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The Meditation Practice I Laughed at Until it Changed My Life
I left the 26-day meditation retreat wondering if I’d achieved nirvana. Just three days later, and it feels like my world is collapsing. It’s 2002, and I’m staying in Hua Hin Thailand. I decided to celebrate my retreat success with a beer. Just the one…
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How Walking Saved Me From a Mental Breakdown
London 1994, I’m in the midst of a mental breakdown. My thoughts have been racing for days. I’m desperate. I’ve been relying on cans of superstrong cider to calm my mind down, but it has stopped working. Even buying alcohol is hard now because entering…
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I Hardly Met the Man
I hardly met the man. Yet, forty years later, and I’m still thinking about him. He would have been around my age now . Back then older people were about as interesting to me as furniture; just things that existed in the background. It was…
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My Struggle to Communicate
The session ends with a sense of frustration. This is the one where I talk specifically about trust, intimacy, and wonder. It seems that the closer I get to things I want to say, the more my words fail me. I am all too aware…
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From Barstool Dreams to Real Imagination
It didn’t take too long for me to realize that getting into conversations with strangers in bars could end badly. I tended to get more insulting and argumentative after a few beers. So, I usually preferred to just drink alone. I’d have a book with…
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Disappearing in an Irish Park
A few years ago, I was back visiting Ireland. I was walking through a park near where I grew up. I was wearing this old jacket that was a bit too big for me. Out of nowhere, I experienced the sensation of being watched. I…
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Moving Statues in Ireland Trigger Enchantment
Moving statues of the Virgin Mary were all the rage in Ireland in the mid-1980s. I got to visit one, even though I wasn’t a believer. And yet, I couldn’t help but be caught up in the magical atmosphere. After about an hour of staring…
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Patrick Kavanagh’s Teaching on the Passionate Transitory
Patrick Kavanagh teaches us that love, wonder, and joy are available in even the most difficult moments. He describes the passionate transitory that awaits us when we can see beyond claptrap.
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My Teenage Heartbreak and the Illusion of Should
“In the end it took me a dictionary to find out the meaning of unrequited” Billy Bragg – The Saturday Boy My heart was broken at seventeen by a girl who refused to fit in with my plans. We started going out a few months…
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The Conflict Within Perception
Ordinary perception is divided into two. The German philosopher Fichte describes this division as between the Ich (I) and Nicht-Ich (not I). This “I” part of the perception includes all of our ideas about who we are, who other people are, and how the world…