Most of us are compulsive do-ers and actually afraid of being still and silent. Alistair explores the three interlocking states of being-enjoying-doing and how they can help us relax.

In an excerpt from the 2018 Summer retreat on Holy Island, Alistair explores some of the current thinking about introverts ruling the world and how discomfort can often bring wisdom.

Alistair starts to explore with the retreatants on Holy Island the realm of "non-thought". If we no longer identify with our thoughts then what is left? What is our true identity?

In this excerpt from the 2018 Retreat 'Being Still Still Being', Alistair looks at the experience of thinking as a phenomenon. What is thinking? And how does it feel?

In a second excerpt from the 2018 Summer retreat on Holy Island, Alistair looks at the potent connection between Tibetan Buddhism and poetry. Touching on Trungpa and the Beatniks and Reggie's strange love of Wordsworth.

An excerpt from Alistair Appleton's 2018 Meditation retreat up on Holy Island. Do our precious thoughts actually add up to that much? Can you remember what you were thinking 5 minutes ago?

In this talk from the 2018 "Being Still Still Being" retreat on Holy Island, Alistair lays out the fundamental principles of "retreat". What needs to happen for us to really sink into our experience? How do the constraints of the Container free us up?

In the final chunk from the 2017 Holy Island Compassion retreat Alistair introduces the mind-boggling practice of tonglen, one of the classic Buddhist techniques for rousing the compassionate heart.

This is the second excerpt from Mindsprings' 2017 Compassion Course on Holy Island. Alistair explains how the strategies we come up with as children to survive might not be ideal as adults - but they did their job. We shouldn't feel bad about them not working now...

This is the second excerpt from 2017 Holy Island course on Compassion, where Alistair explains that our bodies are actually perfectly tuned to be compassionate and that we are successful as a species because of it.