Picture the following scene, dear reader. It is a busy morning at the Himalaya Book Café. With less than an hour before lunch service, I am sitting on my customary spot on magazine rack, nostrils flaring as I try to identify the delightful aromas wafting from the kitchen, where the Dragpa brothers are working their usual culinary magic. In my...
Latest Blog Posts
Read the first 12 pages of The Queen’s Corgi: On Purpose
I am delighted to share with you the first 12 pages of my book, The Queen’s Corgi: On Purpose! If you’d like to know a little more about why I wrote to the book, check out this two minute video: Now, find yourself a nice, snuggly spot for a few minutes and enjoy! Warm wishes, David Prologue ...
New novel from David Michie out now!
Hi Everyone, I am very excited to let you know that my new novel, The Queen’s Corgi: On Purpose is published this week! In the same style as The Dalai Lama’s Cat, in The Queen’s Corgi our narrator, Nelson, provides a dog’s-eye view of life with the royal family. Along with a lot of fun and games, he comes to understand what makes...
Two good reasons to stop beating yourself up: a Buddhist perspective
Many readers of this blog may not have to travel far to meet their harshest and most unyielding critic. A few steps to the nearest mirror will probably do the trick. There you can look into the eyes of the person who talks to you in a way that they would never dream of talking to their friends. The person...
Too busy to be happy? A Buddhist perspective
In our era of unprecedented busy-ness, constant communication and relentless deadlines, it’s easy to feel that we have no time for an inner life. When so many of us feel burdened by the imperative for immediate, round-the-clock responsiveness, and the constant need to do more with less, it’s understandable that as we reach the end of each day, it’s all...
Finding it hard to let go of past hurts? A mindful perspective.
Every one of us will experience hurt, betrayal and disappointment. What matters is how we deal with these feelings. As the Dalai Lama says, ‘Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.’ What he means is that although it’s impossible to avoid upsetting experiences, we do have a say about whether negative events or people continue to affect us. Interestingly, the word...
Seven Reasons to Practice Mindfulness in Nature
Why is the experience of practising mindfulness in nature so effortless, so wonderful and so powerful in helping us develop insights? I’d like to thank Dr Shelley Plumb of www.plumbtalkproductions.com for this short video which captures some of the main points in my article below. Shelley interviewed me when joined me for Mindful Safari back in 2017: Never have...
The Joy of Winefulness
I practice and teach meditation. I also enjoy wine. White in summer, red in winter is what floats my particular boat. I drink in moderation and only rarely over-indulge. I have no doubt at all that mindfulness makes drinking wine very much more enjoyable. When we are being mindful – ‘paying attention to the present moment deliberately and non-judgementally’ – we...
Listen to David Michie and 99 others at the Hay House World Summit
Hi Everyone, I was honoured to be invited by Hay House, publishers of my Dalai Lama’s Cat series, to take part in the 2016 Hay House World Summit – the largest health and wellness event in the world! A few key points about the World Summit: It is an online event, enabling you to access sessions with 100 experts, authors and spiritual...
Can you be a Buddhist if you don’t believe in karma and reincarnation?
I am sometimes asked this question, especially at the end of an introductory class on Buddhism. The person asking me will usually have been struck by one of the life-enhancing insights offered by the Dharma. Perhaps they have experienced the gentle but powerful impact that meditation has on our state of mind. Many Buddhist teachings have a strong resonance among...
The five benefits of suffering
Most of us will do whatever we can to avoid suffering. We don’t like the idea of it. We don’t much like even the word. Whether it’s trivial inconvenience or major life-changing suffering we want no part of it. But the reality is that for much of our lives we experience some level of dissatisfaction. This was Buddha’s first ‘Noble...
Do animals use telepathy to communicate? Intriguing video evidence.
Many pet lovers have had the experience of a dog, cat, or other being appearing to know about something without having been shown it. Or inexplicably understanding the significance of something that happened. In some cases a persistent thought may arise in a pet-lover’s mind which, when they respond to it, seems to have been communicated by the pet himself...
