Almost Composed

Meditation and curiosity

The Spiral Path

March 27, 2023

Eh. Coffee by the harbour and a good book. Can’t be bad. I was going to slow down with the reading but a Buddhist teacher kindly gave me a copy of This Being, That Becomes: The Buddha’s Teaching on Conditionality by Dhivan Thomas Jones and I found myself gently exploring it rather than voraciously devouring […]

How we frame meditation retreats has an effect on our experience

November 4, 2022

I wonder if there’s a placebo effect on meditation retreats that helps the mind gather and calm. Equally, if you approach a silent retreat thinking, “Argh, I can’t talk or have fun for days” maybe you’ll have a bumpier start. To be clear, I think the placebo effect is something real that we should take […]

categories: essays, journeys, reflections

Mapping the jhana controversy

October 7, 2022

This point is of considerable relevance to an understanding of the nature of absorption. The issue at stake, simply stated, is whether the first absorption is a deep state of concentration, achieved only after a prolonged period of practice and seclusion, or a stage of relaxed happy reflection within easy reach of anyone and without […]

categories: essays, philosophy, reflections

What Elden Ring is teaching me about stoicism and perseverance

August 29, 2022

On a ruined bridge high above the desolate Lands Between, Margit, the Fell Omen, stood between me and Stormveil Castle once again. The stakes were high: I’d spent £50 on a game months ago and a 20ft death-dealing guardian had seriously diverted my progress away from the main path. I had bounced off Dark Souls […]

categories: philosophy, reflections

The Dharma of Dragonball Z

August 9, 2022

At a certain age, every weeknight my friends and I would huddle around the TV to watch a 20-minute episode of Dragonball Z on Cartoon Network. The show follows Goku and his friends as they train to become better martial artists and save the Earth from myriad alien and android threats. I don’t want to […]

categories: essays