Shows
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonDissociated LoveFollowing one of the live sessions, Alistair talks about the experience of dissociation. This is a natural function of our minds, but it can also erase our natural kindness - especially towards ourselves. How do you work with dissociation?
#dissociation #psychology #Buddhism #Mindsprings
Please do join our 3x weekly meditation group on Zoom. You can find the details on how to come along here:
https://www.mind-springs.org/online-live
2023-04-2806 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonMud on the BuddhaAn excerpt from the Holy Island Retreat October 2022. Alistair is talking about the theory of Buddha nature, that we are already enlightened at our core. And even it's not true - is it beneficial? Does it change the way we are in the world. And does it lead us to the beautiful moment of taking our bodhisattva vow.
2023-02-2830 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonForgetteryThis is an excerpt from the Holy island Retreat in October 2023 which was focusing on the wisdom aspect of compassion.
Alistair sketches out the way compassion is seen within the various yanas of Buddhism and how 'forgettery' lies in the centre of our suffering and the suffering of others.
2023-02-1611 min
The Reset Room'Dealing with anxiety', with special guest Alistair AppletonThis episode of the Reset Room’s is all about anxiety and how we can reduce its negative impact on our lives.Host Kelly Crichton is joined by psychotherapist and founder of Mind-Springs.org Alistair Appleton, to discuss a particular area of his expertise, anxiety. Listeners may know Alistair as he is also a broadcaster, working on programme’s such as BBC’s Escape to the Country. Alistair shares with Kelly how his own personal experience of anxiety plus his training has led him to develop very effective methods for addressing these stressful feelings.Listeners will get ver...
2022-07-1430 min
The Reset Room'Dealing with anxiety', with special guest Alistair AppletonThis episode of the Reset Room’s is all about anxiety and how we can reduce its negative impact on our lives.Host Kelly Crichton is joined by psychotherapist and founder of Mind-Springs.org Alistair Appleton, to discuss a particular area of his expertise, anxiety. Listeners may know Alistair as he is also a broadcaster, working on programme’s such as BBC’s Escape to the Country. Alistair shares with Kelly how his own personal experience of anxiety plus his training has led him to develop very effective methods for addressing these stressful feelings.Listeners will get ver...
2022-07-1430 min
One Thing Today#1611: Bread making (and podcasting) in small steps
Fifty Days of Small Steps: Days 10/50 & 11/50Following on from my accidental slow bread making, here is a podcast in four parts in which I intentionally aim to make a loaf of bread over twenty-four hours. It's an experiment in going slowly and in small steps which turns into a bit of a ponder about product vs process, deadlines and enjoying what we’re doing. Spoiler: I don't quite finish the loaf during the podcast, but I’ve postied a Podcast Extra video over on Patreon that includes the finished loaf (and some lambs!). Watch...
2022-05-1331 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Negative News IndustryThe negative news industry.
Responding to a student’s comment on the distractions of the news media, Alistair speaks about the nature of news as an industry and the myth of ‘being informed’ that drives it.
What if we were to question the mechanism of news and what it means for us?
Join in the conversation live at the Mindsprings Practice Space. It's free and friendly. https://mindsprings-practicespace.org/sign-up/
2022-01-2010 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe eight conciousnesses and the 45thJane asked: "Is awareness the same as consciousness? And how do you deal with someone with a lot of shame or someone with no shame, like Donald Trump?"
Alistair discusses how the definitions of awareness and consciousness are different in Buddhism and Psychotherapy.
What do you think?
2022-01-0715 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThoughts are like ToothpasteIn this podcast, Alistair, (after being interrupted by Ben the dog 😀) discusses distractions with the Mindsprings students. He says tension is the motor of distraction. The tenser you make the mind the more thoughts and thinking arise. Just as the more you squeeze the bottom of the toothpaste the faster it comes out of the top.
Do you get distracted by thoughts when meditating?
2022-01-0207 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Infernal WaltzAlistair talks about the three things that dance the waltz of Samsara - Delusion, Wanting & Hatred .
2021-12-2107 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonIs the word 'self' meaningless?From a Mindsprings meditation Zoom class discussion. Buddhists take aim at the fixed nature of our sense of selves. They believe suffering is caused when we try to keep ourselves in a fixed state. Alistair says at Mindsprings we are exploring if there really is an unchanging person within us, a 'self.' Perhaps we will find out the Buddhists are wrong.
You can join Alistair in 3x weekly live sessions to practice meditation. Interact with the Mindsprings community and join in these conversations about meditation, Buddhism and life. It's free!
https://mindsprings-practicespace.org/sign-up/
2021-12-1608 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonDon't look for chocolate at the ironmongersAlistair discusses lasting happiness following a question from Jane, a Mindsprings student. We have to look in the right place for bliss. Blissful happiness is in the field of awareness, not in our emotional bodies.
2021-11-1012 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Truth About WorryingAre you a worrier?
In this Podcast recorded from a Mindsprings meditation class, Alistair busts the myths around worrying.
2021-10-2205 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonDealing with toxic relationshipsAlistair discusses toxic relationships and how to empower yourself to change things.
Do you have any difficult relationships in your life?
2021-10-0706 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonManagers, Firefighters & ExilesWe're not made up of one coherent self, Alistair explains, but rather there are different parts of us at play or at war. When our internal managers, firefighters and exiles are fighting we suffer. Loving our different parts is a route to finding inner peace.
2021-09-2310 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonReal-life MaitriAlistair discusses Maitri with his students. Maitri meditation is kindness and compassion for ourselves and others. He says it starts with recognising the knarly patterns within ourselves that get in the way of loving other people.
2021-09-0709 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonLooking for blessings in the right placeAlistair remembers his mother saying 'People who ask don't get.' Yet, he says, in Tibetan traditions asking for blessings is an act of devotion. This discussion with students centres on the differences between western attitudes and religion where prayer and asking are supreme spiritual activities.
Can you ask for help or are you afraid of asking?
2021-08-2409 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Genesis of PartsAlistair talks about Internal Family Systems. The different parts inside us, identified by therapist Richard C Schwartz. We all have parts playing out an internal role, some are vulnerable, whereas other parts of us are protectors or managers. Learning to recognise these parts and understanding how they interact is key to understanding ourselves.
2021-08-1109 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonOn being a punchbagHow do you react when someone hurts you?
In this recorded teaching, Alistair says it's not ok to be a punchbag. A healthier way is to acknowledge our pain and then try to understand where it is coming from in the other person.
2021-07-2005 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonBeing OK with the not OKIt's easy to be compassionate with yourself when you're feeling OK but we are often very mean to ourselves. In this recorded teaching, Alistair says the essence of self-compassion is being OK with whatever our experience is. Even if that experience is crazy-nuts.
2021-07-0606 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonOiling the Cogs with LoveWe don't meditate to become good meditators. We meditate to become kind human beings. In this recorded lesson, Alistair discusses steadying the mind and the benefits of different mediation teachings.
2021-06-2208 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThoughts ride the WindhorseFrom a recorded lesson: Alistair discusses thoughts and thinking with students. It is not thoughts that make us unhappy. Thoughts come and go but it is unconscious thinking, ego thoughts that cause suffering to arise. Soothing our minds soothes our thoughts. If the body is unified our thoughts ride the Windhorse of the bodys energy.
2021-05-3108 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonBulldozed by thoughtsIn answer to a students question, Alistair discusses thoughts and feelings. Instead of being bulldozed by our thoughts, we can learn to dance with them. Gentle familiarisation of the inner landscape increases our wisdom and reduces suffering.
2021-05-1806 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonAddiction to sufferingAlistair discusses suffering in a teaching session. We are conditioned to believe that we should be suffering but when you remove 'me' you end the struggle.
2021-05-1106 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Emperor's old mindIn this lively recorded teaching Alistair discusses how we can stay in love with our mind and be happy in the here and now.
2021-04-3006 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonPanksepps WheelIn this Podcast, Alistair discusses Jaak Panksepp's Wheel of emotions. Emotions, which pre-date thoughts aren't bad or wrong but all animals share them. Panksepp identified seven primal emotional patterns, as well as negative emotions such as fear, sadness and anger there is also caring, lust, seeking and play.
2021-04-1308 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonSelfing V Being: Too much self is like too much saltIn this podcast Alistair discusses Selfing V Being. It's a bit like salt, a little bit for flavour but too much is bad and it spoils everything. Too much self gets in the way. When we limit ourselves to our idea of ourselves, we run into problems.
2021-04-0613 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonDon't talk about injured limbsAlistair discusses the Lojong slogans - Don't talk about injured limbs, translates as don't focus on other peoples wounds and defects. Don't be judgemental.
2021-03-3008 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonYoga V BuddhismYoga V Buddhism: In this recorded teaching, Alistair speculates that the emphasis in Yoga is on improving oneself, but Buddha would call this poisoned food
2021-03-2308 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonFreudWas Freud right - is it all about sex?
From the Live Sessions in February 2021. Tamsyn mentioned her dislike of reading Freud during her therapy training, and Alistair jumped to his defence.
2021-03-1615 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonIlluminating PreferencesRecorded teaching from the Mindsprings mediation school: Thoughts, feelings and unexamined beliefs become visible, during the practice of the Four Fields. We become aware of all the clutter we have in our experience and the tragedy of spending years disassociating from life. Alistair explains to a student, having preferences is part of being human. It's ok to feel bad and ok to prefer not to feel bad.
2021-03-0911 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonBurning the creepy cocoonRecorded teaching from Alistair: Many of us live our lives inside a well-oiled cocoon and run on autopilot like zombies. Others find the cocoon creepy and diseased and experience a calling to find out what is outside of it. Outside the cocoon, we can find a sense of aliveness and the fullness of life.
2021-02-1611 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonTouching the Splendour UnscathedIn this podcast, Alistair considers religion. Different faith traditions have different names for awakened energy but everyone plugs into the same supercharged higher power regardless of the name it is given and all races and religions concur that this power is love.
2021-02-0911 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonStaying with ShameShame is the fear of ostracization and it is one of the key practises to work with in Therapy. In this Podcast, Alistair concludes that shame is the glue that holds much of our pain-creating unconscious patterns together. These damage us and those around us. By sitting with 'what is' we can feel pain but ultimately it is a healing pain.
2021-02-0208 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Two HurtsLife hurts! A recorded teaching from Alistair on the inescapable suffering of being alive. The first hurt being getting sick, particularly relevant in this time of Covid. And the second is the hurt we cause ourselves which, when we are trapped in the dark prison of ignorance, is more difficult to love.
2021-01-2606 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThinking Self, Awareness SelfIn this teaching, Alistair shows students an exercise to demonstrate there is no fixed self. We are not just our skin, hair or bones. By putting awareness into our hand and knowing it from the inside, we become more plugged in and get a more accurate overall reference point.
2021-01-1911 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonHunt the self!Where is your sense of self within your body?
Where is the core of your awareness?
In the west, we often think we're situated behind our eyes but in this podcast, Alistair discusses that in the here and now we have more of a sense of ourselves along the front of our spine.
2020-12-1505 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonHigher Self Higher PowerThere is more to us than just our thoughts. In this podcast episode, Alistair discusses our notions of our higher self. How we can forget our higher self and the need to reconnect with a bigger portion of ourselves. When we start to connect with the bigger sense of ourselves we realise we are the universe experiencing itself.
2020-12-0908 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonWhat Is Left When Trauma Is All Gone?In the final part of Alistair's 2020 Cardiff talk he explores the 'endpoint' of purification. What is the space that we would experience free from any distortion?
2020-05-0611 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Dragonglass Of EmptinessPart three of the 2020 Cardiff talk sees Alistair move into the world of therapy and how this intersects with the concept of 'emptiness'. Can Game of Thrones help us grasp this?
2020-05-0608 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonSilencing A Billion WhispersIn the second part of the Cardiff 2020 talk on purification, Alistair explores how this concept functions in Tibetan Buddhist practice.
2020-05-0609 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonMuddling Puritanism With PurificationThis is the first part of Alistair's March 2020 Talk at the Cardiff Buddhist Centre on Cowbridge Road.
The talk was on the subject of 'purification' and in this first part Alistair explains why it's interesting to him and how a false and correct understanding has played out in his life to date...
2020-03-0514 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonLapraroscopic Surgery Of The Ordinary MindWe can use the breath like a tiny, powerful spotlight into our inner experience. In this excerpt from the Spa Road weekend course on IFS in 2019, Alistair explains how somatic practice puts us in direct contact with the power of awareness, what Trungpa calls 'ordinary mind'.
2019-12-1913 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonMaitri Is Loving All Our Shitty Little PartsAlistair gives a very clear and insightful definition of maitri or love to the self. In an excerpt from the Spa Road Weekend in September 2019, he points out how we habitually ignore the very things that actually need the love...
The weekend is happening again in London, 11-12 January 2020: https://mind-springs.org/courses/maitri-meditation-and-internal-family-systems/
2019-12-1907 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThinking Is An Addiction, Awareness Is The CureFrom the October 2019 annual Mindsprings retreat for more advanced practitioners, this podcast is an exploration of why we end up spending so much time on the cushion thinking, thinking, thinking. Instead of demonising it - maybe there's something to understand?
Details of 2020's advanced retreat are here: https://mind-springs.org/courses/autumn-retreat-compassion-the-great-connector/
2019-12-1914 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonWhat's The Point Of Internal Family Systems?Excerpted from the October Holy Island Retreat in 2019, this is an inspired exploration of why we practice. What's the point of maitri, of using internal family systems, of the whole path of meditation? This podcast gives a good answer...
The IFS weekend is happening again in London, 11-12 January 2020: https://mind-springs.org/courses/maitri-meditation-and-internal-family-systems/
2019-12-1912 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonWhy Every Meditator Should Know About Richard SchwartzThis is a great excerpt from Alistair's 2019 weekend course on the Buddhist practice of Maitri (love to self) and Richard Schwartz' work on internal family systems. If you're a meditator and you have problems with loving yourself - this talk is a must.
The full weekend is happening again in London 11-12 January 2020: https://mind-springs.org/courses/maitri-meditation-and-internal-family-systems/
2019-12-1913 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonSimple Somatic SittingThis is a guided meditation Alistair gave in Brighton in December 2019. It's a very simple but interesting exploration of "simple sitting". You can do it sitting in a chair or on the floor if your knees prefer that!
2019-12-0522 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThree Levels of Breath Sitting UpThis is a short guided meditation from the Brighton 2019 Somatic Course where Alistair guides the practice of "Three Levels of the Breath". To read about Alistair's process in teaching this, see the Mindsprings blog entry: https://mind-springs.org/blog/is-my-finger-pointing-at-the-moon-from-where-youre-sitting/
2019-11-1817 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonEarth Descent Sitting UpGUIDED MEDITATION: From the 2018 'Being Still, Still Being' retreat on Holy Island. Alistair guides the group in an evening sit. Exploring the practice of Earth Descent in the sitting up position.
2019-10-2021 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonSomatic Sitting Practice - 16 PointsThis is a 24' guided meditation of the Somatic Sitting Practice, guided by Alistair Appleton. It's extracted from the 2018 'Being Still, Still Being' Holy Island retreat.
2019-09-2624 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonSit the Downs - Audio Guided MeditationThis is the guided meditation (audio) from Alistair Appleton's "Sit the Downs" meditation. Using somatic meditation to connect with the energy and wisdom of the landscape. Full 25' video is available here: https://mind-springs.org/blog/mindsprings-tv-sit-the-downs/
2019-08-2616 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonTapping - the Big ViewThis is an excerpt from Alistair Appleton's course in London on the 1st and 2nd of June 2019, on 'Tapping into Freedom'. It came at the end of the weekend when Alistair was exploring the deepest motivations of using tapping in the Buddhist context.
2019-06-1212 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonReggie's Lineage Of Embodiment5 of 5: In the last extract from Alistair's 2019 talk in Edinburgh, he talks about the here-and-now possibilities opened up by the teachings of Reggie Ray, his teacher. The somatic path allows us to love our bodies and find freedom.
2019-03-1907 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Body As A BuddhafieldPart 4 of 5: In this fourth section of his talk in Edinburgh, Alistair explore the alternative history of tantric Buddhism which treats the body as completely sacred and as the pathway to Liberation.
2019-03-1911 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Current Age Of DisembodimentPart 3 of 5: Continuing his Edinburgh, Alistair considers the way that contemporary culture paradoxically makes us more and more unhappy with our bodies. The internet allows for total disembodiment and consumerism welcomes it.
2019-03-1906 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Body As A BattlefieldPart 2 of 5: In the second part of his Edinburgh talk, Alistair runs through the history of our relationship with the body from early hunter-gathers to the Instagram age.
2019-03-1911 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonWhat Turns Us Against Our Bodies?Part one of five: Alistair gave a talk in Edinburgh in February entitled "The Body is A Buddhafield, Not a Battlefield". In this first part he asks the question: 'What turns us against our bodies?'
2019-03-1907 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonEarth DescentThis is a 35 minute guided meditation by Alistair Appleton exploring the Earth Descent practice taught by Reggie Ray.
2019-03-1832 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonPolyvagal TuningThis is Alistair Appleton's guided meditation 'Polyvagal Tuning' based on the neuroscientific work of Stephen Porges. It's 25 minutes long.
2019-03-1826 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonMeditation Is Growing Up And Not Growing Up Is Donald TrumpA student at the 2018 Summer Retreat asked if meditation can be guaranteed to make you calmer, more self-confident and stronger. His answer was an emphatic "No". Meditation helps us grow up and take on the full remit of being human. Something we all - including the POTUS - have to work at.
2019-01-2605 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Ego Is Not A Problem, Except The Fifth BitAlistair Appleton reveals that much of what we think about the 'ego' being a problem is wrong. Much of the ego is not a problem - just one aspect of it... Taken from the Summer 2018 Retreat on Holy Island. To find out about 2019's retreat look here: https://mind-springs.org/courses/summer-meditation-retreat-2019-the-body-is-the-ground/
2019-01-1909 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonHow To Survive Families And Relationship SomaticallyDuring a discussion in the Summer 2018 Retreat on Holy Island, Alistair speaks to a mother's worry that she has over-mothered her children and explores the way somatic practice improves relationships.
You can book for the 2019 Retreat here: https://mind-springs.org/courses/summer-meditation-retreat-2019-the-body-is-the-ground/
2019-01-1213 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonCrappy Thoughts are a Function of TensionExploring the interface of neurobiology and meditation, Alistair explores some of the 'koans of the soma', the nuts and bolts of our human bodies and how that affects our being.
This is an extract from the 2018 Summer Retreat on Holy Island. To book for this summer's retreat, click here: mind-springs.org/courses/summer-m…y-is-the-ground/
2019-01-0415 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonOur Addiction to Busy-nessIn his opening comments to the 2018 "Being Still, Still Being" retreat Alistair outlines the neurobiological underpinnings of our obsessive busy-ness and how we need to work with that not against it.
The Summer Retreat on Holy Island, suitable for all levels, is open for booking here: https://mind-springs.org/courses/summer-meditation-retreat-2019-the-body-is-the-ground/
2019-01-0410 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonOur Terror Of StillnessMost of us are compulsive do-ers and actually afraid of being still and silent. Alistair explores the three interlocking states of being-enjoying-doing and how they can help us relax.
2018-12-0812 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonIntroverts, Extroverts And The Blessing Of Being UncomfortableIn an excerpt from the 2018 Summer retreat on Holy Island, Alistair explores some of the current thinking about introverts ruling the world and how discomfort can often bring wisdom.
2018-12-0105 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonEntering The Realm Of Non - ThoughtAlistair starts to explore with the retreatants on Holy Island the realm of "non-thought". If we no longer identify with our thoughts then what is left? What is our true identity?
2018-11-1905 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonEmotions Are Not ThoughtsIn this excerpt from the 2018 Retreat 'Being Still Still Being', Alistair looks at the experience of thinking as a phenomenon. What is thinking? And how does it feel?
2018-10-3109 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonBeatniks, Blake And The Body In SpaceIn a second excerpt from the 2018 Summer retreat on Holy Island, Alistair looks at the potent connection between Tibetan Buddhism and poetry. Touching on Trungpa and the Beatniks and Reggie's strange love of Wordsworth.
2018-10-3110 min
Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonAll Your Thoughts Are GarbageAn excerpt from Alistair Appleton's 2018 Meditation retreat up on Holy Island. Do our precious thoughts actually add up to that much? Can you remember what you were thinking 5 minutes ago?
2018-10-3007 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Container Of RetreatIn this talk from the 2018 "Being Still Still Being" retreat on Holy Island, Alistair lays out the fundamental principles of "retreat". What needs to happen for us to really sink into our experience? How do the constraints of the Container free us up?
2018-10-2114 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonCompassion 4 - Topsy Turvey Logic Of TonglenIn the final chunk from the 2017 Holy Island Compassion retreat Alistair introduces the mind-boggling practice of tonglen, one of the classic Buddhist techniques for rousing the compassionate heart.
2018-06-1717 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonCompassion 3 - The Heath Robinson SelfThis is the second excerpt from Mindsprings' 2017 Compassion Course on Holy Island. Alistair explains how the strategies we come up with as children to survive might not be ideal as adults - but they did their job. We shouldn't feel bad about them not working now...
2018-06-1016 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonCompassion 2 - The Prosocial Roots Of CompassionThis is the second excerpt from 2017 Holy Island course on Compassion, where Alistair explains that our bodies are actually perfectly tuned to be compassionate and that we are successful as a species because of it.
2018-06-0510 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonCompassion 1 The Evolutionary Roots Of CompassionThis is part one of excerpts from the 2017 Compassion course on Holy Island in Scotland. Alistair talks here about the evolutionary roots of compassion and why human sensitivity is the key to our success as a species...
To experience the Holy Island course 2018 please look here: https://mind-springs.org/courses/beating-heart-compassion/
2018-05-3014 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonTherapy Vs Meditation - 3 - Interpollination Of The Two And Best PracticeThis is the final part of Alistair's talk on the cross-pollination of therapy and Buddhism in the contemporary world. Summing up his talk in Dublin, he talks about the best practices when it comes to working in these two mighty "lineages of the mind".
2018-05-2716 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonTherapy Vs Meditation - 2 - Lineage Of Buddhism And The Trungpa OutlierThis is part 2 of Alistair's 2017 talk in Dublin on the intertwining of therapy and Buddhist meditation. This part is considering the long lineage of Buddhist teaching and touching on the 'sidelined' teachings of Vajrayana master Chögyam Trungpa.
2018-05-2015 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonTherapy Vs Meditation - 1 - Lineage Of Therapy And Its OutliersThis is the first of three sections from Alistair's public talk in Dublin in October 2017 looking at the relationship between psychotherapy and Buddhism. This first part looks at the 'lineage' therapy and what is often dissociated from that history...
2018-05-1412 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonTales From The IslandThis is an excerpt from the 2017 "Being Earthed" Holy Island Retreat led by Fay Adams and Alistair Appleton. Fay and Alistair share personal stories about the power of the island and Fay reads the words of Tai Situpa about the geomancy of Holy Isle
2018-05-0612 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonGreying Out The World -3: You think you're meditating, but you're just dissociatingIn the final part of Alistair's 2018 talk from Scarborough, he turns his attention to the way that Buddhism might understand dissociation. He probes the ways in which meditation can mimic this defence and finds ways to free ourselves from it...
2018-04-2915 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonGreying Out The World -2: Oedipus-Freud vs. Osiris-JanetThis is Part 2 of Alistair 2018 talk on dissociation from Scarborough. Here he starts to discuss the fascinating cover-up of the work of Pierre Janet in the "lineage of psychotherapy" and how the myths of Osiris and Oedipus cast further light on the power of dissociation...
2018-04-2217 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonGuided Meditation - Levels Of The BreathAlistair guides you in a 25' meditation exploring the somatic tool of the 'three levels of the breath'. The practice is done lying on your back, comfortably, with your hands on your belly and feet flat on the floor, knees together. [Excerpted from the Scarborough "Tender is the Heart" course in March 2018]
2018-04-2027 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonGreying Out The World - 1: La-la-la-ing my life away...This is part one of a talk Alistair gave in Scarborough on 23 March 2018 at the Samye Dzong at Londesborough Lodge. It's a light-hearted exploration of the human defence of dissociation, a subject close to Alistair's heart...
2018-04-1615 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonWe'll All Go Together When We GoAn excerpt from the February 2018 "Time Terror" course at Spa Road in London.
Alistair is unpacking the second of the Four Reminders, Tibetan Buddhist texts to bring us back to life.
The 2nd Reminder runs: Remembering that death is real and comes without warning, / Recalling that this body will become a corpse,/ Knowing that my chance to practice dharma is brief,/ I undertake this practice.
2018-04-0811 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonCardiff Talk 2018 - Is Meditation Enough?This is a talk by Alistair Appleton given in Cardiff on 23rd February 2018 on the subject 'Is Meditation Enough?' - it's a wide ranging and relaxed introduction to Alistair's stance on the role of meditation in contemporary life: where are its limits? what can and can't it do? and what might we need to make it 'enough'?
2018-04-0536 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonBritish Museum Talk - The Pain Of Ego ConstrictionThis is an excerpt from the talk that Alistair and Ajahn Sundara gave at the British Museum in September 2017, looking at aspects of Buddhist practice and how they impact the contemporary mind.
2017-10-1206 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonEgo Is An Lethal Addiction To PainkillersTaken from the September 2017 weekend retreat on "I see you, Mara", Alistair talks about how this problematic notion of the "ego" can be understood as an excess of thinking, a slipknot round your own throat or as Reggie Ray describes it, an lethal addiction to painkillers...
2017-09-1409 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonDefinitions Of MindfulnessRecorded at the August 2017 Gayles "Drawing on Mindfulness" retreat, Alistair gives a fundamental overview of the different streams of meditation coming out of the Indian Tradition and notes how mindfulness is unique and distinct from other forms.
2017-08-2814 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonA Bigger FrameThis is a recording of a chat between Alistair Appleton and the art teacher Isobel Dutton after the close of the Gayles 'Drawing on Mindfulness' retreat in August 2017. Over a cup of tea, they talk about the similarities between art anxiety and meditation anxiety and how making a mark and being your true self both require 'breaking the frame'.
2017-08-2411 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonPlaying With Plutonium - I, Me, Mine ThoughtsThis is an excerpt from the 2016 Samadhi Retreat up on Holy Island where Alistair and the group discuss the nature of thinking and particularly those thoughts that 'scrunch' us away from openness.
2017-06-0512 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair Appleton"The Scrunch"This is an excerpt from the 6 week course in Mindfulness taught in 2016 at St Mary's Church in Brighton. Alistair uses the image of the scrunched up scarf (which he, in turn learned from the Dharma Ocean teacher, Neil McKinlay)to illustrate how awareness becomes claustrophobic in direct relationship to the number of I-me-mine thoughts
2017-05-3008 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonWhy Do Most Religions Grudgingly Tolerate Sex Rather Than Celebrate It?This is Part 1 of 2 from a talk Alistair gave in 2012 exploring the nature of religious attitudes to sexuality.
This part touches on some of the archetypes of the Old Man and Mother that prevent sex becoming central and explores the alternative notion of exuberance as a way of framing sex.
2017-05-0814 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonIf Living In The Soma Is Like A Funfair Why Do We Resist?This is an excerpt from the Mindsprings Holy Island retreat in October 2016. The theme of the retreat was Samadhi and here Alistair talks about our resistance to meditation...as well as his rather dramatic experience up in the snowy mountains of Colorado in 2016.
2017-05-0514 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Fifth FieldThis is an excerpt of the 2016 Winter Eight Week course taught by Alistair at St. Mary's in Brighton. It's from the seventh week where we started to explore the experience of what Alistair calls the "fifth field": the stance of the experiencer to what is experienced. Enjoy!
2017-05-0407 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonWhat Is Mindfulness?This is a talk Alistair gave at the Samye Foundation Wales in Cardiff on Friday 26th February 2016.
It was outlining the historical precedents of the current vogue for mindfulness; making some distinctions about what exactly it is from a Buddhist point of view; discussing how it can be problematic when dealing with people who dissociate; and - in the Q&A - talking about the merits and demerits of 'mindful' colouring-in books!
2017-05-041h 12Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonThe Topsy Turvy Logic Of Tonglen And Why It's The Better Way Of BeingThis is an extract from some teaching Alistair gave as part of a study day on Compassion - he is outlining the benefit of the Buddhist practice of 'tonglen' which involves giving away the good and drawing in the bad - the opposite of our usual egoic way-of-being. It's a counter intuitive practice but from the Buddhist point of view, ultimately effective.
2017-05-0408 minMindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonMindfulness in the Age of Twitter: A Public TalkThis is a public talk and Q&A, Alistair gave in the Scarborough Art Gallery on June 26th 2015. In it he talks about the unprecedented nature of the 'social media revolution'; how the internet and social media works on the brain; how we can understand it in the buddhist terms of attachment, aversion and dissociation. And how mindfulness is the skill we need to develop to survive it.
2015-12-081h 21Mindsprings Podcast with Alistair AppletonHarare Mindful LifeThis was a talk given by Alistair Appleton at the CABS Business Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe during his trip to Africa in February 2009.
It’s an impromtu ramble over many subjects connected to Mindfulness and Alistair’s experiences in Zimbabwe - fairly relaxed and chatty.
The talk is introduced by Alistair’s fantastic hostess in Africa, Pam Sheehan.
2014-11-181h 08
A Good ReadAlistair Appleton and Simon Baron-CohenHarriett Gilbert and her guests - TV presenter, Alistair Appleton and Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of the department of Psychiatry at Cambridge - discuss favourite books by Patrick Gayle, Ian McEwan and Michael Innes. Notes From an Exhibition by Patrick Gale
Publisher: Harper CollinsEnduring Love by Ian McEwan
Publisher: VintageOperation Pax by Michael Innes
Publisher: House of StratusFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2013.
2013-02-2627 min