Pariyatti

My father fought in WW2. This entailed sleeping in drafty and cold English castles on camp cots, followed by living in bivouacs as the regiment made its way from Normandy up the coast to Arnhem in Holland. He suffered from chronic back pain the rest of his life. He had his throat slit by an enemy agent in London,...

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 4 minutes 18 seconds

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Trauma can exact a pernicious hold on our mind. Victims often seek help in the form of group therapy or individual counseling. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous admit to feeling helpless in the face of their inability to overcome their addictions. They speak of themselves as survivors. They are to be commended for facing their trauma, seeing it for what it is.

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 4 minutes 06 seconds

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Mindfulness is very popular these days. Not long ago it made the cover of Time magazine. Library of Congress lists 4,063 titles that contain the word “mindful,” including Mindful Golf and Mindfulness and Murder. And therein lies the rub. The word has been commodified and monetized to such an extent as to obliterate its original meaning.

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 3 minutes 13 seconds

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As a child, I did not seek out thrills or danger of any kind. I did not enjoy games or contests or practical jokes. I hated costume parties. I’d rather go for a walk with my friends or sit and talk and have tea. Even today, I really don’t need fun.

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 3 minutes 13 seconds

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“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia.” So wrote Richard Dawkins in Unweaving the Rainbow.

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 2 minutes 41 seconds

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To repeat, all man’s problems stem from an inability to sit alone in a room in silence. However, Pascal omitted to say that sitting alone in silence in such a room is not easy. It can be so difficult, in fact, that it unbalances the mind.

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 6 minutes 19 seconds

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Marcus Aurelius, the great Stoic philosopher, makes it clear how important it is to be present: “The longest and shortest lives amount to the same, for the present moment is equal to everyone.” Just one mindful moment is all you need to stand firm against the habitual temptations to engage, to follow, to blindly react to greed, hatred, and delusion.

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 4 minutes 19 seconds

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A few years after living as a monk in West Virginia, I stayed a while at Wat Pah Nanachat near the Mekong River in Ubon in Thailand. This was the real deal. A forest monastery with dhuthanga monks who adopted thirteen additional vows, including taking only one meal a day and practicing...

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 5 minutes 34 seconds

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I am waiting for Thich Nhat Hanh to write a follow-up book, How to Listen, to address the proliferation of PMPs (personal music players). Many young people walk everywhere, earbudded to all the music ever created, oblivious to the sounds around them and within them. They drown out...

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 3 minutes 59 seconds

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Be here now. Just three words. Be here now. The oft-heard teaching is eminently simple but absolutely profound. Happiness can only be found in this moment, in the here and now. Living in the past will inevitably...

narrated by Ian McCrorie · 2022 · 3 minutes 33 seconds

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