Sorry Perth, I have retired.
I have had a dream career. Since 1987, I have taught about 1000 courses, 600 workshops and 40 retreats, and given hundreds of workplace seminars and consultations. I trained nearly 400 people as meditation teachers. I was also able to write eight books, now published in 13 languages.
Thank you, people of Perth, for your support. I am glad you found my rational, non-spiritual approach to meditation so useful. It has been a pleasure working with you, and you have allowed me to retire in comfort. But I am now 71 years old. I have taught for 34 years. It is time to go. There are some philosophers I want to talk to.
Although I will vanish from the landscape, my ghost will remain. I will keep this website operating for a while. I have found that many people like to use the articles and guided meditations, and you can too, even if you have never been to my classes.
But if you are looking for a real life, face-to-face meditation teacher, I can fully recommend Kevin Hume. He trained with me in the ‘90s, and ran the Sydney Meditation Centre for 15 years. He has a huge life experience and a warm sympathetic manner. Like me, he takes a no-bullshit approach, which is rare in the field of mindfulness/meditation. He runs the courses, workshops, corporate seminars, personal consultations and teacher training that I no longer do.
Kevin works from Northbridge. His website is: perthmeditation.com.au
The 5-Minute Meditator
The 5-Minute Meditator was the manual for my classes. It argues that doing short, frequent meditations during the day is more valuable than occasional long ones.
This book contains 42 exercises, and emphasises the value of meditating ‘on the spot’, whenever you can. Nor do you always have to sit down to meditate. You can easily calm down and focus your mind whenever you walk, wait or do exercise.
You can read selected chapters from the book by selecting the links on this page.
You can also download a PDF of the entire book.
The Foundations of Mindfulness
How to Cultivate Attention, Good Judgment, and Tranquility
My last book is The Foundations of Mindfulness, which was published in New York in 2017. For the second edition, the publisher decided to change the name to Brain Training with the Buddha. However the text remains the same. Don’t make the mistake of thinking they are two different books.
This book is a commentary on the Buddha’s DIY text on mindfulness. 2600 years on, this text is still the most lucid and comprehensive explanation of mindfulness available to us. It contains 13 training exercises for observing the body, emotions, states of mind and thought which can easily be adapted to our 21st Century requirements.
Although the original Buddhist text is short, the standard Victorian translation is largely indecipherable to non-experts. This is why I produced my own 21st Century translation in this book. It is most unfortunate that modern mindfulness relies more on the Zen practice of ‘Just Sitting, Not Thinking”, and knows little about the Buddha’s more sophisticated and practical approach.
This book is available through Amazon and local bookshops, and also in a Kindle edition.
Thirteen chapters from this book are available to read by selecting the links on this page.