Almost Composed

Meditation and curiosity

The Unexpected Path: Buddhism and parenting an autistic child

November 12, 2021

To those of you who are struggling with doubt about meditation practice, if you believe that your life conditions are too intense, too chaotic for practice to bear fruit, I would like to offer some reassurance. At age three, my son was diagnosed with autism. It is distressing to see your child unable to cope […]

categories: essays, reflections

Mindfulness of ruined worlds

September 23, 2021

Contemplating the beauty and serenity of Sable’s ruined world gave me some comfort. On one level, if and when Earth is finally desolate it might at least be peaceful, mysterious, and interesting to its surviving scavenger tribes. There’s something awe-inspiring about thinking on that timescale. Would the denizens of a post-apocalyptic world be awake to […]

Personal computing

September 9, 2021

I have conflicted feelings about computers. As a boy, I loved nature and playing in the garden more than anything. I thought computers were sinister, inherently bad, maybe even evil. Then, around 1990, my parents bought my brother and I an Amiga 500. At first, I was disappointed. What did I want with a computer […]

categories: essays, reflections

The importance of wholesome structures

June 12, 2019

Matthew Crawford’s book, The World Beyond Your Head, has some important lessons for maintaining clarity and sanity in a world of proliferating distractions. In meditation circles, it’s common knowledge that prolonged stability of attention can create the conditions for deep insights to arise. However, we live in societies where attention is being monetised and manipulated by […]

categories: philosophy, reflections

Unconditional Lovecraft

March 17, 2019

categories: comics