Mindsprings Podcast With Alistair Appleton

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.

There 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.

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?

Part 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?

In the second part of the Cardiff 2020 talk on purification, Alistair explores how this concept functions in Tibetan Buddhist practice.

This 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...

We 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'. The weekend is happening again in London, 11-12 January 2020: https://mind-springs.org/courses/maitri-meditation-and-internal-family-systems/

Alistair 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/

From 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/

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/

This 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/

This 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!

This 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/

GUIDED 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.

This 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.

This 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/

This 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.

5 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.

Part 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.

Part 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.