In the fourth stage of metta bhavana – the Buddhist meditation practice aimed at cultivating metta (loving-kindness) – the focus is on directing goodwill towards a ‘difficult’ person. Normally, this difficult person is someone you are personally involved with, who is a source of tension, conflict, or emotional pain. But there are many ‘difficult’ people…
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Jacob’s Ladder (1990) – directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Bruce Joel Rubin – is, in my opinion, one of the greatest psychological horror films ever made. It is a multilayered film that draws on many spiritual and religious influences and themes. Rubin, the screenwriter, is also a meditation teacher and has a long-standing…
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Metta bhavana is an ancient Buddhist meditation practice that aims to cultivate the emotional virtue of loving-kindness, known as metta. I have previously explored the benefits of metta meditation for depression, as well as the potential pitfalls of the practice. I would like to return to the benefits of this form of meditation again, specifically…
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In Buddhism, actions that are deemed good or bad are framed as being ‘skillful’ or ‘unskillful’. In this conception of ethics, morality is distinguished from other religious traditions, such as Christianity – where we find the concept of sin – or common notions of morality where we speak of actions being morally right or wrong.…
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Over the last 50 years in the UK, the proportion of the population identifying as non-religious – often referred to as ‘Nones’ – has been on the rise. The British Social Attitudes Survey from 2019 found that over half (52%) of the UK population regard themselves as belonging to no religion. Hannah Waite, from the think…
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