Arete House Podcasts - Inspired Thinkers Series

Relinquishing desire is not a giving up of pleasure for the morality of temperance and moderation. Nor is it an asceticism for its own sake. It is analogous to giving up gambling for a fruitful investment. The pay off is immense. When nothing is needed, the mind is freed from chasing empty phantoms and in [...] The post 004 The Yogic Way—Desire as the Thing in the Way appeared first on Arete House.

Tranquility Meditation for turning inward This practice aims to cultivate tranquillity and concentration by drawing one’s attention inward to a single object of meditation. Potentially effective in helping for people experiencing mental distraction, hyper-activity and insomnia. The guidance provided here is deeply indebted to and drawn from Tibetan Meditation master and scholar Tsongkhapa’s incomparable guide: [...] The post Meditation Streams – Tranquility Meditation appeared first on Arete House.

A Light Touch (Heart) A simple and very short technique to help reconnect to your body, your heart and your calm mind, to adopt in a short space throughout your day, to connect with your heart, to energise and to stabilise. This episode combines description, inspiration and direct guidance for the meditation. Please Donate—It takes [...] The post Meditation Streams – A Light Touch (Heart) appeared first on Arete House.

Meditation beyond the cushion Keeping your meditation alive throughout the day One of the greatest frustrations regarding meditation, beyond what actually happens on the cushion, is rapidly loosing one's presence of mind after leaving the cushion. This episode presents a very simple and effective way to keep elements of your meditation practice and awareness alive [...] The post Meditation Streams – Meditation beyond the cushion appeared first on Arete House.

Healing Meditation For letting go of anxieties, desires, obsessions. For healing body and mind and for cultivating a radiant and peaceful mind. Involves visualisations and contemplations. Please Donate—It takes less than 2 minutes and means we can keep producing Free content for you!   Want to go deeper? Do so by taking the following course: [...] The post Meditation Streams – Healing Meditation appeared first on Arete House.

The desire-body seeks peace, rest, happiness. It works like a factory to achieve this, but only rarely finds brief moments of respite. The soft milky sweetness of maitri melts away all such ceaseless ambition, because it is the purified energy of desire itself. But when you need and want this elixir of the gods, how [...] The post 003 The Yogic Way—The Vase of Maitri appeared first on Arete House.

True thinking is a dance with the sword of prajna. The dirty mess of conceptual proliferation is sliced open, and whatever jewels of knowledge and insight exist are strung into the necklace of understanding. The swordsman engages - he enters into the terrain of thinking, unafraid to touch ideas with his blade. But he never [...] The post 002 The Yogic Way—The Sword of Prajna appeared first on Arete House.

This is not a task of philosophy. It is a task of speaking of things which arise out of true silence. To attempt to give voice to the ineffable is obviously fraught with tension – silence itself is always the truest way. But words can be like a gentle breeze or even a gale - [...] The post 001 The Yogic Way—Introduction appeared first on Arete House.

East-West Spiritual Encounters—Historical Reflections Contemporary spiritual life is unimaginable without yoga mats, Buddha statues and mindfulness practices. In order to unmask this, we undertake a brief recent history of East-West dialogue or transmission. Beginning in the 19th century, we examine the way Indian and East Asian spiritual traditions shifted from being objects of colonialist denigration, [...] The post 001 Contemporary Spiritual Life—East-West Spiritual Encounters: 19th & 20th Century appeared first on Arete House.

East-West Spiritual Encounters in the 21st Century Where Are We Now? In this episode we (mostly) leave aside the history of east-west spiritual transmission, and ask 'where has it actually led us to?' We examine the relationship between Buddhism and science, Yoga and the body and the New Age connection to 'wellness.' In doing so, [...] The post 002 Contemporary Spiritual Life – East-West Encounters in the 21st Century appeared first on Arete House.