the foundation of peace — Behind a temple there was a field where there were many squashes growing on a vine. One day a fight broke out among them, and the squashes split up into two groups, making a big racket shouting at one another. The head priest heard the uproar and, stepping outside to…

meditation and ‘experience’. — One of the first things we need to learn in meditation is to stop looking for something to happen. And this can seem surprising and challenging at first. It was for me. A great deal of talk about the “spiritual life” seems to suggest that the best proof of being…

meditation as the practice of Oneness. — A few days ago, in the middle of preparing a very practical talk for our weekly online practice group, I came across an email someone sent me a couple of years ago. Reading their words again, I was struck by their joy and deeply moved by what they were discovering…

with ourselves and each other, in God — From the Christian perspective, we are created to know and enjoy the oneness of being. The illusion of separateness is a great affliction for so many today. The feeling of loneliness, of alienation, of not being able to deeply connect with others, of not being able to be understood, is…

a walk with St. Augustine — When we begin our journey of meditation (and we are, in a sense, always beginning), it’s a little like setting off to slowly walk up a mountain. At the foot of the mountain, we cannot see very far. The horizon is obscured by the bushes and trees that surround us. …

and prayer becomes life. — “The most beautiful and the greatest learning” says St. Clement, “is to know oneself; for whoever knows their self knows God; and if they know God, they will become like Him.”[1] The doctrine of being created in the image of God, means that our deepest “me” — the very ground…

overcoming the illusion of separateness. — The year before I went to live at the Benedictine monastery of Prinknash Abbey when I was 19, I had a conversation with the then Abbot, Aldhelm Cameron-Brown, which (though it took some years to realise) profoundly influenced the direction of my life. The Abbot said very little, but he…

the fruit of self-forgetfulness. — “Gardening can be understood as a form of space-time medicine,” says Dr. Sue Stuart-Smith, author of the highly acclaimed book The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature. In a recent interview for a New York Times article, Why Gardening Offers a ‘Psychological Lifeline’ in Times of Crisis,[1] Stuart-Smith, a…

accepting the invitation to peace. — A little while ago, during the lunch break of a retreat I was giving, someone asked if they could discuss something I’d said in a talk that morning which had made them very cross. I’d said that prayer is not primarily something we do, but what God does, within us…