https://blankettheory.blog/categories/practice/ Recent content in Practice on Blanket Theory Hugo en-uk Fri, 07 Nov 2025 15:59:09 +0000 https://blankettheory.blog/hammer-mind/ Fri, 07 Nov 2025 15:59:09 +0000 https://blankettheory.blog/hammer-mind/ This is your brain on hammers. We explore how our narrow conventional thinking (the hammer) leads us on a never-ending hunt for nails and non-nails. Zen meditation and practice in everyday life gives us a chance at freedom, a chance to put the hammer in the toolbox for when we need it again. https://blankettheory.blog/have-you-had-the-noodle-dream/ Sat, 01 Nov 2025 07:45:11 +0000 https://blankettheory.blog/have-you-had-the-noodle-dream/ Noodles made with reverence. Proper respect paid to them. These are your lives and each is perfectly defined by a single noodle. Everyday Zen practice with a fair helping of nudges and winks. https://blankettheory.blog/do-little/ Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://blankettheory.blog/do-little/ A forest pool where many strange and wonderful creatures come to drink. A Zen practitioner with a head in the clouds, full of noise. Where do we find rest? Come on an interfaith journey connecting Christian and Zen Buddhist imagery of our need for a respite from a chaotic and painful world. This journey takes us through scorching desert and bitter tundra. We find the outstretched hand of God rescuing us, or compassion waiting in our very being. Because of this compassionate outstretched hand, we can let go and be guided home, like one of the strange creatures drinking their fill at the pool. We acknowledge the suffering of many for many reasons, including depression. But, we see that, even if our practice falters, faith and no-faith can also be beautiful creatures guiding us home. Clinging to neither, treating them with a light hand the possibility is there to be the pool. Join me for a swim? https://blankettheory.blog/only-just-sitting-the-very-basics-of-zen-meditation/ Mon, 20 Oct 2025 19:16:33 +0000 https://blankettheory.blog/only-just-sitting-the-very-basics-of-zen-meditation/ Zen meditation is your life in a deep sense, and this is its beginner’s manual, all you need is a wall and a chair. We discuss a minimalist version of zazen, Zen Meditation, intended specifically for beginners looking to quieten their mind. This is Zen Buddhist meditation, but people from other faith (or no faith) backgrounds can adopt the techniques without difficulty. We discuss finding a location, posture adjustments, quieting the mind by watching the breath and return for a reflection on meditation’s importance in our lives. Be welcome, I hope you meet yourself laughing together, and that you return sharing this with all people. https://blankettheory.blog/zen-beyond-disco-elysiums-pale/ Fri, 17 Oct 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://blankettheory.blog/zen-beyond-disco-elysiums-pale/ Zen and Disco Elysium meet in the Whirling-in-Rags and Zen meditation gets a thorough exploration. This essay takes an apt but somewhat ill-advised metaphor and runs with it to the heart of Zen Buddhist practice. We discuss how the effects of the Pale (from the game) are reminiscent of stages of zazen, Zen meditation. And while the Pale’s effects are forced and coercive, zazen’s effects are gentle and accommodating, a welcome oasis to the Pale’s consuming mist. We try to trace the journey of practitioners who have gone before us, as far as we can go. Perhaps even beyond? We will return as we were, but we will be changed, and the world alive. https://blankettheory.blog/where-can-the-dust-alight/ Tue, 30 Sep 2025 07:01:38 +0000 https://blankettheory.blog/where-can-the-dust-alight/ This is your mind on blankets and ADHD. A dustless mirror that we constantly polish, but then no mirror either? Join us as we learn from the kindness of a teacher that everything is Alright, even though it may not always be so. Rejoice in the dust falling around you.