There are three primary features of everyday listening. You listen to the words or sounds of a person. Second, you hear the tone/attitude in the voice. Third, you listen inwardly to your inner voice. Thoughts may arise, which can get in the way of listening.

What emerges from what you hear? If someone’s words are pleasing, warm, thoughtful, you have an opportunity to share and reciprocate similarly. This develops love, friendship and connection. You acknowledge another person’s kind words, whatever the person talks about.

When you appreciate what you hear, it may call for a response that affirms the person. This matters. Many people doubt themselves.

• Is it correct what I say?

• Is it useful?

• Is it interesting for the listener?

If you say, ‘I genuinely appreciated that. I hear what you’re saying. That’s valuable.” Make sure you mean it. You express confidence in the person speaking. You recognise their authority.

If, however, the person speaks argumentatively, or wants to pick a verbal fight, then never present the opposite view to their view. That’s a no-go area. Once you state the opposite view, you introduce a duality of self and other that leads to an argument. Every argument amount to a declaration: ‘I’m unwilling to listen to you.’ An argument consists of two people talking to themselves.

It takes skill to listen, remain calm and steady with an argumentative person.

Here is a proposal

Respond with a question, then another question and more. The person may go on and on. You need to prepare for that. Then you ask another question —not get into a rant. If you don’t want an argument, you don’t put forward your view, but you still have a voice.

Questioning what the other person claims becomes a practice. You’re not trying to sound superior, intellectual, or prove them wrong. You’re genuinely curious. The person may speak some more, and then some more. At some point, the argumentative person will probably start to run out of things to say. Perhaps the person does not know what to say next.

Their mind is empty. This is an important moment. Then you might ask, ‘Would you like me to respond to what you’ve said?’ Or you might say, ‘You’ve spoken for several minutes. Would you like to summarise what you’ve said, succinctly?’

After that, you might ask, ‘Do you notice any possible contradictions in the view you’ve expressed?’ That’s a strong question. Or, ‘Do you ever have any doubts about that view?’ “Are you open to looking in another way in this issue?”

If the person has a little humility, you may hear a point of doubt. Then the obvious next response is: ‘I’m genuinely interested. Would you kindly say more about what you just said?’

The person might find themselves contradicting what they said at the beginning. In every holding, every clinging to views and opinions, there’s a contradiction, a blind spot due to contraction of the mind. As the person speaks, the person may say something different, perhaps even the opposite, of their original position. Their view might soften or harden, and you can hear and feel the change. Express your appreciation for the softening of the difference and find out about the hardening of the mind.

You might briefly reflect something of what you heard - using their words. Point out any concerns. If you quote the person, ensure your words reflect exactly what you heard.

Don’t go into your own view; it’s irrelevant. It might trigger the arguement. Instead, you’ve brought interest and the power of questioning to the conversation.

You leave knowing the person tried to argue with you, but you did not argue with the person.

Then say, ‘Thank you. I’ll leave you to think about what you said. Goodbye.”

Arguments damage love, respect, relationships and meaningful communication. People stop speaking to each other because of arguments. Arguing confirms unethical and unwise behaviour. Self-righteousness dominates. Both sides think they are right.

In my view, there’s no justification for getting involved in an argument.

Find alternative ways to communicate.

www.christophetitmuss.net

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In early September 2026, D’nae, my grandaugher, kindly bought me a bunch of flowers. Two friends from Switzerland visited and gave me a bunch of flowers and the card. Then the flowers displayed the beautfy of their subtle colours that we love to see in their quiet power to brighten a room. Time goes by. Flowers go on to offer a teaching in the silence as they change from day to day. They arose, offered happiness and faded. Today the flowers join the compost. Meanwhile, the Buddha mind stays steady amidst the changes.

We cannot hold on to a single moment.

• Holding onto the past obstructs the capacity to see with clarity the present and future.

• Holding onto the present impedes seeing the past and future clearly.

• Holding onto the future, keeps us out of touch with the past and present.

First hand experience confirms an unfolding process of change, inwardly and outwardly.

Views of the content of the past, present and future undergo change in gross and subtle ways. We don’t find this easy. We want things to change that do not seem to change. Then, we want things to stay the same, but they change.

It’s a fact that we face daily. It takes clarity and wisdom to live with this unfolding process without suffering over it.

The belief in having and holding onto paves the way to suffering regardless of whether you think the content of interest or the views are good or bad, right or wrong. You can suffer over the good as much as you suffer over the not-good, the bad, the evil. Human problems relate to what did arise, is arising or will or might arise.

Idioms to time

Idioms are phrases and meanings not in the literal words, such as time. These phrases can evoke stress, anger and powerlessness.

We carry idioms around time. Repetition of the idioms makes time a commodity.

• Having time,

• Not having time,

• Making time,

• Wasting our time,

• Life is short

Our projections impact on our concept of time. The impact makes time into a substantial reality, instead of a useful tool for application. Investment in our views of time leads to stress, anxiety and reactivity towards ourselves and others. Time is not problem, only a useful social construction.

What are ways to look at time without stress?

We measure the value of ourselves through the ways we spend our time. Our view of the use of time does not depend on time but on our perceptions, views and mood at the time and projected upon time. That means strees refers to the view of time, not to time. What is a non-stressful view?

Our relationship to time may reveal a similar relationship to money. Bring clarity to time might bring clarity to money or something else. After all, it is the same old mind that lands on both.

Three areas for reflection

1. Consider conventional time. Such time consists of numbers – second, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, year and more. A useful measurement often agreed upon including different time zones.

2. Time in the mind. Idioms around time reinforce measurements of time due to investments by the self. We can experience a string of approval and disapproval of others or ourselves in terms of time. Examples include arriving early and arriving late, completing tasks on time and not finishing on time.

3. Can we liberate time from the pressure we place on time? Repetitive thoughts about time also impose a sense of reality on the insubstantial views and numbers (time, date) involved.

Here is a modest list of common reactions around time. Other languages refer to time in diverse ways.

Reflect on two questions and two responses in mind

1. What idioms around time do you often use?

2. What is an alternative way of saying the same thing, free from a reaction inferred in the idiom?

3. Write out the alternative and apply daily.

4. Experience the benefits.

Sixteen common idioms affecting the state of mind.

1. “Don’t waste my time.”

2. “Have you got time for a quick chat?”

3. “I am pressed for time.”

4. “I can’t find the time to write.”

5. “I don’t have time to read it today.”

6. “I have too much time on my hands.”

7. “I need some time to think.”

8. “I spend far too much time thinking.”

9. “It was a complete waste of time.”

10. “Please make time for yourself.”

11. “I devote all my time to my family.”

12. “Take your time — there is no hurry.”

13. “That shortcut will save us time.”

14. “There are not enough hours in the day.”

15. “We are short of time.”

16. “We need to save time.”

Time involves what did arise, what is arising and what might or will arise.

Jewel of the Timeless

The jewel of life confirms the timeless, unbound to past, present and future. Freedom confirm the timeless and the other way around.

Timeless puts into perspective the constructions revealed as manifestations of time.

Timeless confirms the wonder of the great expanse, not tied down to anything, including sun, moon and earth used to measure time.

Do you know firsthand whispers of the timeless?

A single note of music confirms the timeless.

Love

Christopher

www,thebuddhawallah.org

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Form has not changed that much in 2600 years. It has the potential to wake us up from sleep walking through daily life with an anxious mind, a mind that thinks too much or a mind lost in the trivial.

I hear regularly of people, sincere and thoughtful, who have benefitted from a retreat years ago. Gradually, they lost themselves in the preoccupations of mind and again thirst for elusive inner peace, steadfast focus and knowing a wise response to issues.

Are you one of those people?

Look through the flyer to get in touch with the Waldhaus - fine staff, fine food, beautiful outdoors and teachings/practices have backbone, if I may say.

Mind you, no part-timers.

Worthwhile for beginners and meditators with years of experience.

A single insight can wake up a life.

See you soon.

Love

Christopher

www.thebuddhawallah.org

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Research shows the evidence to confirm the benefits.

Nshorna and I, senior teachers and father-daughter team, have invited five graduates from the previous course to assist us through for our Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC), starting in January 2027.

Our online mindfulness course offers precise practices for stress reduction but we go much further. We address the problems and the issues of daily life and ways to live a fulfilled life.

On our home page, we have testimonials from seven countries - Australia, England, Germany, India, Israel, Palestine and USA.

Elena, based in Greece, kindly sent me in early September 2026 a testimonial of her appreciation of the MTTC. We invited her to be one of our assistant teachers.

Many mindfulness trainings stay focussed on stress reduction. Here is Elena’s two-minute recording.

Our first six-month module focuses fully on practices with a specific theme for each month.

The teachings, practices and small groups relate to the range of experiences of the participants.

You have a voice. We listen. The online small groups share. Our assistant teachers provide additional support.

Our second six-month module continues in the practices/sharing but we expand further. You learn how to prepare a mindfulness course, promote it and develop it.

Through practising as a teacher on the course, you find your voice, free from doubt and anxiety.

You develop authority in your groups, in-person groups and online. With confidence, you then go into the wider world.

Our website

Our website offers supportive details for you developed since we started offering online mindfulness courses in 2011.

MTTC offers a service involving a year of exploration with preparation before the course and support for participants during and after the year.

See Link on our Website to go to Registration Page.

You do not need to go hunting in our website to find the cost and then get a shock.

We keep the yearlong course as affordable as possible - around £2.40 (€2.80, US $3.20 per day), Payment in sterling to cover for the year.

Three ways to pay

• A single payment for the 12 months

• A single payment for Module 1

• A monthly bank transfer beginning upon the date you sign up to register.

During the year, we make an appeal for donations to support two senior teachers, admin costs and time involved

We look forward to hearing from you.

Love,

Christopher Titmuss and Nshorna Davies

info@mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org

or mttcglobal@gmail.com

www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org

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Living in this world, which human beings have configured so extensively, brings a curious reversal to mind. In the evolutionary process, we have been told, energy, matter and countless formations eventually gave rise to consciousness. I’m not concerned here with defending that view. What matters now concerns the reverse movement.

July 1967. Greece. Hitchiking to Istanbul. 335 kilometres further on. Life on the road.

Consciousness — you and me, human beings — has acquired an extraordinary capacity to affect the material world: nature, other creatures and other human beings in caring, curious and violent ways.

Once regarded as an outcome of the process, consciousness of humanity has become one of its primary influences. That calls upon us to change. Without change, consequences follow from our disregard for life and the natural world.

Yet even amid all this, joy — one of the beautiful experiences of life — can genuinely emerge. It needs recognition and appreciation. Joy, one of life’s flowers, grows when something within the being receives nourishment, water and care. When joy comes, let it flow.

Sometimes people ask, ‘How can anyone be happy in this world?’

What? Turn our backs on happiness?

Quite the opposite. How could anybody live well without it? Human beings need the nourishment of happiness, joyfulness, friendship, love, passion, connectedness, humour and lightness. If we turn our backs on these qualities, life becomes impoverished.

Bring beauty into Being

Finding caring and loving ways to bring beauty into life — poetry, art, creativity, service — contributes enormously to living with love amid change in the unfolding of existence. Through such offerings, we offer something beautiful to the world.

That raises profound questions:

• What beautiful offering can I give to life?

• In what ways can our offer show itself?

• What am I prepared to give up to help make that happen?

• What kind of service might make it possible?

• What care and compassion can I give to others?

Such questions open up our world. Let us encourage exploration alone and with others and invite something fresh.

More and more of what people value today did not originate within our own culture. European civilisation — a rather conceited term — did not discover everything within Europe. People looked beyond their small world, knowing the finite expressions of Western society.

‘What do those living outside the West know? What have they preserved that has real value?

October 1967, With camel herdsmen in the desert of Afghanistan

Maybe something there speaks directly to our experience or inexperience.’

Whoa.

Outside the box

Looking outside the box brings greater freedom: the freedom to recognise what genuinely has value inside the box without imagining that the box defines the limits of existence. Human beings have their groups, networks, families, jobs and cultures. Why imagine such finite structures could contain the greatest possibilities of human experience?

One thing matters: knowing the Infinite. Everything else risks becoming compromised, a state of forgetfulness, a confinement to the finite.

Sometimes joy reminds us of the Infinite. Nature reminds us. Insights reminds us. Sitting on the bus reminds us.

Fresh, unusual, creative, quirky — even apparently crazy or stupid — actions can remind us too.

Sometimes I say to young people: if you want to do something odd, eccentric, out of the ordinary, and your parents tell you, ‘No, no, you shouldn’t do that,’ perhaps you should look carefully at what calls you. Do you want to live the same life as your parents?

Parents might want the best for their children. My parents certainly wanted the best for me. I sincerely believe that.

By the age of 22, I had hitchhiked twice around Europe and then came the burning interest to hitchhike to India. My mother’s response still makes me smile.

‘You’re 22 years of age. You’re far too old to go hitchhiking.’

She tried every strategy. ‘You’re giving up a really good job. You could become editor of the Daily Express.’

That job would have been my worst nightmare.

Life is spent on’ the road.’ Remember this when you walk to your local shops with a shopping bag or carry a backpack to another destination.

Parent’s idea of the best did not offer the life I needed to explore. Sometimes a young person looks at the life presented by their parents and current generation and thinks, perhaps with some affection, ‘If that’s what you’ve got to offer, get me out of here.”

So you initiate another exploration.

1972. Giving my first Dharma talk in a village near Nakornsridhammaraj (it means City of the Kings of Dharma), 16 hours on the train south of Bangkok. Sentence by sentence translation with support of translator. Sitting to my right, just behind me is Ven. Ajahn Dhammadharo, my Vipassana, Insight Meditation teacher).

Life moves dynamically. Sometimes doing something out of the ordinary — something that puzzles or confuses other people — brings forth something remarkable. Keep your eyes and ears open for such possibilities. What might you bring into life that could encourage others as well?

• Where does your thought lead you now?

• What feels creative and imaginative now?

• Where lies the adventure?

Nothing needs to appear big or grand. Something small, new, fresh and different can reveal possibilities beyond the familiar, beyond the finite.

In the Dharma world, the language of process, change, unfolding, dependent arising, conditionality gets used a great deal. It helps communicate the dynamic activity, large and small, continually revealing itself through the field of life.

Stepping out in fresh ways supports that movement: we experience something we have not experienced before, we say with love that we have not said before; write something not previously written and engage in bold initiatives. Such acts can keep us close to the infinite. We feel alive and awake.

Thus, the years pass.

Process of ageing asks for another kind of openness. Certain changes need allowing, recognising and, perhaps, surrendering to as life unfolds. Without a larger view, without risks, confinement can make ageing difficult. Pain may arrive and refuse to go away easily. Death may whisper, or even shout, from close at hand.

If life has centred upon perpetuating security for the self — its survival, continuity, possessions and identity — death will naturally appear threatening. From that viewpoint, death means the extinction of ‘I’, the cessation of everything constructed around me and mine. It looks like an absolute cutting off.

I have nothing in mind here about life after death. I’m speaking about existence itself and our relationship to it.

Vision expands

Suppose, instead, the vision expands. Life no longer revolves around ‘me and my life’, ‘me and what I have’, ‘me and what I’m going to lose, in due time’. The larger process then has room to unfold. We have nothing to gain and nothing to lose. It’s a myth keeping us in the finite.

Life and death complement each other. Their movement takes place every day: beginnings, middle and endings; presences and absences; coming and going. Everything touched, owned and perceived participates in change.

Our existence forms one more expression of beginning, middle and end. Let us not regard being or not being in the process as such a big deal. The self makes it a big deal through all the layers of importance gathered around ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine’. The Dharma invites an expansion beyond those layers to reveal everything that goes on as expressions of the infinite.

With that expansion, we come to an understanding of what the teachings call the Immeasurable, the Infinite, along with an appreciation and joy. Such a view has room for all the formations, changes and presentations that life brings.

Let’s have a few quiet minutes together.

May all beings explore this unfolding life.

May all beings sense the multiplicity of its presentations, day by day.

May all beings stay awake.

Thank you.

www.thebuddhawallah.org

www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org

www.insightmeditation.org

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A major interruption in an Ed Sheeran’s pop concert occurred when fellow artist Macklemore made a three-minute statement to 60,000 fans to “Free Palestine” on 4 September, 2026 in New Jersey, USA.

The interruption became the main news item the following day in the BBC world news.

We awaited Sheeran’s response. A few days later, he opened his next performance with a statement. Here is his full statement on YouTube. Clip from Middle East Eye, an online news agency provides daily news stories to 25,000,000 citizens, mostly in the Middle East.

The issue matters deeply to Palestinians and Israelis. Important as that is, it also serves as an opportunity to look at our view and what kind of world we want to live in. I regard compassion, fearless and wise, a key feature of radical and significant change.

I have included in this post extracts of some of the views I received after the previous Substack posting.

1. Full text of Ed Sheeran’s statement to fans

2. Seven takeaways with responses from his statement.

3. Extracts from feedback from readers and my responses on a previous Substack Post on Ed Sheeran.

4. Next steps for Macklemore.

Full Online Statement from Ed Sheeran at New Jersey concert

“This is not usually how I open a show, but before I play some songs tonight, I hope it’s OK if I say a few words about this last week.

I’m used to my music being criticised, and I’m always happy to take that because I’m lucky a lot of you like my stuff, and to be honest I’m surprised, I’m not surprised.”

“But this week the criticism was about something much more important. And I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I’m so sorry. I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician, but this put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet.

“My concerts have always been a safe space for everyone and that matters hugely to me. Honouring my commitment to my fans is also completely central to who I am, and that is why I’m here tonight on my own and continuing my current tour.

“But I am deeply worried about the idea of venues pre-approving content of performers. This happens in so many places I perform around the world, but it should never happen in the free world.

“Now, I want to address the question of where I stand in the situation in Israel and Palestine and whether my doing this concert here tonight implies where I stand. I’ve tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind because I want my music and shows to be about unity not division, about humanity not politics.

“But this is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel at a music festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.

“My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives; of children’s lives and the systemic justice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.

“I am already speaking to people across the spectrum to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times and listening and learning because I do not know enough.

“I honestly am so grateful that you’re here tonight with me.

“This concert is still a place where everyone is welcome, and everyone here can stand beside people who have opposing views, and everyone here can stand by people that they don’t agree with on everything, but they can all agree I’m singing these songs.

Response from Seven Takeaways of Ed Sheeran’s Statement on Stage

1. I am making mistakes, and I’m so sorry.

Thank you, Ed. You were in the eye of an international storm. It is not easy to respond with clarity and insight in such times.

2. I am deeply worried about the idea of venues pre-approving content of performers.

We look forward to you inviting a musician or guest to give three minutes talk to your fans about a major international humanitarian issue.

3. freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet.

It is not complex. That’s a common defence against action. It is simple. Keep the word “compassion” as your central focus.

4. …. we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked. “I am already speaking to people across the spectrum to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times.

A noble initiative. Keep us informed of the contributions that you, your fans, fellow musicians, support team organisers, owners of venues fans and others outside the industry make towards those enduring terrible suffering.

5. “Victims.”

From my experience with Palestinians: I do not hear them regarding themselves as victims. Their resilience is of the highest order. That’s why they stay on their homeland.

6. …. listening and learning because I do not know enough.

Perhaps the most vital takeaway in your reflection with your fans. Keep us up to date with who you listen to and what you learn. May all of us listen and learn from humanitarian disasters, whether inflicted by people or through forces of nature.

7. These songs are about love, hope and unity.

Keep on singing, Ed.

Extracts from Responses to my previous Substack Post

Extracts: It’s shocking when such a tender, sweet man, is forced to stand up and say the obvious,

Response: Agreed. What’s going on in the mind of those who feel compelled to cut down the tall poppies? Ed Sheeran is a tall poppy in the world of music.

E:We really need more Jewish People to speak out as the majority continue to support Israel or are silent, which unfortunately is implicit support.

I googled several times opinion polls in Israel in the past three years. It appears only 3-4% of Jewish citizens were totally opposed to IDF and decimation of Gaza since 7 October 2023. The silence in Israel appears deafening. More and more are finding their voice.

E: Buddhist authority has a stupid opinion.

It does not take much intelligence to refer to another‘s “stupid opinion.” It takes reflection, research and clarity to offer an intelligent opinion.

E. They (Israel) chose to torture and murder a whole proud, intelligent, creative, moral population of people into extinction.

The same could be said of Israel. Sadly, much of the society turned its back on morality and supported the Knesset or said little or nothing in terms of the evil inflicted on Gaza. This has been the situation for centuries.

E. There is no greater evil amongst humans than genocide.

The Buddha makes regular reference to good and evil. Evil means the deliberation intention to inflict suffering on another or others.

E. What about the stories on october7.org? Why don’t you ever say a single word about that?

You will find in my Substack posts around 25 articles about the war on Gaza with equal revulsion to the evil of war crimes, genocide committed by Hamas, and conditions that led up to it. My recent book Questioning our Views goes into the primary issues worldwide facing all of us including Gaza.

E. NAZIs made me afraid to be a Jew. Zionists made me ashamed to be a Jew.

Thank you for sharing your experience. One Israeli said to me. “I am proud to be a Jew. I am ashamed to be an Israeli.” We are much deeper than a label of identity. This depth frees up compassion.

E. IRONY: When Zionists who survived a genocide use it as an excuse to commit genocide.

Irony. Yes. It was in the air in Israel. You need to go deeper than irony to recognise the conditions triggering a cancer of violence that broke out in Israel against its neighbours and continues in the systematic destruction of life in neighbouring countries.

E. The biggest “anti-Semitic” threat right now is from our senators and congresspersons who are funding the Zionist project to wipe out the Palestinians.

Yes, we can find the West’s fingerprints from our armaments industries, especially USA, Germany and UK, on every bomb, shell and bullet used in Gaza and elsewhere through the weapons we freely provided.

E. Thank you for this very important article. As an Israeli, I agree with every word. Free Palestine can mean equal rights to all people living between the river and the sea. Or it can mean give the Palestinians back all the land from the river to the sea.

This grossly inflamed language of certain Palestinian officials “from the river to the sea” had immense traction in Israel. I do not know anyone in the West who would associate it with Free Palestine.

E. An interesting essay.

May the essay have a single point that awakens the voice of compassion.

E. I feel that certain actions are called for when we are shown videos of children and old people suffering, suffering, suffering. Action becomes more important when the perpetuators of this violence brag about their cruelty.

Protest against the infliction of suffering on others stand as a foremost human right. We need a culture of protestors.

E. Sorry C you are wrong about Owen Jones . If you go back and reread your Dharma tool of assessing Jones, he follows all the requirements especially the ‘ right view and fearlessness’ .

Owen Jones (a political columnist for The Guardian newspaper in the UK) described Ed Sheeran as a “coward” and tore into him for 40 minutes on Youtube and then for another 16 minutes on his statement at his next concert. Sheeran said he is not a “political commentator.” He is a gentle soul, not a political animal. He was holding back the tears when he spoke on stage. Listen to his songs and read the lyrics. He is not John Lennon, nor a coward.

E. Thank you for a thoughtful teaching in the dharma and social action.

Buddhism and mindfulness often market inner change rather than an empowered Sangha to engage in the ending of suffering.

E. Palestine appears in your writing again and again. But it stays abstract: a slogan, a horrible number.

Suffering is not abstract, nor a slogan, nor a horrible number. The same applies to the infliction of suffering, the causes and conditions for suffering, often instilled for years, decades or even generations.

Macklemore goes on Tour

Extracts from BBC report:

“Macklemore is launching a “Free Palestine” tour, days after being dropped from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour following pro-Palestinian comments he made onstage earlier this month.

“So, as you all know, my schedule freed up a bit,” he said upon announcing the tour on Thursday.

The American artist - whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty - said proceeds from the tour, which launches in Dublin next month, will go to organisations supporting Palestinians.

Macklemore’s onstage comments and subsequent removal from the tour led Sheeran’s support acts to drop out.

In a statement on Thursday, the rapper said that the last couple of weeks had shown him there had been “a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now”.

“When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention.”

Macklemore said he had spent the last week contacting artists who had used their platforms to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, regardless of the consequences.”

Thank you, Macklemore

It would be precious and far-reaching if an artist or guest gave a three-minute statement on an issue of humanitarian concern during their performance.

Thank you for your bold compassion. You warm the soul of gratitude of Palestinians and many others dealing with much suffering and for those committed to ending suffering.

We love you.

Christopher

www.thebuddhawallah.org

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I deeply appreciate Buddha statues with their presence and minimalism, which fit so well into our homes, gardens, well-being centres and clinics. Buddha statues communicate expressions of peace and calm.

Here at home, I have around ten statues and paintings, ranging from two centimetres high to 30 centimetres, plus a wall hanging, 105 by 100 centimetres, of the Buddha - behind the sofa in the living room.

Statues also communicate a symbolic significance of stillness. Such practices support awareness in spiritual life. On my bedside table, my minimalist statues include the Buddha in a standing posture and in the reclining posture.

For practitioners, the cross-legged Buddha serves as a reminder of the benefits and power of meditation.

Buddha statue (20 cm) from Bali. 1968. Carried in backpack until arrival home in 1977. On upstairs landing at home.

I believe statues of the Buddha may be the most widely used statues in the West, probably appearing more frequently than garden gnomes, angels, classical figures, animals, religious imagery, and abstract sculptures.

Appreciation of a statue can deepen knowing the meaning of the mudra – the position of the hands in the specific statue or painting.

If you see the right hand raised with the palm facing outwards and the fingers pointing up, this gesture rrepresents the teaching mudra and the stilling of the restless mind.

The wisdom/compassion mudra shows the hand raised with the index and little fingers pointing upwards, while the thumb holds down the middle two fingers. This mudra reminds us to develop the wholesome and ward off the unwholesome.

The meditatiion mudra show both hands resting flat one on the other in the lap, palms facing upwards, and the right fingers resting on top of the left; the tips of the thumbs form a triangle representing deep meditation, inner peace, and a path to enlightenment.

Painting depicting the Buddha of Sarnath, where he offered his first teachings. Above sofa in the living room. 110 by 100cm. Taught in Thai Monastery in Sarnath from 2001 - 2020.

The Dhamma Wheel statues shows the essence of Dharma. Both hands are held in front of the chest, with the thumb and index finger of each hand forming a circle to resemble a wheel. This gesture symbolises the wheel of Dharma, interconnectedness, and emptiness.

In the Earth Witness mudra, the Buddha sits with the right hand resting over the knee with the fingers pointing down to touch the Earth. This represents the Buddha’s enlightenment stating the Earth witnessed his liberating realisations.

Buddhist Tradition

The Buddhist tradition has a culture of appreciation for calm, meditation, and wisdom – qualities that often seem in short supply in many Western settings. A survey this week reported that one in four teenagers between the age of 15-19 experience anxiety.

These statues contribute to an atmosphere of peace and harmony in the space where they stand, acting as a focal point expressing the immediate environment.

Buddhist retreat centres, yoga and bodywork centres often give recognition to the Buddha statue for those who wish to slow down, find clarity, and experience a grounded way of being. You can find websites with precious displays of Buddha images – ascetic, artistic, and symbolic – which communicate the Buddhist tradition’s love of harmony, beauty, and an aesthetically pleasing environment.

I prefer not to leave sacred ornaments or sacred books lying around on the floor but in locations easy to see. With attention to ethics such as kindness, non-harming, and compassion, these visual forms indirectly tell us of our potential for full awakening.

Website of Buddha statues

Take a mindful look through this website offering for sale beautiful statues of the Buddha. Potential to be a beautiful gift for home or beloved friend.

https://rootandstill.com/

……….

Christopher’s hub website

ww.thebuddhawallah.org

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This essay reveals the power of a sudden, unexpected interruption that triggers deep questions about control, fears and fearless compassion. When a rapper spoke for just two minutes at an Ed Sheeran concert, an entire tour shook. Associate singer Macklemore said “Free Palestine” to 60,000 people and named Gaza’s suffering. Billionaires, promoters and pop stars then showed how power responds to conscience in compassionate or repressive ways. Following the sequence of events, this essay explores that moment through to the Buddha’s teaching on “eel wrigglers” – those who slide away from moral questions. This essay asks what silence, speech and responsibility mean in a time of mass killing.

The Buddha, Palestine, Ed Sheeran, Macklemore, Pink and Noble Minds

Earlier this week, Nshorna, my daughter, rang me and asked, “Have you heard the news?”

“What news?” I replied.

She then told me the story of the international social media uproar that followed a 2 minute 7 second call to “free Palestine”, to an audience of 60,000 at an Ed Sheeran concert at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, USA.

This essay offers the background to the incident, plus a Buddha-Dharma perspective.

UK singer, Ed Sheeran stands among the most successful pop stars of this generation. He has accumulated an estimated wealth of $400 million, sold more than 150 million records globally, gives huge concerts and attracted billions of streams. In around 15 years, he has drawn millions of followers on Instagram and other social media.

Earlier this month (September 2026), during Ed Sheeran’s U.S. “Loop” tour, his long standing support act and good friend, Macklemore, a singer from Seattle, stepped up at MetLife Stadium and spoke for just over two minutes calling for a” free Palestine.”

Posted on YouTube Macklemore’s full appeal at concert.

Full Transcription of Macklemore’s Voice at the Ed Sheeran Concert

“I’ve been trying to figure out a way to say this all day.
One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart, free Palestine.
I said, “Free Palestine.
I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people from Gaza all the way to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten them.
And this next song was inspired by the bravery of Columbia University students who led an encampment movement that mobilised the entire world, opened up hearts, myself included.
So thank you to those students that risked their diplomas, that risked their tuition, that risked their scholarships, that stood up and said no.
CUAD students, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voices for Peace.
Thank you guys to all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.
My message is for peace, love, for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.
So I say, free Palestine.
I say, free Lebanon.
I say, free Cuba.
I say, free Congo.
Free Sudan.
Free all people in America living in fear over this terrorist organisation, ICE.
None of us will be free until we are all free.
This song is called “Hends Hall.””

Gaza. Before and After Israel’s government and IDF war on Gaza

Billionaires, Venues, and Punishment

The Israeli American Council and the group Stop Antisemitism launched a petition demanding Macklemore’s removal from the tour. They accused him of antisemitism, although he did not criticise the Jewish community—only the policies of Israel.

Tour promoters and billionaires then tightened control over the concerts. Ed Sheeran, whose public role has focused on pleasing people and making them happy, suddenly found himself in the centre of a volcanic media storm and on the horns of a dilemma.

Ed Sheeran’s Response and the Dilemma of Silence

Sheeran stated that the decision to remove Macklemore came from the promoters, not from him. He said:

“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision; it was not mine. I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain on both sides is a human tragedy. I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly doesn’t mean I don’t have them and it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

Sadly, we still do not know his views; they remain in his privatised inner world, where they have no influence.

After Sheeran’s statement, other musicians on the tour stood with Macklemore and announced they would also step down in solidarity. The musicians, Phineas, Aaron Rowe, Lukas Graham, Biig Piig and others—announced they would withdraw from the tour.. They protested against the silencing of a fellow artist who spoke up for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Messina Touring Group and venue owners moved quickly. MetLife Stadium announced they would not host Macklemore again. Robert Kraft, billionaire owner of the New England Patriots and the Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, also banned Macklemore from performing at his venue.

Kraft, of Jewish origin, gives substantial financial support to Israel.

Macklemore and his fellow stage artists took a noble risk. Artists often rely on big tours for their primary income. To quit a tour means a huge financial loss and perhaps exclusion from future big stages.

Tour organisers and Robert Kraft wanted to send a message: punish one artist, and this will frighten the rest from speaking up on any global issue. The dismissal of Macklemore will make any artist or musician think twice before offering a compassionate message from the stage, even though it was a mere two minutes and seven seconds out of three hours.

Kraft described Macklemore’s brief speech as “hate speech.” Does Kraft’s statement and exclusion of Macklemore reveal hate speech? The tone and content of Macklemore’s words did not target the Jewish community. He spoke against genocide, apartheid and state violence. Yet powerful voices smeared him as hateful to silence a moral appeal.

At stake lies a deeper question:

Should artists use large public platforms to express moral views when suffering reaches extreme proportions?

To dismiss such expression as “too political” shows a mean to suppress moral concern. The magnitude of suffering in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere does not belong only to politicians. We cannot hand morality over to politicians and walk away. At some point, the duty—one could say the Dharma—falls to ordinary citizens: artists, audience members and all of us, to express concern about such suffering in Gaza, the West Bank or anywhere else.

Children, Suffering, and Selective Concern

As often happens, attention drifted from Palestinian suffering to the social-media storm that followed. Fierce criticism exploded online. The American singer Pink, a 47‑year‑old of Jewish descent, launched a reactive tweet about Macklemore’s on stage voice. She accused him of affecting Jewish people and children in the audience. Ed Sheeran used similar reasoning to justify his reluctance to mention Gaza and Palestinian suffering.

Meanwhile, more than 20,000 children in Gaza have died. Thousands more have lost limbs, lost their eyesight and will endure lifelong trauma because of the genocide. The death toll exceeds 75,000 citizens, plus an estimated 30,000 people missing in the rubble, and a near‑total destruction of culture through the levelling of 90% of Gaza.

Yet, we are told a two‑minute appeal to “Free Palestine” threatens children.

If that holds true, then politicians should also pass laws to stop children staring at the evening news on television with the images of war and horrendous detailed reports much more intense than Macklemore’s short appeal. In religion, rabbis should cease upholding the First Commandment that their God gave to Moses—“Thou shalt not kill” if they refer to genocide, war and murder and the suffering imcurred. In sport, footballers should no longer take the knee at the start of matches to protest against racism because that’s political, as well as moral. In art, filmmakers should abandon movies based on actual events in case the vulnerable watch and so on.

In my view, a concert offers an excellent environment for a two-minute statement of deep concern about suffering. No wonder thousands spontaneously applauded Maklemore for making clear he made no criticisim of his Jewish brothers and sisters.

Macklemore had expected to earn around one million dollars from the Sheeran tour. He decided instead to donate this sum to six Palestinian organisations, redirecting public attention toward Palestine

American born singer, Pink entered her views. On Instagram she wrote:

“I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. No child’s death should ever be celebrated.”

She reposted a message from a Zionist group and affirmed her wish for peace while refusing to “pick a side that celebrates death.”

Later, she clarified that she did not object to the words “free Palestine” themselves, or to Macklemore’s right to speak. She objected to him, as she saw it, “telling all the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them.” She insisted, “You don’t get to decide that for us.”

The same principle applies to Pink. She also lacks authority to decide what other Jews experience when they listen to a moral and compassionate statement.

Macklemore tried to separate criticism of a state and a system from criticism of a people. He spoke against genocide and apartheid. The Israeli government, meanwhile, chose policies that led to tens of thousands of deaths and the near‑total destruction of Gaza.

Moral clarity here does not equal hatred of Jews; it shows a refusal to accept mass killing and destruction, whoever carries it out.

Three Choices for Ed Sheeran

The social media storm forced Ed Sheeran to face a simple but uncomfortable question:

• Does silence amount to neutrality?

• Does silence function as a political or moral choice with consequences?

Macklemore inadvertainly cracked the glossy public‑relations image that surrounds Ed Sheeran and his concerts—an image of friendliness, non‑controversial charm and universal likability. Sheeran knows Macklemore is an outspoken activist and so his friend’s voice and images of Gaza would not have come as a surprise.

Sheeran now faces at least three choices:

1. Continue the tour alone, without a support singer and backup group.

2. Continue the tour with a new support singer and group, replacing those who left in solidarity.

3. He could use his status as an international star to take a moral stand—publicly name the suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, and give a significant donation to Palestinian charities in a visible, accountable way.

If he continues the tour in the way the promoters want, he will probably claim it reflects his “loyalty to my fans.” He may not wish to “get involved in politics;” it may not be his cup of tea, as it is for many. To a degree, he gets my support.

That does not mean he has to exclude artists lilke Machemore, who have a voice. Sheeran can put the demands of the corporate world before the suffering of Palestinians. In that case, powerful corporations, billionaires and corrupt governments willl exercise total control over his life and over the lives of global artists. That’s choice Sheeran has to make. Some would regard it as a political/corporate and/or self-interest choice.

Media reports already indicate that a growing number of fans want to sell their tickets to upcoming Sheeran concerts rather than associate themselves with the Ed Sheeran brand; they struggle to sell those tickets.

Sheeran could easily donate one percent of his personal wealth to support the people of Gaza and the West Bank. His moral concerns and values require more than private feelings or vague language; they now call for specific speech and visible action, not abstractionson. On behalf of Palestine, one of his fellow artists can make a brief announcement during his concert calling for then of suffering.

The Buddha, Ed Sheeran and “Eel Wrigglers”

Ed Sheeran might benefit from readings the words of the Buddha, who spoke directly about eel wrigglers in the Brahmajāla Sutta (Discourse of the Net of Views). Eel wrigglers form a vivid metaphor for people who avoid responding to profound moral questions because they fear judgment for what they stand for.

An eel‑wriggler twists and slips away like a slippery fish. Through silence or evasive words, such a person avoids any clear stance. Their language stays vague, insubstantial and non‑committal. This habit often comes from a desire for self‑protection—protecting image, comfort, commercial or financial interests.

The Buddha described evasive people who say:

• “I don’t say this.

• I don’t say that.

• I don’t say otherwise.

• I don’t say not so.”

Such a person refuses to affirm or deny anything, in order to avoid criticism. Four main fears live in the mind of the eel‑wriggler. Dear Ed, Take note: Do you fit into one or more of these categories?

1. Fear of upsetting others – “My view might disturb fans, friends or business partners.”

2. Fear of controversy – “I can’t handle criticism or look ‘political’.”

3. Fear rooted in confusion – “I don’t clearly understand the situation, so I freeze.”

4. Fear of making a mistake – “What if my statement turns out wrong or harmful?”

Ed Sheeran might feel all four fears. Together with his PR and marketing consultants, he has carefully built a public image as a friendly, accessible, unthreatening figure. That may well be his authentic persona - a soul who wishs to please.

Eeel wrigglers may not reveal in their evasion of moral issues, nor show indecision but it can go on in their mind giving them sleepless nights.

Yet 2 minutes and 7 seconds of Macklemore’s speech exposed the vulnerability of his long‑standing image of himself and others have of him.

It would be unfair to attack Sheeran. One militant left‑wing columnist, Owen Jones of The Guardian, called him a “coward” in a self‑righteous onslaught on YouTube. Jones might do better to stick to his day job than take on the role of a psychologist of a respected entertainer.

Dharma teachings encourage something different: mindful speech, dedication to truth, reflective inquiry, open sharing and fearlessness.

Remember Ed Sheeran’s Concert for Ukraine

Ed Sheeran has not always kept his professional platform separate from war and politics. In March 2022, he performed at Birmingham’s Concert for Ukraine. Days beforehand, in a public message to Ukrainians, he said:

“I love you; I stand with you.”

Easy to say. Love reveals itself in the actions to end suffering. The concert functioned as a humanitarian fundraiser, not an ordinary commercial date, but it still showed his willingness to link his public voice and musical standing to a people under military invasion with no reference to the suffering of Russian soldiers and an increasing number of suffering Russian citizens.

Resolution of suffering comes through persistent campaigns for both sides to meet, listen and negotiate a settlement. With Ukraine and Russia, it calls for both governments—and NATO—to work together, for as long as it takes, to reach a common, lawful agreement.

The same principle applies to Palestine and Israel, and to the primary backers of Israel—the USA, Germany and the UK. Dialogue, negotiation and restraint do not contradict moral clarity; they depend upon it.

The “Both Sides” Escape Route

Another form of eel‑wriggling takes shape in the “both sides” escape route:

• “Both sides do wrong,” followed by silence.

• “The situation is complicated,” and nothing more.

• “Who am I to question what’s right?” followed by inaction.

These escape routes act as masks to avoid a firm moral position on suffering and its causes.

The refusal to name grave suffering—such as in Gaza—alongside the injustice and cruelty that generate it, grows out of fear. In such cases, silence supports the status quo. Dharma invites us to speak with moral clarity, even when power, money or eel‑wrigglers pull in the opposite direction.

Following the incident at his concert, Ed Sheeran reportedly lost around 200,000 Instagram followers within the first 24 hours of the concert, plus many other followers on different platforms. This shows that people now look closely at the choices of public figures. Increasing numbers no longer accept “neutrality” while bombs fall on children.

We Cannot Leave Moral Questions to Politicians

One central lesson from this episode: we cannot hand urgent moral questions over to politicians and billionaires and then retreat into private life. The uproar over a two-minute speech reveals a deep wellspring of protest around the world towards the powerful and the rich.

Politicians dominate the airwaves. The wealthy decide what counts as acceptable speech in stadiums, media and major public platforms. Venue owners and sponsors often set the boundaries of “acceptable” views/opinions, namely tepid and vague in its generalisations. There is enough of that in the Buddhist world, including, at times, in its loving kindness meditations.

A Dharma response does not demand perfection from public figures but calls for actions and words grounded in wisdom and compassion to end conflict and ongoing war crimes.

It reminds us to look honestly at fear, to notice where we wriggle away from moral clarity. The Buddha’s teaching on eel‑wrigglers applies today to celebrities, promoters, billionaires and everyone of us.

In an age of livestreamed bombings and daily terror on the ground, silence no longer looks neutral. Our silence has real consequences for those who suffer.

Real power rests with the people—not with politicians, profiteers or pop stars.

Let us make that clear.

Thank you, Macklemore, and thank you to the other musicians who expressed a noble mind.

We are await to hear of Ed Sheeran’s next step.

Five Questions for Reflection

1. When do I stay silent about injustice, and what am I afraid of?

2. What differs prejudice towards a group from criticism of a government?

3. Does my job and social/public image limit what I say?

4. Where do I use “both sides” or “it’s complicated” to avoid find my voice?

5. What does mindful, caring and wise communication sound like or read like?

Christopher Titmuss gave annual teachings and practices in vaious formats on the resolution of suffering in Israel and Palestine between 1992 and 2019. He remains supportive to co-existence and freedom of movement through the one-state solution, if possible. Palisrael.

www.thebuddhawallah.org

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More than two million have watched Tom’s short documentary on Youtube made in 2015 on one of several visits to Mt Kailash, the sacred mountain in Tibet for Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. His short documentaries on our beloved Prajna Vihar School in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India, have become an important fundraiser in the West for decades.

Tom at the Great Wall of China this week.

Pilgrimages to Mt. Kailash go on and on century after century regardless of risks. Chinese authorities have given the go-ahead. The human spirit carrying the love of intimacy of the spiritual, religious and natural world continue. Many pilgrims remain undedeterred despite the recent tragedy of 1100 deaths and thousands missing in the breaking up of the crashing glacier into the villages and checkpoints of Nepal and Tibet high in the Hinalayas.

It’s a tough journey by train, bus and foot to walk in that mountainous region in such a high altitude. Aged in his mid-70’s, Tom plans to be among the pilgrims. Bless him. A contemporary fearless and free-spirited being.

Hello from Beijing,
This is my first trip to Beijing, so I didn't know what to expect when
the plane landed here three days ago.

Not one to take a taxi, I took the Airport Express train from far out
of town into the inner city, stepped out into the clear late-afternoon
city streets, and was immediately struck by how quiet the city was,
even though the roads were jammed with vehicles.

As far as I can tell, almost all two-wheeled vehicles are either electric or human-powered, and about half the cars are electric. So the streets are surprisingly, amazingly quiet. The air also seems perfectly clean. And this is a
city that, just a few years ago, was known for its filthy air.

Yesterday, I joined a bus tour to the Great Wall of China. The part of
the wall I visited is about a 90-minute drive from the center of the
city, in a very pretty, green area. For your amusement, I've attached
a couple of pictures.

The Chinese have made it easy to get to the wall by installing a cable car system from where the buses park to the wall. And once you're on the wall, you are up pretty high, and you wonder, again and again, how they ever built it 600 years ago. It deserves its reputation as being one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Besides that, I'm happy to tell you that my Tibet trip has been given
the go-ahead. Initially, after the recent disaster, there was some
question about whether or not the Chinese would close the Mount
Kailash area to all tourist groups. Fortunately for me, they've
decided to keep it open.

Western Tibet is an immense area, and where the disaster happened is at least an 18-hour drive from Mount Kailash.
Additionally, the road network is pretty good, so tourists going to
that area won't affect the rescue effort at all. The problem for
tourists like me is that the roads and infrastructure that were washed
away by the disaster were the most developed.

So now leaving Tibet and entering Nepal will be via less developed infrastructure. In fact, though, my tour guide hasn't yet decided whether we will brave the back roads of Tibet and Nepal to reach Kathmandu or drive, in about three days, from Western Tibet to Eastern Tibet and fly out of Lhasa
to Kathmandu. Either way, I have faith in the tour operator, having
known him for about 25 years.

I have three more full days here in Beijing. As soon as I send this
off, I'm off to Tiananmen Square. To enter the square, one needs a
reservation, and mine expires at noon today. After that, I hope to
visit the Forbidden City and other tourist sites around this clean,
well-organized capital city of 22 million people.

When I leave this city, I'll take the bullet train down to Chengdu,
the famous panda capital of China. From there, I'll fly into Lhasa,
the capital of Tibet. In Lhasa, I'll meet my tour operator and the
other people I will be traveling with to Mount Kailash.

With that, I wish you a pleasant day,

-- Tom

A 25 minute video on YouTube created by Tom of a guide to Mt. Kailash.

Prajna Vihar School website contains some of Toms’ short videos about the school.

https://www.prajnaviharschool.org

Website contains around 100 photos of the school.

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I’m delighted to announce the publication of my new book, Questioning our Views.

The book asks a simple but demanding question: What reveals clarity amid the noisy volume of views and opinions?

Having spent 18 months preparing the manuscript, I believe the book offers both challenge and encouragement to find wise responses to polarised debates and relentless information overload. I have aimed throughout to write in precise, readable prose.

The opening paragraph of each of the 41 chapters offers a brief summary. Each chapter ends with five questions for reflection, and the book provides a further ten questions for every chapter at the end.

I regard this book as a labour of love—sometimes more labour than love!

The work involved countless hours of research through websites, books, podcasts, YouTube and print media.

You can purchase the book on Amazon websites worldwide. Using the ISBN number, you can also order it through retailers, wholesalers and libraries worldwide. Further information appears at the foot of this page.

Themes

We live amid an abundance of claims, arguments, outrage and global uncertainty. Wars, political conflict, Gaza, climate emergency, authoritarianism, artificial intelligence and the accelerating influence of social media trigger multiple reactions.

It is easy to find fault with political and social opinion-makers. We also need to pause, reflect and investigate our own views, as well as the views of others. This can lead to a further step: developing views and action with wisdom and compassion at their heart, and becoming agents of change alongside like-minded people.

Small request

I invite you to write a brief review on Amazon after reading the book. Reviews do not require you to use your name. I do not have a book agent or publicist, so every purchase, recommendation and review makes a real difference to an independent author.

Please consider purchasing a copy and sharing this announcement with friends, family and colleagues. Groups, whether in person or online, may wish to meet, read a chapter, explore its questions and share their views.

May we engage in rigorous inquiry and initatives to challenge the falsehoods and manipulative claims of powerful voices that lead to suffering worldwide.

Thank you for your interest and support.

QUESTIONING OUR VIEWS

Christopher Titmuss

ISBN: 978-1-0669162-0-7

421 pages, including index

£12.95. US $17.53.

Available from Amazon worldwide, through your local bookshop and more.

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Do join our online Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC) starting in early January 2027.

You will qualify to offer mindfulness teachings to groups, friends, colleagues, family, young and old and those in the public and private sector.

The training offers lifelong benefits for oneself and others.

Full details can be found at our website: MTTC Website

What our year long MTTC offers

• Training in mindfulness/ meditation and teaching

• Addresses insecurity, self-doubt and other challenges

• Share your experiences

• Develop confidence

• Connect with trainees from 10 countries or more.

• CPD-certified, internationally recognised

• Express your clarity

• Become an agent for change.

Please note our early bird offer ends on Sunday 13 September 2026.

Small request. Pass the word on.

Love,

Christopher and Nshorna

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IT’S BEEN A LONG DAY

Need I say more?

Lots of love

Christopher

www.thebuddhawallah.org

www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org

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A few moments ago, I arrived here in the meditation hall ready to give the Dharma talk. I forgot I removed the SD card from the audio recorder to transfer earlier talks onto the laptop. I am returning to my room for the SD card. Don’t go away. Audio recorder requires dependent arising for the recorder to work.

People sometimes say they are looking for a mindfulness teacher. I have a response. I wouldn’t look in the direction of Christopher. Find a mindful mindfulness teacher.

I made a yatra (pilgrimage) to Koh Phangan island in the Gulf of Siam to see my old cave from my Buddhist monks days in the 1970s and also to Wat Suanmoke (Monastery of the Garden of Liberation) in subtripical rainforest. While there, I paid respect to a mindfulness teacher, a long standing ancestor, belonging to the bigger picture. Photo taken in 2017.

Why? Because I belong to a small band of people who know and love the freedom to be unmindful.

In the great discourse that has influenced humanity for some 2,600 years, the Buddha spoke on the Four Applications of Mindfulness—also translated as Four Foundations. In the discourse, he stated, “apply mindfulness to the extent necessary.” Brilliant. I suspect he shares the same view as this wallah. He referred to four primary areas:

1. Breath and the body.

2. Range of feeling tones, both worldly and spiritual.

3. Varieties of states of mind, from the profound to the deeply problematic.

4. Our relationship with the Dharma—not just concepts, teachings, and practices, but the whole Dharma of life and drama of life.

In this sense, everything in the teachings counts as a dharma. Every thought, every object, every snowflake, the world of mind-body-consciousness-matter reveals an expression of Dharma, an expression of the bigger picture.

Nothing else is on offer

Due to cultural and social influences, we notice how much our priority, morning, noon, and night, tries to find and keep a successful self. Social upbringing and powerful voices around us leave a strong residue of impressions. That residue runs like a common thread through education built on competition—those who achieve so-called success, and those who fail in school.

Education rejects diversity of intelligence, rejects neurodiversity, and forces every child and young person to fit into the study/exam/degree regime. Nothing else is on offer. Education promotes year after year a society of success and failure. It is a brutal system, ignoring the natural gifts of the young in multiple ways. Schools, colleges and universities pay lip service to diversity. There is no awareness of the bigger picture.

We live in that culture, whose central focus turns toward the self, with constructions of activity revolved around the self. We try to organise life so that we, as a self, stand as the primary agent of what matters, of what we choose, and of what we regard as success and accomplishment.

We measure ourselves. The measuring turns into a problem—comparing ourselves with others as successful or failures, as winners or losers, as superior or inferior.

We walk straight into a blind spot, barely know anything or have no idea—what lies outside this desire to accomplish, to get to certain goals, to become “successful.”

The whole orientation becomes all-embracing. We think, “I am the agent of what I do. If I work and try hard enough, I can do it.” In that mindset, we forget something. The agent, the creator, the mover, the doer depends on the support of others and on their view of what we do.

We look for approval, craving recognition at home, the kindergarten and as adults. We cannot authorise our own approval no matter how much we think we can. The more we thirst for success, the more attention flows toward our dependency on others—on people who remain unreliable. Our anger boils up experiencing rejection, not getting attention, because we can’t find self-worth in ourselves.

Where is the bigger picture?

Do you see little happiness in your lives? Success doesn’t help; it often deepens the dissatisfaction. You don’t feel fulfilled. The marriage is going up the creek. The job generates stress. Age creeps in, and in latter years, time goes by at a gallop, with death knocking on the front door. There is still no bigger picture.

What does a person do then? There is still little sense of worth, and life drains away as the years go by.

Naturally, a person wants to feel haoppy rather than feeling regular experiences of unhappiness. We look for others in the same state: “Oh, it’s not just me who is miserable and fearful.”

In that pattern, we lose sight of the bigger picture because the mind concentrates in the wrong place. We’ve been told that success means getting what you want. We’ve fallen into the same trap as those before us and around us.

Is a fresh start possible at any time?
Yes. Let’s make that clear. The answer is YES!

A fresh start does not require us to stop our engagement, our work, our daily participation. We reflect:

Can I look at this field of existence in a diversity of fresh ways?

We stay awake until we sense something bigger. Activity goes on. The suffering wrapped around our modest life, along with its issues, can shrink in size. We realise we lost perspective through exaggerating our self-importance. A glimmer of the bigger picture can reveal itself.

Thousands upon thousands of helpers—counsellors, psychologists, social workers, priests, rabbis, imams, meditation teachers—try to support others in dealing with their desires. Sometimes our work helps people to cope with the problematic mind-body process. This confirms a small step sometimes offered by those lacking the bigger picture.

The bigger picture requires honest exploration. Hand on heart, we ask ourselves:

• Am I reliant on the approval of other people?

• Which person, group, family members, colleagues, voices of authority?

• Am I reliant for peace of mind on the views of others?

• If I forget my history, my identity, even for a few moments, what reveals?

Pursuit of self-approval and approval from others tires the mind. We can spend our lives trapped in such a pursuit.

One might think: “Fine. I reject others. I won’t let anybody affect me. I’ll stand independent.” That kind of fantasy doesn’t hold. This is magical thinking.

We need a grounded exploration. What stands as our genuine relationship with life—our life and the lives of others?

What about the people we know, the strangers, the unfriendly faces?

Can we hear what gets said, acknowledge what gets written, listen to what comes to our face, what gets said behind our back and stay in touch with the bigger picture? The bigger picture has no marks, no signs, no shape, no sound.

What contributes to steadiness, like a mountain in a storm?

What opens the mind to a bigger view?

What confirms truth as the ultimate steadiness?

Such questions sit in the centre of an intelligent mind.

When we forget, we know the consequences. Self, self, self. Self interest determines thoughts, feelings, moods, relationship to the old and more. Self becomes the confirmation of dependency on conditions unreliable, insecure and changeable. We end up trapped in dependency without meaning to.

Let us explore another way

• Why would any sane human being hand over their mind on a plate for someone else to spit on?

• Why give another person power and authority, along with the neediness and the hunger for attention that go with it?

• Why give authority to your mind to rule your life with its reactive views?

• Why lives in the spell and grip of decades of conditioning?

• Where is the intelligence in that way of living?

One of our UK politicians, decades ago, had a rare moment of clarity. He described the way to the top in politics. He said: “You either crawl your way or you club your way there.” He ended up leading his political party. Crawl your way: be nice, pursue influiential friends, want to be liked, play the goody-goody.

Club your way: push, fight, crush opposition. There’s someone in Washington DC who chose to club his way to power. I forget his name.

Our UK politician lost the election, a perceived failure. The electororate and media forgot him within weeks. The world often reveals itself as full of shrivelled up situations, due to loss of connection with the bigger picture.

Let’s explore needs in fresh ways to confirm a sense of the immensity of it all. Let us also ensure we:

• Understand ourselves, so we can understand others.

• Respond wisely to the arising of needs from within.

• Recognise the needs of others towards ourselves?

These significant needs means careful reflection and discussion. This serves as a stepping stone to a deeper sense of existence, far bigger than our personal narrative.

We explore the relationship we have with each other. This provides the opportunity to develop cooperation and community.

Life contains uncertainties, the unknown, and sudden shocks that arrive out of the blue. We have to find the capacity to adapt to tje unexpected that can shake us down to our toenails.

The world of name and form

We spend much of our day in what the Buddha called name and form.

I have a name and a form. The form might include “mindfulness teacher,” “writer,” “social critic” “father/grandather” and so on. We carry the names and the forms of our roles. We tell ourselves about our identity.

Sometimes we need to say:

• “Let me experiencve daily life including time being free from any burden of name and form.

• Let me step into a way of being where my name and form carry no shadows.”

• Let me step out of my roles, my job, my knowledge, my training, my information to acknowledge the bigger picture for a period every day.

• How many of you know each other’s names here? Very few. How many know the forms of each other’s lives and issues? Hardly anyone.

In the absence of name and form, something else can emerge on a different scale altogether.

During one‑to‑one conversations on retreat, I often see how meditation retreat symbolises the sense of the bigger picture. You come to retreats, perhaps for the first time or joined another one having attended previous retreats. You wish to use the time well, having put aside your name and form (roles, identity, knowledge, personal history).

You attend the meditations from 6 am to 9.30 pm. You use the periods for mindful/meditative sitting, walking standing and reclining rather than staring in the mirror wondering, “What am I doing with my life as I get older?”

The teacher gives instructions for the day. Be mindful. The teacher also says, “I didn’t invent theses teachings and practices. I stand in a tradition of 2500 years with more than 100 generations of practitioners.. They might work for you. See for yourself through your experience.”

Sometimes, I hear something like this:

“Christopher, I’ve done lots of retreats with you, with teachers from East and West. I’ve practised mindfulness of breathing for years, yet I don’t think I’ve ever managed more than three mindful breaths in a row.”

A person can give themselves a very hard time over this. As a mindfulness teacher, let me say this. : it doesn’t matter that much. The breath doesn’t stand at the centre of the practice. The breath gives you something to do—an excuse to show up.

“Be mindful of the breath as it comes in; be mindful as it goes out”—fine. The real event unfolds elsewhere. It unfolds within you, around you, through an unfolding process.

What moves deep in the being matters

Years ago, on a retreat in San Francisco, a sweet woman spoke with me. She said, “I’ve never lived an adventurous life. I have always played it safe. I never left California, never travelled overseas.” She reached her mid-fifties—quiet, unmarried, no children.

“I find it difficult to find my nose, let alone my breath.” Some of you here know this situation firsthand.

She continued: “Last month, I got back from China, where I travelled alone for four weeks. I could hardly believe I did it. I just want you to know that all those meditation practices, all those years trying to be mindful of even one breath, helped me find the trust and courage to go to China.”

In the bigger picture, something more important than focusing on the breath took place. Somewhere in our innocence and not‑knowing, in the silence, the stillness, the meditation process touches us deeply regardless whether we can concentrate on the breath. China, night sky, mountains, oceans, deserts and undulating fields serve as facts and symbols of the bigger picture.

Knowing the bigger picture often shrinks the contracted self, changing our relationship to the world. When that shift grows healthy, wise, and skilful, we can continue our exploration and live expansively.

Sometimes the fruit of meditation, silent togetherness of the Sangha, appears as a sudden breakthrough, a realisation that comes through unexpectedly. Sometimes a deep insight appears quietly, almost unnoticed, that enables us to leave behind our fears. This confirms mindfulness to the extant necessary.

Such shifts matter far more than how “good” you think you are as a meditator. The transformation in daily life carries more weight.

When such an opening appears and we truly appreciate it, an energy arises that never tires. A fresh energy, beyond what we had imagined.

In the senior’s age group—50s, 60s, 70s, 80s—I often hear nostalgia:

“Oh, Christopher, I used to have so much energy. I’d go out Saturday night, party all night, sleep a bit Sunday, then party again Sunday night, and work hard from Monday until Friday. Now, I am in bed by 10 pm every night.”

“It’s age,” they say. Age becomes a mantra. You believe what your mind tells you. You become what you think.

Let us explore happiness, love and aliveness, and develop our senses. Dependency on approval drains us. Dependency on personal views formed from tiredness traps us. A rigid self-image drains us. Complaining, moaning, constant dissatisfaction exhaust us.

Two Precious Encounters at Passport Control

Encounter 1. When I arrived here in Germany last year at the start of a previous visit, I met the passport control officer, who carries a responsibility: deciding who to let in, checking reliability, and so on. Usually entry goes smoothly for people like me.

She asked me from behind the glass, “What’s the purpose of your visit?”

I answered, “To get out of England.”

She looked at my passport: “You come here three or four times a year to Germany for years.”

“Yes,” I said, “because I need to get out of England a few times a year.”

“Why?” she asked.

I replied, “If you lived there, you’d know why.” She smiled. So did I.

I added, “I sometimes think of asking if Germany would offer me asylum. I’m 81. I’m too old to take anyone’s job. I’d be no problem. I would still get a UK pension.”

I enjoyed seeing her serious face soften and smile at this wallah’s sideways humour. An expression of the unexpected sparks a smile that both of us shared. She stamped the passport and I walked into Germany.

Encounter 2. Upon arriving at passport control in the USA.

I travelled to American twice a year for more than 25 years, to serve the Dharma, I had an R‑1 visa, a religious worker visa. I could stay a maximum of three months a year in the country.

Once at Logan International Airport, Boston, the passport control officer asked me with a serious face: “How do I know you won’t disappear into America and not return to England?”

I replied, “I don’t want to live in America. I don’t want to live here because of the racism. I don’t want to live here because of the lack of health service for those with a low income. I don’t want to live here because of the poverty, the pollution, and the violence.

“I prefer to live in Europe. It is healthier, safer and offers far more support to those in need.

“I finish my retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts on Sunday lunchtime, and I fly home on Sunday evening.”

He went, “Oh…” Then stamped my passport and let me into the USA.

Let us not be afraid to express a picture different from officialdom.

Honesty can express a disarming truth

Sometimes, we need to display a little boldness. Not fiction, not aggression—just honesty. Honesty can express a disarming truth but with no guarantee the listener will receive it with a warm smile.

Trust what you do and let that trust resonate with others. Learn from your mistakes.

If your initiatives don’t resonate, never mind. You shared your experience and views with others. How others receive it remains largely their issue, while you take full responsibility for your voice and actions.

Enjoy life. Sense the bigger picture. Be free.

Thank you for listening.

May all beings explore the freedom of the spirit.
May all beings engage with love and dedication.
May all beings recognise the bigger picture.

www.thebuddhawallah.org

www.,mindfulnesstrainingcourse. org

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During one of Tom Riddle’s pilgrimages to Mount Kailash, he made a well-reeived 25 minute documentary made in 2015.

Here is the link to the documentary that conveys the wonder and beauty of this Himalayan region with a vulnerability that in moments this week tipped over into a region of intense suffering and loss.

Below is a very grim 12 minute footage of the massive descent of collapsed glacier, rocks and mud descending upon Gyirong, the checkpoint in Tibet, to enter Nepal.

Dear Readers,

The glacial collapse in Nepal/Tibet has brought a devastating loss to communities already living with limited resources.

Survivors grieve their loved ones while facing the immediate struggle for shelter, food, clean water, medical care, and a way to rebuild. For families in isolated mountain areas, help cannot always arrive quickly enough.

Find a reputable charity or Nepalese/Tibetan aid organisation in your own country that is raising funds for people affected by this disaster. A donation, shared with many others, can provide essential relief and offer families an important measure of relief at an unbearable time.

Let us stand beside the people of this Himalayan region with practical kindness, generosity, and urgency.

Distance does not lessen our shared humanity.

Please act now, if you can.

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Clips from mobile phones captured the nightmare seen as water, rocks and mud poured down at breathtaking speed while people ran for their lives, only to be drowned and lost in the floods and debris.

The world’s media have featured this massive glacial collapse as the prime item on television, radio and newspapers.

Nepalese government reported today (28.08.2026) that 1924 people were missing.

Tom Riddle, a senior in the Dharma sent me an email, which I publish here with his permission. He wrote:

“I’m planning to go hiking for a few days in England to get ready for Tibet. The trip, as of this moment, is scheduled to begin on September 16. But it’s hard to imagine my trip going forward. The location is in total ruins.

Rasuwagadhi, the checkpoint on the Nepalese side and Gyirong Port (Kyirong) is directly across the border in Tibet.

It takes three or four days in high attitude to walk around Mount Kailash. The missing pilgrims circumnavigated the mountain before heading to the border where the disaster occurred.

Most people finish the walk about noon. Their group heads directly for Nepal. It takes a day and a half to reach Gyirong, a beautiful city, where the groups spend their last night in Tibet. It’s far below the treeline, so for the first time in weeks, pilgrims can breathe easily.

My upcoming tour’s description says: “We will travel about 15km in about 40 minutes from Kyirong to the Nepal/Tibet border crossing of Rasuwa. We will leave the Tibetan staff there and walk over the bridge to Nepal where we have new cars for the 127 Km drive to Kathmandu.”

It will take months, years, for the area to recover.

Meanwhile, let’s all hope that the rescue effort goes well. My guide and everyone I know are okay.

Say a prayer for everyone else.

Boston, USA resident, Bryan Tucker, a senior in the Dharma, wrote a comment published in the online edition of the New York Times news report of the tragedy.

I’ve been to Nepal and trekked in the Langtang Himalayan region near Kathmandu almost thirty years ago. This is a devastating tragedy. It’s a reminder that life is fragile and that we are subject to forces far beyond our control. It hardly needs to be said, but clearly none of these people deserved such a fate.

Who is responsible? Is it just a matter of chance and being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or if climate change is implicated, do we who use fossil fuels ultimately bear some responsibility for such disasters, as well as for the horrible forest fires that have occurred in Europe, Canada, the northern U.S., and other places? Is it a combination of bad, dumb luck and preventable conditions caused by our actions?

Whatever the explanation, it’s clear these people didn’t deserve such a monumental disaster, a reminder that this universe can be coldly indifferent to human affairs, and that it is up to us to seek justice and to relieve suffering whenever possible.

Those efforts, rather than to foment hatred and divisiveness, should give meaning to our lives. I would urge readers to support relief efforts in this uniquely beautiful part of the world, whose culture and values have much to teach us.

Dear Readers,

The glacial collapse in Nepal/Tibet has brought a devastating loss to communities already living with limited resources.

Survivors grieve their loved ones while facing the immediate struggle for shelter, food, clean water, medical care, and a way to rebuild. For families in isolated mountain areas, help cannot always arrive quickly enough.

Find a reputable charity or Nepalese/Tibetan aid organisation in your own country that is raising funds for people affected by this disaster. A donation, shared with many others, can provide essential relief and offer families an important measure of relief at an unbearable time.

Let us stand beside the people of this Himalayan region with practical kindness, generosity, and urgency.

Distance does not lessen our shared humanity.

Please act now, if you can.

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They don’t. You can feel imprisoned to unhealthy/dominating views and your reaction to them. The mind can move between a view and a reaction.

90 second Intro to Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC)

Is there an alternative? Yes. You can change the unwelcome, unwanted mind to develop wise skills for the wellbeing of yourselves and others.

12 Practical Applications of Mindfulness

1. Application in four primary postures

2. Calm and Insight Meditation (Vipassana)

3. Development of wholesome and healthy

4. Mental Exercises

5. Methods

6. Outdoor practises

7. Practical teachings

8. Reflections

9. Sharing of experiences with like-minded

10. Specific practices,

11. Techniques

12. Tips

You can apply mindfulness to any situation anywhere. This includes eating a meal, dissolving stress, caring for little ones, attending a business meeting, setting a purposesful direction and much more.

We offer a course rich in immediate development of practices using all 12 Applications and more

You will join a worldwide community with opportunity for sharing of experiences in small groups.

Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC) consists of two senior teachers, a team of assistant teachers and a coordinaotr/administrator.

Module One. Online. Starts in January 2027 until July 2027. Six months comprehensive training in mindfulness.

Module Two. Online. Starts in July 2027 until early January 2028. Opportunity for Module One graduates to join Module Two to start a full training to become a mindfulness teacher with professional accreditation (CPD).

Early-bird discount for full registration.

Second module consists of teacher training. In this module, trainees give short talks, offer guided meditations, Q&A, instructions in mindfulness and develop facilitation skills.

Affordable: costs about £16.00 per week - four cups of coffee a week.

We make requests for donations, to support the programme through the year.

You can make :

• single payment for the six months

• single payment for 12 months

• a monthly payment starting when you register.

You can pay early-bird discount for both modules or pay for first module of mindfulness training and pay same early-bird discount for second module in month before start of second module.

To register and registration cost go to our website.

• Website: mindfulnesstrainingcour

• Email: mttcglobal@gmail.com

There are a limited number of places.

Become an agent for change.

We look forward to hearing from you.

With love,

Christopher and Nshorna

Mindfulness Training Course. 2011-2016

Mindfulness Teacher Training Course 2016 -

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Elena in Athens posted a text to the MTTC Signal group saying the Central European Bank planned to issue a new €100 note. The bank invited submissions for the new note.

She wrote she regarded it at first as a ‘useless initiative; and “a waste of time and money” but then wondered if Signal group could prepare a design showing influential people or nature.

Peter in Hamburg took up the challenge.

Via Chat GPT, he replaced Leonardo da Vinci, (1452 – 1519), regarded as one of Europe’s greatest artists and founder of High Renaissance, with the Buddha wallah on one side of the Euro note.

The other side of the note showed this wallah leading a short yatra (pilgrimage) from the Waldhaus Buddhist Zentrum down to the Maria Laach (Lake of Mary, mother of Jesus) besides the nearby Christian monastery.

I emailed Peter to ask about this proposal for a new Euro. He said he had this ‘whimsical idea’ but ChatGPT said it could ‘violate’ safeguards – as if AI has no history of violating safeguards affecting AI users of all ages.

He added, “My spontaneous impulse was to counter the contemporary tendency to celebrate peak achievements of the most influential people with what touches us in our immediate everyday lives”

Peter also sent “much love and greetings to the Waldhaus people — who also deserve to be depicted on bank notes.”

In the name of freedom of the press

I publish above the proposed €100.00 note. Substack and my other social media readers can let me know if you find the note offensive and fraudulent.

I thought it was brilliant, simply brilliant. An expression of a non-selfie at its best.

Dear Beloved Leonardo, Thank you for inspiring three minutes of fame on my social media. We need a few moments to brighten up our day in these troubled times while making a point at the same time about what matters in our daily life.

Ten Years since Brexit

It is 10 years ago since the UK voted to withdraw from the EU. Brits regard it as the greatest act of self-harm in generations. We have had six Prime Ministers in the meantime, social-political chaos, crumbling of institutions, such as the NHS. and the biggest gap in wealth distribution since the 1890’s with much poverty and daily hardships.

In current opinion polls, 75% of the population agree it was a mistake to leave the EU. Mind you, EU and UK has some soul searching to do – such as to start serious negotiations with Russia to end the war over Ukraine with a willingness to compromise so it doesn’t lead to a major European war.

For many of us, it was obvious for years that trivial point scoring behaviour of UK politics, the voting system and the jaundiced media make the running of the country unfit for purpose.

Arrival at Frankfurt

When I arrive at Frankfurt Airport to show my passport, the passport officer asks me the purpose of my visit. I sometimes say in my response, “To have a regular break from living in England and to attend a silent Buddhist retreat for a few days” The passport officer understands and then stamps my passport.

The retreat provides the opportunity to deepen equanimity to prepare for the return to the UK.

Incidentally, 10 years ago, Totnes (home town) declared itself an “independent city state” and “swore its allegiance to the EU.” The town (population 9800) issued passports for Totnes citizens. Sadly, the British government refused to accept them. Local democracy must serve the interests of central government or face the courts.

The application of equanimity continues. Dear Meditators, If you wish to test the metal of your equanimity, come to England for a few days. You will also hear our sweet habit of saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ at every opportunity regardless if its relevant.

For info on future Euro banknotes

I am looking forward to seeing the new banknote around the end of the year. Central European Bank will choose the best design at end of 2026. There were 1200 submissions and 10 designs have been shortlisted.

I am not holding my breath - just in case the MTTC group submitted their design.

Mindfully breathe in. Mindfully breathe out.

www.ecb.europa.eu

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/html/design-proposals.en.html

Love

Christopher

www.thebuddhawallah.org

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Transcription of part of a Dharma talk in early August 2026 given in a retreat in the Waldhaus Buddhist Zentrum, near Koblenz, Germany. This is an edited and adapted version of the talk with significant additional points.

Is meditation necessary? Is it an indispensable Dharma practice?

It is important to remember the Buddha emphasised the transformative power of listening to the teachings, followed by reflection and lived inquiry to affirm liberation. He encouraged those who did not come to realisation and liberation through listening to engage in the process of meditation. Meditation contributed to two important features, calm and insight.

Serving the Dharma. Thai Monastery, Sarnath, near Varanasi, India. 2018

In the time of the Buddha, people in north India referred to his Sangha as shravakas – the ones who listen. The 10,000 discourses of the Buddha confirm far more came to liberating realisations as shravakas than any other way, including meditation.

Remember: meditation practices can help overcome unwelcome tendencies. This nourishes the being through the depths of meditation, revealing for some love, joy, and wonder. These experiences do not constitute liberation but reveal the potential of the mind to know experiences free from dominating tendencies.

Otherwise, we might conclude, “I’m nothing but tendencies,” and then form a new tendency: obsessing about tendencies. The temporary absence of latent tendencies gives us a precious taste of freedom, like the taste of a dewdrop of water at dawn. It has the same taste as drinking a litre of water.

Meditators ask me: “How important, central, or necessary is meditation?”

Remember, a meditation teacher responds to your question. Please allow for any bias, a common tendency, in the response.

Two Primary Forms of Meditation Experience

The Buddha-Dharma offers expansive and generous teachings and practices. I’d like to make that clear.

1. Calm leading to four deep meditative absorptions (jhāna)
Meditation can go deep, touching states of absorption that bring happiness, fuelling mind and body in beautiful ways. Second, meditation can go deeper into refined joy and third deeper into mindful equanimity and fourth a profound inner peace with resilience. In such depths, our being becomes steady like a mountain in a hurricane. These subtle states of meditation offer a precious journey to contribute to receptivity to teachings of wisdom and liberation.

However, deep absorptions do not stand as a prior requirement for a liberated life.

2. Insights arising from meditative awareness and clarity
The kind of practice we mainly use here on the retreat: mindfulness, awareness, the power of attention, seeing clearly. This may or may not lead to deep absorption. We come to insights about the presentation of our persona, the movements of self/ego and insights into the lived experience. The infinite range of insights can bring much clarity and understanding.

In the first part of this talk (see the previous transcribed talk), we learn that latent tendencies do not depend on deep meditative states of calm. Insight meditation employs clarity and careful examination to see tendencies, gain understanding in the process of freeing the mind up so that these patterns no longer oppress our daily life. That movement itself certainly confirms a liberating quality, a reflection of liberation.

In insight meditation, we may give priority to:

• · the impermanence of phenomena,

• · awareness of suffering and unsatisfactoriness,

• · seeing of self as a manifestation of conditions

• · not seeing self as a cause nor a controller of events.

Four Formless Experiences

The teachings also speak of four formless realms:

Formless experiences don’t count as “absorptions” in the technical sense. The formless belong to an expansive realm.

For instance, you might experience (not momentarily, briefly) a strong sense of infinite space. That sense of boundless space, of cosmic wonder, can also reveal within. We sometimes say, “I feel really spacious today” - a sweet whisper of infinity wthin. Another person may notice this in us. Infinite space embraces inner and outer.

Spaciousness expresses an opening of the heart, a loosening of narrow, contracted views. This openness hints at a potential manifestations of liberation.

Second. Consciousness can expand into an infinite sense. Infinite consciousness means that not only do you feel truly alive but sense that everything around feels alive as well —the sentient and the non-sentient. Life/consciousness appears vivid, vibrant, pervasive. These deep experiences can arise through meditation or spontaneously.

We also need openness to a range of spiritual, mystical, religious, hard-to-explain experiences. Tremendous wonder can come through the small human being. We walk around as little “children of the universe” with tiny eyeballs. The eyelid lifts and we go, “Wow!” as we witness the expanse of the universe and deep inter-connectedness. The experience may fade but can leave a change of view of life.

Third. In these realms, we experience no-thingness, a profound undifferentiated absence of seperate things revealing interconnectedness .

Fourth. The first three depend on percpetion. The fourth realm reveals the insubstantiality of solid perceptions and the perceiver that accompanies the perception.

There is no such thing as a brief touch of the four absorptions or four formless realms. Your mind cannot move up and down between either of the four. In the deep, movement is vary subtle. Refinement of awareness, silence and stillnes serve as aids.

These “wow” experiences offer a depth far more significant than the trivial pursuit of pleasure and status. In spite of the depths of absorption and realms available to us, wisdom and liberation may still be hidden or mostly reduced to intimations.

When Experience Doesn’t Match the Ideal

Yet, despite all this, meditators tell me:

• “I’ve done a lot of meditation. I’ve heard about deep absorptions of happiness and joy but never achieved any. I remember I had a smile on my face after one of your funny stories, but nothing more than that.”

• Infinite space and cosmic aliveness? I joined a ayahuasca cereomy and mostly remember vomiting into a bucket.”

People sometimes feel let down by the absence of such experiences. They think, “I must be doing something wrong. I have these as stepping stones on the path. I am not sure I am on the spiritual path. “ Such views causes doubt.

These experiences do not form a checklist for genuine practice, nor for liberation.

If you don’t believe me, check the suttas (discourses of the Buddha).. Don’t rely on my voice.

Listening as the Primary Vehicle for Transformation

The texts support another point: the primary vehicle of transformation has not been meditation. That may surprise some, but historically, the main engine for change has come from listening.

Listening plays the central role. In listening, the words can wake up the human being, even if they don’t stay in memory. Teachings of deep Dharma can spark a deep response. That spark reduces the authority of tendencies, sometimes dramatically, liberates the mind and reveals a wisdom in knowing a sense of an ultimate truth beyond impermanence, suffering, big or negligible, and non-self.

People loved and respected the Buddha because he spoke the deepest Dharma. Two and a half thousand years later, his voice still echoes in the meditation hall, in recorded talks and podcasts.

The Buddha made clear his approach.

1. First, one listens.

2. If deep understanding does not immediately arise, one reflects.

3. If reflection still doesn’t bring a deeper shift, one inquires—talks with others, asks questions, explores.

4. If that does not bring a liberating wisdom, one meditates on the theme, bringing more awareness to it.

5. If that not work, then one meditates for calm and insight to resolve problematic latent tendenceies to maximise receptivity to wisdom and liberation.

The initial aim does not involve chasing special meditative experiences to confirm the teaching; rather, meditation can clarify the teachings so they take root in being.

Practice Without Formal Meditation

With regard to tendencies, a practitioner could explore everything said without ever sitting on a meditation cushion. The practice would involve:

• · Investigating tendencies,

• · Noticing the time, place, circumstance of its arising

• · Seeing where and when they arise, stay and pass

• · Developing impermanence to support letting go of the changeable and unreliable

• · Reflecting after encounters.

None of that depends on a particular posture.

That shows the generosity of the teachings: meditation forms one part of a larger body of Dharma yet from from dependency. The Buddha spoke of the “body of teachings.” Meditation belongs within that body, but much else does not fall under meditation at all.

Meditation does not cause liberation. If meditation caused liberation, I would feel duty-bound to maximise meditation as the cause and make everythng else secondary But that view cannot hold. It would lead to a tragic narrowing of the body of the Dharma. Some meditators cling to the view:

· “Only through meditation can you get liberated.”

· Then, “Only through sitting; not walking, standing, reclining or daily life.”

· Then, “Only through sitting employing this particular technique.”

That progression shrinks the path to something absurdly contracted. How could a human know liberation while identifying themselves with such a narrow mindset?

A View of Meditation

So, I wish to speak as independently as possible.

• Meditation holds genuine value.

• Meditation has power, preciousness, and will influence life deeply for many.

• Yet full awakening, a truly liberated life, can unfold without any formal time on a meditation cushion.

I say this because I know people who live with extraordinary wakefulness, little in the way of tendencies. Some used to engage in formal meditation practices alone, with others or on retreats. Others with much wisdom have not even thought to search a website for the word “meditation.” I bow down to such people.

We need to keep an expansive view. If meditation serves you and you find it deeply beneficial, then use it. Make use of retreats, teachings, and supportive environments.

May this retreat prove beneficial.

Closing Blessing

May all beings recognise and appreciate the times when tendencies fall away, and what those absences reveal.
May all beings dedicate themselves to dissolving tendencies for the welfare of life on Earth.
May all beings move toward waking up to liberation and wisdom—with or without the support of meditation.

Thank you for listening.

www.anengagedlife.org

www.christophertitmuss.net

www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse

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From a Dharma talk given at a retreat in the Waldhaus Buddhist Zentrum, near Koblenz, Germany. This edited and adapted version comes from the talk given in early August 2026.

Summary

This talk explores seven underlying tendencies that shape human consciousness

• Pleasure-Seeking,

• Reaction, Aversion and Unresolved Issues

• Views,

• Doubt,

• Conceit (including superiority, inferiory and the ideal of equality, Pride

• Existence/Becoming,

• Ignoring/Ignorance.

The edited talk explores features of these tendencies, which grip our lives and relationships, and ways to dissolve them through clear seeing, reflection, meditation, and wise engagement in daily life.

• Do you avoid hearing feedback about your latent tendencies?

• Do you avoid seeing the presence of your tendencies within?

• Do you avoid expressing your tendencies to others?

Seven Underlying Tendencies

The talk this afternoon falls into two areas.

The first area: underlying tendencies and how they influence the mind, consciousness, communication, and activity. The second area: a response to a regular and very appropriate question, “Is meditation really essential?”

Movement of Tendencies and Their Influence on Consciousness

With tendencies, we look at a movement that comes from within. That movement has a history. It lands on consciousness, which connects with something or someone—including oneself.

Two possibilities:

The tendency moves and influences consciousness, which has already landed on an object or person.

Or the tendency moves through the being and pushes consciousness onto something.

Important to get this clear from the beginning: a movement and a tendency impact consciousness, either by landing on what consciousness already holds or by driving consciousness toward some object.

As human beings, we live vulnerable to these tendencies. The Buddha, whom I regard as the supreme psychologist—restoring kindergarten—speaks about these tendencies and ways to work with them. That’s what I want to include in our exploration.

1. Pleasure as an Underlying Tendency

The first tendency: pleasure. Many people make a huge effort and spend a lot of money to maximise pleasure, to place pleasure at the centre of existence. Outwardly and inwardly, namely through desires and thinking, we keep moving in the same direction towards the seen, heard, smelt, tasted and touched. We deceive ourselves when we think we have a choice. The habit dominates the mind.

The underlying movement of pleasure keeps repeating. Due to conditions, it keeps pushing consciousness toward pleasant experiences. The tendency and the thoughts can move fast. The Buddha said he could not think of an analogy to match the speed of thought in consciousness, with a tendency behind it.

Sometimes the tendency arises so quickly that we repeat its long history without really knowing what’s going on.

2. Reactions, Aversion, and Unresolved Issues

A second primary area: reaction. Here something unresolved stays active. We keep repeating the same way of viewing and interpreting an issue. Again and again, we judge in the same way, then wonder:

“Why do I still feel like this?”

“Why am I still stuck with this aversion, this judgmental mind?”

The underlying tendency dominates. It decides the way of looking. We might shift perceptions a little, make small adjustments, but the powerful tendency—toward aversion, reaction, judgment—stays strong for years, sometimes for a lifetime.

We don’t enter life with a clean sheet or start off free from tendencies. They come into existence with us.

If you doubt that, reflect on twins, your own children, or any babies you remember. The differences jump out. Different babies show different tendencies. They come into the world with them. Whether that begins at conception, in past lives, in DNA—whichever view one takes—by birth the tendencies already function. Confirmation lies in the differences between babies in the same home, including twins.

3. Conceit, Pride, Arrogance, Self-righteousness

Another significant tendency: conceit. In stronger form, pride; stronger still, arrogance; stronger again, self-righteousness. Here the “self,” the “I,” keeps arising.

We often don’t realise that conceit moves in three directions:

1. Superiority — the obvious one, with all its consequences.

2. Inferiority — another ego trip, and equally unwholesome.

3. Equality — surprisingly, also linked to conceit.

With superiority, we know the pattern: someone looks down on others, full of absolutist views and perhaps emotional charge or a cold attitude. We often stand on the receiving end of this.

Yet inferiority also belongs to the same conceit family. In this ego trip, one feels low self-worth—not good enough, not successful enough. Others appear better off. Self-blame comes in. We regularly put ourselves down. That repetition becomes a tendency, reinforced by the thought, “Others are better than me.” Over time, the view hardens: “I am not good enough.” The “I” and the tendency fuse. We act as if that belief holds absolute truth.

Then the climate of “equality” appears. Society loves to speak about equality, to work toward equality, but often this functions as a romantic ideal. In that ideal, the mind points a finger: “You cause inequality.” Underneath, a voice whispers, “I know better. I stand superior to you.” The ideal of equality can reinforce inequality. The desire for equality becomes a romantic ideal that feeds a strong tendency.

Real life confirms diversity. Even in this hall, no equality exists in the strict sense. We might subscribe to noble values, yet clarity, skills and knowledge vary. Some people carry certain tendencies; some have dissolved some or all of them.

Our exploration: to recognise which tendencies predominate in our own life. We need not tackle all seven at once. If just one strong tendency shows itself, we can focus on that one and work mindfully and carefully, with the intention to change the conditions that give rise to the tendency. When we understand how to weaken and dissolve one tendency, the same principle applies to others. After all, they remain only tendencies—subject to change.

“Only” sounds like an understatement, but still: they can change.

Sometimes people say to me on retreat, “Christopher, we come for the tasty, nutritious food,” which we gratefully receive every day. Others say, “We come for your humour.” You are not hearing much of that today. Some say they come for the practice. We do not even come here with a shared purpose.

Time, Patience, and Commitment

We have seven primary tendencies and have looked at three or four already. Working with them calls for quiet, persistent focus. One can’t attend a retreat, sit for a few days, and then expect to walk out completely free of tendencies. That view doesn’t match reality.

I remember teaching retreats back in the 1980s at the Royal Thai Monastery in Bodh Gaya. The Dalai Lama remained more accessible then, not yet the global “Hollywood star.” I invited him to speak to meditators. I didn’t tell them in advance. He simply walked in. I offered him a chair; he said, “No, no, I’ll sit on the floor.” He gave a talk and answered questions. We enjoyed a very appreciative hour.

One point he made stayed with me. Speaking of practice, he said, “You really have to give it time.” He suggested giving three years of steady practice to something important. Then he added, with a smile, “If the practice doesn’t work, try Christianity.”

That kind of generosity of spirit appears often in the Buddhist tradition; not many traditions would say something like that.

So, we need willingness, commitment, and dedication to work with an area where the tendency does not support our life. That tendency may reach back to conception or before. This presents a challenge. Blaming other people or the past can distract. It can function as an escape route. We need to take responsibility for our relationship to the present condition and practise diligently.

Using the Gaps When a Tendency Falls Away

Remember: a tendency does not operate every moment. It cannot. If it ruled us 24 hours a day, we couldn’t function at all.

Because the tendency sometimes drops away, space opens. That space can serve for reflection:

When does the tendency show itself?

What triggers it quickly and easily?

We need the impermanence of the tendency in order to know the space without it. From that space, we look back and see more clearly:

Where does this tendency appear?

With whom?

Under what conditions?

Then we go further. We not only recognise the tendency and where it lands, but also see where it lands strongest:

At work?

At home?

With neighbours?

With family?

Upon groups of people?

Upon oneself?

We also ask: does it arise at a particular time of day, in certain circumstances, before or during specific encounters?

If we know, “When I meet this person, this tendency might arise,” we can prepare. Without preparation, we walk in with the old mindset, and then we give the person authority to “stick a finger down our throat.” If we forget to prepare, we also forget to “shut our mouth,” or close our mouth tight.

Preparation may require:

• Some deep breathing

• A clear focus

• A quiet determination to look the person in the eye

• Not lowering the head

• Not glancing around nervously

• Not scratching the head in confusion

All these little gestures often signal doubt, irritation, or fear. They show our lack of readiness.

We need to prepare so we can see another clearly without the tendency taking over. We might repeat this preparation a hundred times, often feeling, “One step forward, three steps back.” Please don’t give up. That only shows the tendency has a strong grip. Wanting, fearing, desiring, reacting—these forces run deep.

Awareness holds more power. Dedication and willingness to take that next step carry more strength than the tendency.

4. Views

Another important theme: views. In the Noble Eightfold Path, the first factor, “right view,” means ethical, clear, wise, skilful, proportionate and necessary.

If the view constantly refers to “the other,” we get nowhere. The view leaps over oneself and lands on the other: their behaviour, their faults, their attitude. The more we fixate on them, the more authority we give them. We manufacture images, stories, and explanations about them. Then the other seems to hold all the power.

In effect, we say, “I have no authority. I hand it over to you because I keep thinking and projecting onto you.” Their behaviour then appears to continue unchanged, maybe for years, partly because we keep feeding their image.

So, in this exploration, our views matter enormously.

5. Doubt

Another tendency: doubt. Sometimes doubt helps. A healthy doubt can sound like, “What on earth am I doing with my life?” That question can shake us up in a good way.

But if the same unresolved doubt hangs around from our 20s into our 30s, then into our 40s, it grows. This tendency to doubt takes root, affecting our lives in significant ways.

Healthy doubt brings deep questioning without fear or anxiety. Many people know from experience that a doubt about something once became the spark for real change. In that sense, doubt supports awakening. In the monastic tradition, a saying circulates:

• “Small doubt, small awakening.

• Medium doubt, medium awakening.

• Big doubt, big awakening.”

These one-liners can carry a degree of potency.

A tendency toward doubt, however, undermines authority. It pulls us back and forth:

• “Shall I do this?”

• “Shall I do that?”

  Then friends give advice:

• “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

• “If I were you, I’d do this.”

That person isn’t you, but still the doubt multiplies. Now we juggle three or four opinions. We go back and forth. Turmoil grows.

Later we might tell our therapist or our lover (often not our mother, in case she worries), “I went through so much doubt and confusion, but I looked at it carefully, talked it through, and now I’ve made my choice.” Impressive language—“I made my choice.”

But did we? Or did the mind simply go with the option we thought about the most? I don’t believe in “freedom of choice” in the naïve sense. Usually, many thoughts circle around three or four possibilities; at some point, one stream of thought gains the most mental weight, and we call that “my choice.”

A few weeks later, the old tendency to doubt creeps back:

“Oh my God, what have I done?”

“I thought my partner was out of touch. I left him, leaving myself alone. I hear he started dating 48 hours later.” Then the doubts return in full force.

So doubt can haunt a human being. Be mindful of what you choose.

6. Existence, Becoming

Another common tendency: wanting something to exist or to become.

We want something to exist in our life: a person, a role, an achievement, a possession. This tendency to become somebody rises again and again. Focus narrows around what we want or who we want to become. Consciousness fills up with this tendency. Little space remains to look around, beyond or deeper. This can go on for years or decades.

Meanwhile, much of the rest of life gets neglected or ignored. We run on a treadmill of wanting and becoming.

King Yama, the Lord of Death, roams about, pointing his finger every day at people, indicating their last day on Earth. In monastic life, reminders of death come often.

King Yama doesn’t care whether we are young or old, fat or thin, American, English, German, Indian or Israeli. For example, the super-elite, the billionaire class, ageing day by day, knock on the doors of death while thinking themselves clever for plotting to control the world. Could anything confirm such ignoring of reality?

Death ridicules their efforts. Like everybody else, they cannot control the ageing, dying and death of their own vulnerable existence. Most will lie dead, buried and forgotten within the next two or three decades.

In the Dharma hall in the monasteries, Dharma teachers will point a finger toward the Sangha. “Is this your last day? Maybe your last day … or yours … or yours.” Then we think, “Perhaps the teacher knows something.” Usually not. We receive a reminder that our life can end any day.

A little reflection on death works as a powerful practice. We ask:

“Do I really want a life so heavily ruled by tendencies that they block the chance to see other dimensions of existence—including the birthless and deathless?”

7. Ignoring and Ignorance

The last of the seven: avijjā. Often translated as ignorance, the concept also means the tendency to ignore.

We can ask, “Who or what do I ignore in my life?” Sometimes the most serious ignoring comes from not even knowing what we ignore. We don’t know. That’s why we need quietness, stillness, walks, reflections. Out of that, something may emerge that we had previously ignored.

Ignoring can also relate to something very recent and concrete. Signals come in:

• Thoughts

• Feelings

• Body sensations

We carry on as if nothing influences us. For example, we ignore continued smoking; we ignore junk food; we ignore the person who needs attention. Naming these areas forms the first step toward change.

If we catch signals early, we can act. Doctors, nurses, and body specialists repeat a central message: “Do not ignore certain signals. Get them tested. See what steps or treatments can help. Don’t leave it too late.”

We need a similar approach with ourselves and, gently, with those we care about.

Working with Tendencies in Daily Life

So, with these tendencies, we look at:

• Changes when they appear and when they fade

• Primary times when they come on strong

• Time of day, location, energy level, company, and so on

Preparation becomes possible when we anticipate a trigger. Then we can ask, “Can I engage in this situation without the tendency running the show?” Afterwards, we reflect when some calm returns, rather than in a state of confusion.

• How did that go?

• What would I do differently next time?

• Do I need to develop empathy?

• Can I develop a different tone?

• Can I use fewer words?

Sometimes we need to speak briefly and directly. If we go on and on, the other person feels overwhelmed and stops listening.

No matter how small, every expression of clarity in communication counts.

Let us communicate with the inner life as much as with the outer life.

Next transcribed and edited talk: Is meditation necessary? Published within two or three days.

Love

Christopher

Design Toscano

www.thebuddahwallah.org

www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse. org

Join our online Mindfulness Training Course. Two six month modules. Become a professional accredited mindfulness teacher.

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This next poem carries a personal note. Sometimes we fall in love strongly, immediately, unexpectedly, perhaps with someone whom we met for the first time, or perhaps we knew the person for months or longer. Suddenly love grows in powerful ways.

This love lands with a declaration. One feels no concern at all about that person’s history. The love of the person as they present themselves in that moment carries more power than anything known or unknown about their past. This poem attempts to communicate this kind of romantic love.

Title of Poem: An Invitation to Walk About Within

The poem speaks from the person who has fallen in love, offering an invitation to the other to walk about within himself or herself.

 I don’t care men and women let you down

 I don’t care; broken trust became your name

I don’t care; snide comments were thrown around

 I don’t care what you have long disdained. 

Or you hide your secrets when words complain

disputes and fights, reactions to what they said

or have spent years in someone else’s bed.



Your power makes you act; you play your part

such anguish, woes, and hurt you have fought 

I felt you walk much more around my heart

you stroll around to visit caves you sought, 

you peer at my forgotten corners on the chart. 

You pluck my strings and dance alone inside

And breathe your soul into what I can’t hide. 

Let’s trust, and find out what you can see and touch 

when you walk around my inner life so much. 

Sometimes love brings trust, sharing and invitation. Through love, we discover that trust, opening an invitation for the other to look into us, into corners of our mind we rarely show.

We look into our mind to discover who we truly have become. That looking helps to draw something authentic out of our being. We release a merging of trust and love co-exist together to share from a foundation of wisdom. We know someone can listen to us, and someone can hear us fully.

The response arrives supportive, and something freeing and liberating happens because trust enabled it to occur. We hold deep interest in this kind of trust, which can emerge in romantic life, friendship, and other expressions metta. This proves not unusual at all, though it requires vigilance, a watchfulness to preserve love as a sacred element of human experience.

Love genuinely holds sacredness in its precious nature, yet it stays fragile too. This is deeply human. We find this fragility in ourselves, in others, the arts and the dance of daily life.

Love and fear of loss, Love and worry

What I have in mind here concerns how we associate problematic mind states with love. Sometimes we say to ourselves, or to another, “I love this person so much; I feel afraid of losing him (or her, or other).”

We say, “I love this person so much, I end up worrying about them.”

Some say, “This person loves me. The person also wants much from me as well. When they want more of my love that becomes a burden.” That wanting is not love. It is wanting, a form of neediness.

“If I didn’t love this person, I wouldn’t cling to them, wouldn’t start feeling needy.”

We ask ourselves, “Why do I feel like this?” Our words fall into a problematic language concluding love causes suffering.

Clinging and worry have nothing to do with love. Love does not cause fear; it does not cause worry. Love cannot do that. Such suffering falls outside its domain, outside what remains possible for love.

If love truly caused us so many fears , worries and anxieties, the solution would prove simple: stop loving. That would end all the suffering wrapped around love. We could become an AI walking around like a robot - a machine. Love remains sacred, precious, though it rarely exists alone. Other tendencies accompany it, tendencies that easily masquerade as love’s fault.

Let us refuse to make love the cause of why we worry about our children, why we think so much about our aged parents and feel anxious about our losing the job we love to AI. Love bears no relationship to mental suffering. Can we work instead with these tendencies, which keep making errors of judgment that tie us to habits and patterns obstructing love?

Let love stay pristine, kept pure, with a clarity of graciousness. As human beings, we can see clearly so that love remains love. When we experience departure from it, we recognise the departure for what it is - an unresolved tendency.

We need to show great care when we say to ourselves, or to another, “I love my kids so much,” or “I love my lover so much.”

You may believe in this heartfelt view. Stay aware that we do not love this person constantly, every moment. Be honest. I haven’t met anybody who loves somebody all the time; if you know such a person, send me an email, and I will go anywhere to kiss their feet. We experience the presence of love and the absence of love.

This absence need not turn into anger, fear, or withdrawal. Sometimes love becomes inaccessible. This body of teaching recognises and appreciates love while also recognising that absence of it occurs too. Even in absence, patience serves better than pointing fingers at oneself or at somebody else due to lack of love. Such gaps in friendship, loving kindness and love belong naturally to the rhythms and flows of life. This confirms the real of love.

Within this exploration, we sometimes fall into the habit of treating love as a matter of the heart alone, yet love proves far too large to reduce it to the parameters of the heart. If we rely on the heart for confirmation of love, then, frankly, may you experience good luck with that approach.

Consider the mother with a little baby who wakes in the middle of the night. The mother holds her baby and rocks the baby back to sleep, even though she doesn’t feel like it since she is so tired.

Nshorna, my daughter became pregnant aged 18. She had three more children. On a Saturday night in her 20s, she would sometimes go clubbing with her mates, her “girlies” as she calls them. The children stayed with me. In the middle of the night, one child would climb into my bed. Then the other two would come. I would tell my daughter the next day, “Darling, I’ve just survived a night of domestic abuse; one child sat on my face, another clambered all over me” while another was kicking me in their sleep. Despite all this, love prevails amidst the irritation of a night of broken sleep.

I offer these as everyday examples showing love’s many faces: powerful and strong at times, soft and gentle at others, sometimes absent. That absence does not have to pose a problem; thus not needing any correction.

In certain situations , we could not act if we relied solely on the heart. The feeling of love may not arise. A knowing arises that carries a power, a movement toward action independent of feelings. Let me offer an example with some extended detail.

My annual visits to Palestine spanned from 1992 to 2019. Entering Palestine for a few days sometimes went without hassle at the various checkpoints, but during an Intifada (Uprising) it grew harder. I gave workshops to activists in Palestine to leave behind violence, what they called armed struggle, to find non-violent strategies instead. I also gave workshops to support suffering mothers such as those whose husbands the IDF (Israeli army) assassinated in front of them and their small children.

IDF arrested teenage sons of mothers for throwing stones. Soldiers would take them away without word for months, leaving mothers sick with worry. Low-flying fighter planes deliberately terrorised children and parents over Nablus at night, leaving parents to cope with nightmares, bedwetting, and trauma of their children. Suffering. Suffering. Suffering.

I questioned whether I truly wanted to do this work. In Nablus, the main town of the West Bank, sometimes I never saw a single Westerner, not from an aid charity, international organisation or diplomat from a foreign government. Their organisations and embassies did not wish to take risks with their staff. I preferred to work alone rather than depend upon the backing of an organisation.

The Palestinians took wonderful care of me. Sometimes they were concerned I might get kidnapped by Islamic Jihad or Hamas, occasionally hiding me in the car as we passed through areas in an around Nablus whispering, “Keep your head down, Christopher, keep low.” This work carried love, though not always accompanied by feelings in the heart; it simply felt necessary. I share this not to boast but to illustrate the point. Love transcends feelings as well as embracing them.

Steps in daily life

In daily life too, speaking up rarely feels easy. We voice concern. Taking a risk, never comes easily. Some of you in this hall face a workplace situation where your boss behaves as an authoritarian, bullying, manipulative, putting staff down and giving them a hard time, calling indivuals passive-aggressive and more. You know you must say something. You ask others about their experience. They confirm they get treated in the same way.” Nobody speaks up. They fear they will lose job. HR (Human Resources) fails to act.

The thought arises “I want to leave. I must get myself out of here,” That response may prove appropriate. Love can convey a different voice – a willingness to take risks, to speak up even when others beg, “Don’t mention my name, I don’t want more problems, I’m just trying to keep under the radar. I don’t want to lose my job or get ignored for promotion.”

Certain individuals in this Dharma hall consider speaking up despite the possible outcome. This might invite criticism, fault-finding and negativity towards themselves. Their voice may cost them their job. Integrity is love. Pursuit of justice is love.

Some will speak up anyway, without feeling like it at all. Why did they speak up? Perhaps they didn’t want whoever replaced them to endure the same treatment. People speak up regardless of the cost. Whistleblowers deserve our reverence; they take genuine risks with their future, their liberty and some flee their country Such people are the gods who walk among us.

Poem Three

Let me turn now to a poem called Tears of a Yogi. The Buddha once remarked, perhaps as metaphor, perhaps a mild exaggeration, that the tears human beings have shed fill the great ocean.

I have thought a few times this might hold true . I recall tears of a yogi – a meditator in the Dharma all in a subtropical rainforest near The Channon, New South Wales, Australia. Friends who work as environmentalists constructed the hall, kitchen and huts entirely from fallen trees, refusing to cut down living ones, which meant considerable extra work cutting up fallen timber and searching further afield for material. Their conviction showed love for trees.

During one retreat, I witnessed a woman shedding many tears over the crisis in her relationship. Earlier we had our earlier one-to-one session together. Her damn burst in the next sitting in the meditation hall.

Title of Poem: Tears of a Yogi

I sit opposite tears, co-joined, with wet cheeks 

like long, slow raindrops on panes of glass

I look across to witness her sadness speak 

of quietness, innocence, breath does pass

comfort, silence, no words to tweak. 



I see her sorrow held in story old, 

inner process of long sorrows deem

a heartache pressed upon her life untold, 

so she dwells alone in such extreme.



A sigh emerges, and the tears then halt, at no cost

she finds rest now, peace fills her heart flown

I feel her presence, soul of past seasons lost

her breath now softens, body rests alone, 

a passing dam of tears and loss atoned. 



Abiding stillness, our eyes open to look

I say no word, observe, offer no clue

I sense her heartache and the tears that shook

she makes no move, she knows what she went through

she said later she felt a love so true.

Sometimes, we human beings pass through sobs and silence, and out of that passage, we recognise an authentic love running through.

A valuable practice involves noticing the small expressions of love, friendship, or kindness that emerge during the day. Sometimes we hold the privilege of witnessing this from others. You see the gestures from yourselves, from the staff here, from the teacher, from visitors. Let us keep our hearts, eyes, and ears genuinely open.

One important aspect of this recognition and deep appreciation involves its power to shift a despairing view of life. A despairing view of current life, or of the current state of the world, leaves us handicapped emotionally and mentally, repeating to others our despair of life on Earth, conflict, war, and more. In such despair we become crippled, as surely crippled as somebody who has lost the use of their legs. We become weighed down until we can no longer respond.

Let us recognise the presentations, gestures, manifestations of love around us. Genuine love touches us, protects us from despair, from feeling overwhelmed by living in this world. The world itself does not lack love; plenty of love exists within it, but human beings must recognise it, sense it, acknowledge it.

With that power of love, we take steps toward wise action, boldness, speaking up, and serving humanity, creatures, and the natural world. Love holds a power that despair, cynicism, and hopelessness cannot match.

Let us keep our being open in the days we spend here together. Keep this awareness alive elsewhere too. Let us share a quiet minute together.

May all beings know the real of love.

May all beings recognise infinite expressions of love

May all beings know the power of love to guide our actions.

Love

Christopher

www.anengagedlife.org

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