At this time of year, many of us step back from our usual routine, and take time to reconnect with family and friends from our past. We also, quite naturally, contemplate the year/s ahead. Whether you are a formal goal-setter, or prefer to reflect on your purpose in a less structured way, I hope you...
In the West, there are two mainstream models to describe happens when we die. On the one hand, the Christian tradition teaches that each of us has a soul which separates from the body at death and goes to heaven or hell for eternity. On the other, the materialistic model suggests that matter is...
In a past blog I looked at the value of contemplating death while we’re still very much alive. This blog focuses on the death process itself as presented by Tibetan Buddhism. Western medicine defines death as what happens when our heart stops beating and we stop breathing. In Buddhism, death is described as a sequence...
With the publication of ‘Mindfulness is Better than Chocolate’ in USA and Canada planned for 27 January 2015, my US publishers are offering 5 free copies via a raffle. Entering the raffle is free of charge, and should take you no more than about half a minute . If the page takes a...
I find it depressing to watch small children tossing aside a half-opened Christmas present in the hope of finding a more instantly gratifying one in the pile beneath it. Or observing an office manager remove a festive hamper from reception with a frown that seems to say ‘Not another delivery of shortbread and Chardonnay!’ Every...
Meditation has so many physical benefits that even Homer Simpson would be keen to benefit from them, if only he could get off the sofa. I’ve already blogged about some of these (http://davidmichie.com/what-are-the-main-physical-benefits-of-meditation/). But why does meditation affect you physically? How is it that, by attaching the seat of your pants to the seat of...
A recent study conducted by Harvard University Psychology Department showed that 47% of the time we are not thinking about what they are doing. Instead we are in what neuro-scientists call a ‘narrative state’ – i.e. lost in thought, as opposed to the ‘direct state,’ when we attend to our senses. More interestingly, there is...
Here’s a fascinating exercise to try out. In the past I have blogged about the challenges we face when our conscious goals are sabotaged by our subconscious minds (http://davidmichie.com/is-your-subconscious-mind-sabotaging-your-conscious-goals/) Part of our dilemma, when we’re unable to follow through with an objective we have consciously set ourselves – whether it is to start to meditate;...
Have you ever wondered why you can’t seem to follow through with certain goals you set yourself? Some goals may come easily, but there may be others that, no matter how keen your intentions, you just can’t seem to deliver on them? As a meditation coach, I’m acutely aware that many newcomers experience the same,...
PROLOGUE Tenzin Dorje (pronounced Ten-zin Door-jay) Zheng-po Monastery, Tibet March 1959 I am alone in the sacred stillness of the temple, lighting butter lamps at the Buddha’s feet, when I first realize that something is very wrong. “Tenzin Dorje!” Startled, I turn to glimpse the spare frame of my teacher, silhouetted briefly at the...
