Author Archives: Ben

  I walked into a bookshop at Plum Village meditation centre in France on my first visit and, still convinced that consuming enough wise books and talks on CD paved the way to being a better person (rather than actually practicing things like mindfulness for example), I was ready to spend another 50 euros onContinue reading “Enough Already”

“What’s the goal of meditation?” I asked a zen teacher a few years ago. “There is no goal!” he replied, which at the time sounded totally weird! Why would anyone do anything without any measurable results? How would you know just how much you’d achieved? Not having goals and non-doing is NOT something they drummedContinue reading “Striving Versus Being”

My adult life so far looks like this: After school, I went to Leeds university to study French I changed to Philosophy Then I went to London to be a photographer, which didn’t really work out So I decided to go and live abroad for a while, and wrote to language academies in Paris, MadridContinue reading “How to stop worrying and let life unfold instead”

Every now and again my mother would come out with things like this. It’s an excerpt from an email to one of my sisters, which the same sister later read at my mother’s funeral service: An email from Mum “I promise you on my honour that I NEVER dwell on gloom, despite what you believe!Continue reading “My mother the secret buddhist!”

A friend of mine was about to move back to the States from Madrid when he discovered that his landlord had no intention of giving him back the 2,000 euro breakages deposit from his rented apartment. They’d left the flat in perfect condition, but the landlord clearly hoped that since they were going to leave the countryContinue reading “Es como Es – It is as it Is”