Having an ego is part of being human. Our sense of ourselves, our reality, rests on activity in certain parts of the brain. But identifying as only an ego can be problematic. When the ego believes it is the only thing, we can become fixated, leading to self-absorption and paranoia.

It's not the experience that's the problem, we can't control that. It's the stance we have towards the experience that generates the suffering and negativity in our lives. In order to reach an openhearted space of awareness without preference, we need to be compassionate to ourselves first.

Recorded 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.

In 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.

Shame 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.

Life 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.

In 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.

Our sacredness is occluded from us because of the world we live in. Cultural forces conspire to make us needy and greedy. Bigger than our rational thinking minds, the full potential of being human is magical.

We think our bodies are one fixed thing and should be perfectly balanced. Still, when we start to live in our energy body we see that we are actually wildly asymmetric and different sides are dominant at different times during the day.

The way we look after ourselves is important but it is easy to get into a state of poverty mentality when we are ill. By embracing a time for convalescence and plugging into a care network, we build support with others in the same situation. These types of resources help us expand our empathy as we realise that our suffering is a part of much wider suffering at this time.