The $3 billion fine against GlaxoSmithKline for mis-selling antidepressants and other medication reveals the commercialisation of mental healthcare. But an alternative to medication is learning to manage your states of mind. Mindfulness-based approaches that draw on...
Mindfulness based approaches use Buddhist methods to address psychological difficulties. But how do they interpret Buddhist practice and how do they adapt it to the needs and problems of modern society? In the last post I described some tendencies in our culture that...
Buddhists are often wary of secular mindfulness training. But Mindfulness Based Approaches are a meeting ground between meditation and modern psychology and we can learn about the psychological issues people face. (1 of two posts) In my last post I said why I think...
We’re in the middle of the Mindfulness Boom as Buddhist-derived meditation practices enter the cultural mainstream. But is this the Dharma touching and transforming western society, or is Buddhism being turned into a self-help technique and a consumer product? Its...
I was sitting in a café with my friend David when he said, ‘There’s something to look at behind you.’ I glanced across, trying not to be obvious. All I saw was an old woman eating her soup. David leaned forward. ‘She’s like a Rembrandt.’ I looked again and noticed her...
If you could sum up the whole of the Buddha’s teaching in a single word that word might be ‘impermanence’: the fact that everything around us is changing all the time and that therefore we can change ourselves. That’s easy to say, but knowing that...
