lists farrago was to get …
: The new Reeder app is an extraordinary product I can highly recommend. A unified timeline of just …
: Where would we be without the darkness?
: The problems caused by thought are not solved by more thinking.
: All the problems we face, ranging from the most intimate and private right through to the biggest …
: “When you surrender, the problem ceases to exist. Try to solve it, or conquer it, and you only set …
: “Words, like the hands of a skilled bodyworker, can draw your attention to something previously …
: The complete yet ongoing experience that there is anything happening at all (whatever the flavour, …
: Mostly spending today chopping wood and carrying water… 🧘♂️ ☯️
: I am incredibly prejudiced. When I see the ‘technical advisors and custodians’ of Free Our Feeds …
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Highly recommend this book of astonishing poems.
The Kissing of Kissing: Poems (Multiverse) by …
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Letting this sleeping dog lie.
🐕
: “The mind chases experiences the way a dog chases squirrels: compulsively. The mind thinks (thinks!) …
: “Love is an action. But the action happens by itself. There is no doer. Love is not an activity; …
: Working the late shift again tonight so no meditation group tonight sadly. 🧘♂️ ☯️
: There are no other lives that any of us could be living. 🧘♂️ ☯️
: “A political situation is the manifestation of a parallel psychological problem in millions of …
: “It is in the nature of political bodies always to see the evil in the opposite group, just as the …
: Really trying my hardest to watch Megalopolis but I fear Coppola might have left us with, as his …
: None of these clever, well written books have the answer because there are no answers. 🧘♂️ ☯️
: We can never know what we are. We can only be what we are. 🧘♂️ ☯️
: In the spirit of prevention being better than cure I think it behooves all of us to acknowledge our …
: Always open, never landing… 🧘♂️ ☯️
: The divine right of tech billionaires… The Dark Enlightenment
: There are no absolutes, ultimates or fundamentals in nature – only at the limits of our perceptions. …
: Every single life is expressing something. 🧘♂️ ☯️
: Well, well. How serendipitous! No more than a couple of hours after my earlier post this quote falls …
: Ouch! Managed to ‘brand’ my arm on the door of the log burner last night. It hurt at the time but it …
: Brilliant, as ever, from @annie ”In my experience, having courage feels like a cross between bungee …
: “I don’t know” sounds like an ending but is actually always the best place to start… 🧘♂️ ☯️
: The best teacher of all is the present moment. 🧘♂️ ☯️
: Getting back to yoga tonight was such good feeling. A really nice vibe with some lovely guys in a …
: I am grateful for a life that is small but infinite. 🧘♂️☯️
: Thinking about the cost of being persistently aware of global news about which we can have no input, …
: This. The only true goal is boredom Minus the incorrect assertion that Buddhism seeks to detach one …
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Toast in her happy place, on a sheepskin rug. 15 years, 10 months and counting…
🐕
: For me meditation and contemplation are synonymous. Practice is continuous in the midst of life. To …
: Another beautiful post from Mike Farley, this time on impermanence and the interdependence of life …
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Here’s to the new Reeder app
Time for a long overdue shout out to the new Reeder app. I haven’t seen Iconfactory’s Project …
: Just seen A Real Pain. A good movie. Learned that Kieran Culkin is brilliant at playing himself. …
: A busy day, a long walk and now a roaring fire…
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Snow still lingering on the high ground.
: Very curious to see Roberts Eggers’ Nosferatu remake. Mixed reviews but I always enjoy his work, …
: “What we’re really in the business of doing is helping people stay with the thoughts and feelings …
: Happy to have booked my first yoga class of the year. It will be good to get back on the mat …
: I’m enjoying the slow pace of micro.blog. And the lack of likes and follower counts and ‘re-posts’ …
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A blast from the past on the drive home this evening. 🎵
: When work is flow it’s no longer work.
: “When there is nothing left, the way opens. Only when you can sit still in the ruins of all you had …
: “Nobody needs to go anywhere else. We are all, if we only knew it, already there.” — Aldous Huxley …
: Only just made it in to work this morning. The combination of snow melt and overnight rain has …
: So it was the snow which caused problems yesterday and now and tomorrow it will be snow melt plus …
: Just made it home as the snow started to settle and deepen. Switched to a later shift tomorrow so …
: “Thoughts arise and fall as flowers live and wilt. Stars fade over eons in the night sky and clouds …
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Listening to Zen teacher and psychoanalyst Barry Magid’s Ordinary Mind.
Excellent so far. Within …
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This seemed like a suitable companion for the cold and dark drive to work this morning. “Dark and …
: “Zen is feeling life, not something about life.” — Alan Watts 🧘♂️
: Experience without language. Wordless being. 🧘♂️
: Thoughts and feelings are not a problem. Believing they are is. 🧘♂️
: Can’t believe it’s a year since I last watched Luke Littler in the final of the PDC World …
: “Human memory, driven by emotional self-interest, goes to extraordinary lengths to provide evidence …
: “Remembering and fiction-making are virtually indistinguishable.” “Remembering his country, he …
: “I know of nothing more difficult than knowing who you are and having the courage to share the …
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Really want to read this (and watch the companion documentary on Amazon). David Shields is one of my …
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She made it through another year but not sure she’ll make another one…
🐕
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It’s cold outside but not in here.
: Just checking the weather for the next couple of days and it looks like I could quite easily get …
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Tucking into my favourite Xmas present.
: Probably the most underrated feeling or state of mind that contributes subtlety but most powerfully …
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The fire is slowly dying for the night…
: So here we go with micro.blog… Haven’t the faintest how I’ll use it or if I even will. First …
January 2023
: We become what we give our attention to.
: Let the nettle sting be. Who are we to claim it as ours?
: When we truly lose the overbearing sense of a self, what is left naturally inclines towards others.
: When we say we can’t take anymore what we’re really saying is we don’t want anymore.
: Don’t wait to be taught. Let your own intuition and insights guide you.
: Words and images have meaning in contrast to reality which simply is meaning.
: The real benefits of contemplative inquiry appear when we let go of acquiring any.
: It’s the holding on that hurts, not the letting go.
: Beware spiritual materialism. The subtle, seductive tendency to turn the formless, not only into …
: It is what we do when we don’t know, don’t understand what we are doing.
: We deceive ourselves by thinking it can’t be this obvious, this simple, this effortless. It is our …
: The eternal unfolding of the infinite everything includes the arising of the futile attempts to …
: Can we be still and attend to this open awareness without describing or narrating?
: We don’t experience things in the present. We are experience and presence simultaneously without …
: When we truly and honestly inquire into the present moment with open awareness, without concepts or …
: Notice how we don’t experience time in the same way as we experience bodily sensations. When we …
: “True freedom is the end of separation, this moment of life without ‘I’. The presence revealed …
: Life lives us without effort. We need do nothing to be fully alive. We can’t stop it, we can’t make …
: Can we take responsibility for the truth we find when we let go of wanting things to be other than …
: When our minds are open and not constricted by the blinkers of small ego, we realise there is wisdom …
: I love this insight from Amoda Maa: “…the willingness to surrender the argument with what is: to …
: “Falling into openness—a dissolution of the psychological knot of ego—is the doorway to freedom.” …
: If, sometimes, we must hold, hold lightly with gentle tenderness, full in the knowledge that that is …
: Whatever state of mind you find yourself in, rather than focussing on the content or the description …
: That which is undoubtedly here yet utterly inconceivable.
: What seekers are seeking is not ‘out there’ beyond but right here, right now before everything, even …
: Nothing is fixed or stable including us and our fantastical flights of fancy about identity and …
: There is no mistaking the raw actuality of this moment, right here, right now. Everything else is …
: If we attend closely and carefully enough we can observe how we take refuge and hide and imprison …
: All forms reveal emptiness and emptiness reveals all forms. Not two, not oneness, just difference …
December 2022
: Attend to the present moment carefully and closely enough and find everything that happens appears …
: The present moment will never let you down. Everything else will.
: The fear of death is the same as any other story we believe to be true. Just a story we have made up …
: This, this that is undeniable, self evident and simply here is ungraspable and without form or …
: All memories pale in comparison to the vibrant, visceral actuality of this moment of vivid …
: Thinking - the original virtual reality.
: We attribute fixed meanings to the ever changing phenomenal world. No wonder all meanings fail in …
: Pleasure or pain. Relaxation or anxiety. There is nothing confusing about the present moment until …
: Awareness is not beyond doubt or question because it is already present before either arise.
: “Feel your feet on the ground – listen and look.” John Butler
: Awareness includes everything and clings to nothing. We might call that unconditional love. Joan …
: Who exactly are you filing that complaint with?
: What does the statement: ‘I deserve…(insert what you think you deserve) actually mean?
: In the the condition of empty awareness, when the illusion of ego self is clearly seen through, what …
: Difference without separation.
: Thinking negatively, thinking positively - it’s still all just magical thinking and prone to the …
: Nothing special. Ordinary awareness in the midst of life.
: There is nothing we can think that can solve the problems that thought creates.
: We love to meet the stories we hear with our own stories instead of just sharing the truth of what …
: See through the leading character (the ego) in our story and the whole narrative collapses.
: You Don’t Have To Suffer Anymore You Don’t Have To Suffer Anymore
: Time is Thought Time is Thought by Dr Amy Johnson
: No path, no way, no method, no technique that endures. Everything changes. Only the ever present raw …
: This timeless present moment of eternal reality right now reveals everything we need to know about …
: We can recognise a great teaching to be true when it points away from itself to the heart of truth …
: Buddhism isn’t about becoming a Buddhist or even Buddhism. It’s about recognising the nature of your …
: When truly sought Even the seeker cannot be found. Thereupon the goal of the seeking is attained, …
: Listen, trust and learn from yourself. Ultimately we are our own best teachers.
: I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need it. John Cage
: Shifting out of our world of images and stories about ourselves and the world is simple but hard, …
: If we are anything we may say we are fields of potentiality.
: We can discover everything we need to know about ourselves by observing how we behave when no one is …
: The universe includes us but isn’t about us.
: Others suffer because we suffer.
: The non dual condition is fundamentally paradoxical. As quantum phenomena are real but make no …
: ‘Awareness’ is a word that points to the seeing that is never divided into seer and seen. Joan …
: Walking into each moment without history or expectation.
: The only way one really gets any of the most important benefits of meditation practice is by giving …
: Enlightenment is the end of the one who cares about being enlightened or unenlightened.
: What is beyond doubt takes no effort to maintain.
: “The entirety of practical spirituality consists of distinguishing fantasy from actuality. …
: The entirety of practical spirituality consists of distinguishing fantasy from actuality. The …
: This. This, that is utterly inconceivable and yet totally obvious and impossible to avoid. Joan …
: Thoughts are stories. Emotions are energy. Connect the two and cling to either or both creates …
: Stories are sophisticated patterns and we have evolved to create patterns out of chaos to survive. …
: We are constantly told that we love stories. I would amend that to; we are addicted to stories. …
: Nihilism is just another story. Open awareness is that which is prior to, and allows for, all …
: The fewer stories and narratives we have running in our minds the freer we become.
: As open awareness, walking along a deserted beach or a tranquil field is no different than being in …
: Whatever this is, cannot be pulled apart, divided or separated.
: Liberation is the aliveness and immediacy beyond belief. Liberation is when all the answers, …
: Since our first breath thoughts, feelings, concepts, ideas and experiences have come and gone over …
: Suffering is feedback, showing us that we’re attached to ideas and thoughts that appear true, but …
: If we persist in looking to get or obtain something, anything from ourselves, others and the world …
: What stories are we going to believe and invest in about ourselves and the world today? What forms …
: Thoughts, ideas, theories, concepts, and stories are all for nought without the rigorous practice of …
: What is fear of death but a complicated tangle of images and stories about everything except the …
: Dissolving or seeing through the fabricated ego self automatically frees us from craving and …
: Allow everything without holding onto anything.
: Egos meet and remain separate but open, aware minds share presence.
: As Beckett was exquisitely aware, all language fails attempting to capture the formless absolute.
: Enlightenment, awakening, recognition, realisation, whatever, is not an answer, has no answers …
: Deconstructing the self automatically opens us to boundless possibilities.
: Myriad holograms of meaning come and go, arise and fade away over and over and over and yet the …
: No arrival, no conclusion, no ending, just perpetual freshness and unknowing.
: This includes us but is not about us.
: The illusion of a spiritual journey is just more hinderance, more occlusion of the infinite ground …
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‘Symbols and conventions can be used for awareness rather than for developing worldly attitudes to …
: With complete recognition of open awareness the need for the crutches of meaning, purpose and …
: Data, information, knowledge - none have anything to do with wisdom.
: In spite of the famous phrase: ‘There must be more to life than this’, there is actually no more to …
: The infinite — the only condition where logic and paradox dwell without conflict.
: There are infinite ways to recognise the infinite.
: Things to be interested in come and go but the raw unmediated actuality of the present moment is …
: Whenever we look, whatever we witness is simply what is here now and that is always everything and …
: Words and images, words and images, so many, seemingly endless words and images describing and …
: The problems of thought are not clarified by more thinking. A ruler trying to measure itself…
: No hope nor fear here. Just what is.
November 2022
: Nothing here now will remain.
: The weather alters our mood only to the extent to which we indulge the ideas and concepts that it …
: There is no elephant in the room. The elephant is the room.
: Here language always fails. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes less so But always unable to touch what …
: The anxiety and fear of a week ago is gone. Traces remain as ever-diminishing memory. Then as now, …
: Cold. Darkness. Street lights. Stillness. An alarm. Distant shouting. The merest hint of dawn.
: There is no right or wrong time nor right or wrong place.
: Open. Open to what is. Open to what is not. Open to everything and open to nothing at all. Open to …
: Whatsoever is your attitude towards life will be your attitude towards death… What is the Zen …
: None of this is about happiness or sadness, joy or sorrow, hope or despair per se. It is whatever we …
: This includes us but is not about us.
: The ordinary. The everyday. The shit on my shoe.
: Break the identification with thought and there is simply what is, and that includes thought too.
: To say that one is ‘spiritual’ is just more identification with something, sometimes any ‘thing’ …
: What is sought is not beyond. It is that which is already fully present before anything. Before joy, …
: There is nothing to be gained… that is all. There is nothing to be gained.
: There is no more or less life to be had anywhere other than right here, right now.
: Wherever and however we are is where must always begin again.
: Meditation techniques are easy to practise because they have a form. Awareness is harder because it …
: Knowledge and ignorance are both untrue, nothing but dream and illusion — the nonduality of true and …
: The truth of the moment is beyond all thoughts, all feelings, all ideas, all concepts, all systems, …
: Doing nothing but with full attention and awareness.
: Once you realise you’re distracted, that you’ve been thinking without knowing you’ve been thinking, …
: Meaning and purpose are just a distracted person's imaginary friends. Sam Harris
: Nowhere to go but here. All journeys lead home.
: If I am anything, I am the totality of everything and nothing that is and isn’t happening in this …
: Hanging, weightless in open awareness.
: Clinging to no tradition. Seeing through each of them to the common unicity of all of them.
: Darkness, wind and rain. The drip, drip, drip from a broken gutter.
: The dark night of the unknown. The steps one knows one has to take and the associated fear.
: I feel this is the heart of meditation: Simply being interested in what is here – being more …
: The dog, snoring at my feet. Loud chatter coming through the wall from next door. The smell of …
: No doer nor nothing to be done.
: No thought can improve what is already here.
: We don’t have ideas, ideas have us. Carl Jung
: In times of trauma I have no idea what I’m doing except somehow saving myself.
: Sitting, wondering at the beauty of existence but also inquiring into the horrors here too.
: Pain yet complete aliveness.
: What is the duration of this moment? Does it last only until the the next instance of inattention?
: Roaring tinnitus this morning in my now blocked, deaf left ear. My experience of the world is now …
: A solitary lamp illuminating the corner of the room. Ringing, hissing tinnitus; shrill, clean and …
: I am very lucky to have a job in which I spend most of the time in a state of flow. No distracting, …
: Noticing that which would otherwise have gone unrecognised.
: This is neither special nor ordinary as these words are referring to that which defies all …
: AE’s clear, bright eyes. Full of life lacking nothing but sight.
: Each of us has our own story about death and grief but in the end that’s all they are. Distracting …
: One fire unfolding as infinite flames.
: The fire again. Crackling and sputtering a fuss over damp logs. The dog is here, still but watchful. …
: There is no Buddhism here, no Zen, no Advaita, no Dzogchen, no awakening, no enlightenment, no …
: The raw, unmediated pain of grief of an individual I support at work. There are few if no words that …
: Nowhere to go but here, where everything and nothing already are.
: Birth, life and death are not personal but we make them so Who are we to claim them as our own? …
: On my way to work this morning, just letting everything unfold without explanation, rhyme or reason: …
: Early start. Still dark. Silence but for the ticking clock and the hum of the fridge.
: An evening spent in good conversation with my wonderful wife. Happily fuelled by a bottle of Baileys …