A group for anyone interested in exploring meditation and awakening.
Vast And love is such a small word For something that is so vast But in it lies the future The present and the past " January Song, " Alan Hull/Lindisfarne This afternoon I got to spend some time doing something I hadn't done for a long time - play guitar. Just me, on my own, at home, strumming and noodling around. I used to love playing guitar. As a teen I was a little obsessed, and when I wasn't…
First Time? Every year, at around this time, I have a minor internal struggle trying to decide what is the latest time that I can get away with wishing someone 'Happy New Year.' The first week of January is a given. After that, well, it depends. After the end of January it is definitely too late. Today is 31st of January so I am pushing it a bit. But it is technically still Lunar New Year so here…
Be Not Afraid There are some fun (and somewhat disturbing) memes going around at the moment where people try to produce images (and in one extreme case a taxidermy sculpture) that recreate what angels might look like, based on how they are described in the Bible. I'm not going to link to any of them directly as while fun some of them are the stuff of nightmares. There is a reason why in the Bible…
Jingle It's December already, and the inevitable Christmas lights, decorations and music are already around us. As always, I have a fairly ambiguous relationship with all this - I find some of the decorations fun and coming out of a couple of years of lock-down the celebratory aspect feels good this year. The side that gives me pause is the incessant commercialization and equating a religious /…
Jagged I am going to start today with an apology to all of you reading who are under forty or so. I am going to be referencing some music from the nineties, and it is likely that you will have no clue what I am talking about - so I will be sure to explain the relevance to our meditation practices. I've got you. I am also going to apologize to those of you over forty too - the song I am going to…
Soggy, Not Soggy The weather this weekend has been lovely - cold, crisp and clear. Possibly my favorite time of the year. Of course this won't last, soon we will inevitably get that half-mist-half-rain that threatens to soak you through even though it hardly seems like it is raining. I was born and brought up in Southern England and now live in the Pacific Northwest, and the one thing they both…
Fall Back About fifteen years ago I headed down to the local yoga studio where I was leading the regular Sunday evening sit. When I got there I was the first there as usual, and I opened up and set out my cushion and sat waiting for the others to come. In those days we had a small but loyal group, but our numbers had be dwindling. I had told myself that I would keep leading the group for as long…
Plans It was my plan to send out this letter on Sunday. I had a great theme in mind, and the time to write it - but... Well you know. As the famous first line of Burns' poem goes: The best laid plans of mice and men... Only it doesn't. It's actually not the first line - it's right in the middle of his poem 'To A Mouse,' and the actual words are: The best laid schemes o' mice an' men OK, so not so…
Sonder In a previous job I used to travel a lot, taking an flight somewhere most weeks. It was fun for a while but got old fairly quickly - especially when I was going back to the same locations over and over again. But there were some times that were special - like the time when I got to see the same sunset twice in Cincinatti (I saw it first when on the plane waiting to take off, then once more…
Tick, Tick... Last night I saw a local theater production of Jonathan Larson 's " Tick, Tick... Boom! ". This is a short, semi-autobiograpical musical where Larson explores the feelings of 'Jon,' an as-yet unsuccessful composer of musical theater just about to turn thirty. If you are unfamiliar with the piece then I can highly recommend the recent movie adaptation (available on Netflix). As you…
Squirrel Part 2 Note: If you didn't read "Squirrel Part 1" from last week don't worry, you don't need to have done so before reading this as I will fill in the necessary background. However if you would rather read that first you can find it here . One of the perks of my day job is that I get to work with some of the most cutting-edge computer and software systems. One of the systems I have been…
Squirrel Part 1 You will probably have noticed that this letter bears the suffix 'Part 1,' and as such you are probably expecting that there will be - at least - a Part 2 to follow. And you would be correct. As I was doing some background reading for this letter I realized that there were several points I wanted to cover, and that to do them justice I would be best separating them out. And so we…
Mind-Ass Connection I am not much of a dancer. Actually, let me start that again. In the history of lousy dancers, I am by far the most lousy. I dream of being good enough to be described as having two left feet. Whatever sequences in DNA are responsible for groove - well I am missing them all. Now that doesn't mean that I dislike dance - far from it. I love watching people dance and of course…
Like Butter Note: There isn't an audio meditation linked to this letter. There was going to be, but I chose not to post one - all of which I will explain later. So there are two parts to this - the message I wanted to discuss, and then a short discussion on my decision not to link the audio. I hope that this "Metta Letter" doesn't become too "meta!" Earlier this week I was in New York City…
Skillful Acts This week there has been a lot of chatter in the news about a TikTok phenomenon that has gone somewhat sour. There are several influential young TikTok creators who have devoted themselves to performing 'random acts of kindness' on their channels, and sharing video of them doing so in order to inspire others to do the same. The 'random acts' range from giving strangers compliments,…
Father's Day, Redux I'd like to wish all of you who are Fathers out there a happy Father's Day - I hope that the day has been one of relaxation and joy. Last year I wrote a short piece on both the joy and dangers of how we celebrate Father's Day (and Mother's Day). I have reproduced it here below as I feel it is still very relevant, no matter who you are and whether or not you have children. I…
Maps I am not much of a computer-game player - I have to admit that my short foray into video games ended with the Monkey Island franchise (a fact that will allow some of you to work out exactly how old I am). This week, however, we have been completely engrossed in an online game called Geoguessr . The premise is quite simple - the game drops you into a random place in the world (in Google Street…
The Crystal Ball There is a recurring joke that goes around new-age and 'alternative' circles. You may well have seen it, as it is one of those things that gets posted and re-posted on social media, often with the poster claiming it happened to 'a friend of mine' - and who know, it may have. I can totally imagine it happening in real life. Anyway, there are various versions of it, so here is my…
Memorial I am a little bit late with my newsletter this week because of the long weekend here. It is Memorial Day in the US, which means that many of us get a three-day weekend with the holiday on the Monday. I often have to work over weekends, but fortunately this weekend for me was a genuine three days of relaxing and switching off, which was much appreciated. Memorial Day is not a holiday I…
Weeds The weather where we are has been a bit strange this spring. We had snow at the beginning of April (the latest we have had snow for 82 years apparently), and both April and May have been wetter than usual - even for a persistently damp place like the Pacific Northwest. Now I can't complain, especially as other, not too distant areas are experiencing droughts. Being in the soggy part of the…
Deteriorata Be comforted, that in the face of all irridity and disillusionment, And despite the changing fortunes of time, There is always a big future in computer maintenance. - National Lampoon's Deteriorata , lyrics by Tony Hendra. There are certain things that really manage to wind me up. Small things that are on the surface annoying, but which somehow seem to automatically send me into full…
Stand There Recently I watched a short video essay called " My Religion and My Banned Books " by John Green, one of the 'VlogBrothers.' John Green is probably best known as the author of the highly influential YA novel " The Fault in Our Stars ." The book follows the story of a 16 year-old girl dying of thyroid cancer and her romance with a fellow patient. I have not read the book (nor seen the…
Severance I recently watched, and enjoyed, the Apple TV show 'Severance. ' Now I know that psychological Sci-Fi thrillers may not be your cup of tea, but like all the best examples of the genre it chooses to ask some very interesting questions, in this case on the nature of 'self.' Without giving away any spoilers (just in case it is your cup of tea) the premise of the show is that scientists have…
Mirrors I've been going down a little bit of a rabbit-hole recently. Now to be clear, I love rabbit-holes. Any opportunity to learn a little bit more about an obscure or eclectic subject is a lot of fun for me. Whether it is a technical subject related to my work, or a new genre of music, music theory or some historical trivia - I just love diving into the research, and then trying to bring it all…
Easter - Again Happy Easter everyone! It's the day when - according to some complex calculation - the Western Christian Church commemorates the death and resurrection of Christ. It is also, not coincidentally, at roughly the same time of the year as other older celebrations such as the Spring Equinox, May Day, Passover and Ēostre. What these have in common is that they are all about rebirth, the…