Rob Dowling

Rob Dowling Meditation Teacher helping people connect with their essential nature and relax

What I reassure my self with is out of date information- James Low
23/11/2025

What I reassure my self with is out of date information

- James Low

The royal road to happiness and relaxation is not to believe the stories you tell yourself about yourself, but to look a...
23/11/2025

The royal road to happiness and relaxation is not to believe the stories you tell yourself about yourself, but to look at the world; look at your unfolding potential. Don’t come to a premature conclusion. Don’t mobilise on the basis of assumption and prediction. Just see what is there and feel your response. Allow the full reception of the situation to evoke the widest possible range of responses and you find yourself being there in the moment

- James Low

I would say the ratio of the bodhisattvas that you could find in the red light district, I will not be surprised if they...
22/11/2025

I would say the ratio of the bodhisattvas that you could find in the red light district, I will not be surprised if they are more there than in the monasteries and the caves........you know in the holy places

- Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Ajahn Chah points to a big boulder and asks a disciple, “See that large rock over there?”“Yes”, says the disciple.“Do yo...
21/11/2025

Ajahn Chah points to a big boulder and asks a disciple, “See that large rock over there?”

“Yes”, says the disciple.

“Do you think it’s heavy?” continues Ajahn Chah.

“Yes, it’s very heavy!” replies the student.

“Well… it’s not heavy if you don’t pick it up!” smiles Ajahn Chah

We are like a person standing in a freely flowing river yet feeling, very, very thirsty. We are holding an empty cup, be...
20/11/2025

We are like a person standing in a freely flowing river yet feeling, very, very thirsty. We are holding an empty cup, begging everyone we meet to give us some water. Does the person standing in the river have even one convincing reason why he or she should not drink from the river? There is no reason. The only reason is that the person is looking in the wrong direction. He or she has forgotten to look down. All we need to do is look down a little bit and then we realize immediately that we are standing in a river with a never-ending supply of cool, fresh water

- Anam Thubten

The problem is that as soon as the dharma comes into the ear it goes into a mixer and all our karmic traditions, our neu...
19/11/2025

The problem is that as soon as the dharma comes into the ear it goes into a mixer and all our karmic traditions, our neurosis and so on gets merged into dharma so we have to get the teachings again and again and again and gradually get more sense of the authentic flavour of how the mind is

- James Low

It's just a feeling, we feel happy, we feel sad, we feel expansive, we feel contracted, the feeling is not the truth. We...
19/11/2025

It's just a feeling, we feel happy, we feel sad, we feel expansive, we feel contracted, the feeling is not the truth. We have feelings, everything is self-liberating, the feeling is not liberating, the feeling is staying with me and cooking inside that's me. There is nothing to blame in other people. So I have to sit with myself and observe how I grasp on to my grudge, my resentment, my blaming. I'm doing this. I'm cooking me. So that's my business nothing to do with anyone else. There is nothing to blame other people about. Then your meditation becomes meaningful because you have a real problem. You start to see I am the jailer, I am the person keeping me in the prison. No one else is keeping me in prison. This is my grasping, my obsessional thought, my resentment. So when you sit and do the practice, do it at home, do it in the forest, do it here you go into it and you shrink and you are now in touch with your prison. We say the mind is like the sky, the mind is like the ocean, but your in a locked room

- James Low

Namkai Norbu in his later years became very fond of swimming and I remember swimming in the sea with him along time ago ...
18/11/2025

Namkai Norbu in his later years became very fond of swimming and I remember swimming in the sea with him along time ago in Formea and he was just so happy. We spent along time in the water just moving about chatting about this and that. Not struggling, not working hard, not cause and effect trying to achieve something but just splashing with the water. Meaningless activity. Beautiful. We spend so much time in meaningful activity, making something happen, generating value, having something we can show but when you were small children you say 'what were you doing' they say 'just playing' , 'but what were you doing', 'just playing'. How could you explain to a big person what playing is. So that is how I perceived Namkai Norbu in that moment, he was just like a small child, just enjoying

- James Low

So a basic practice you can do is you go to the shops and you look at the clothes and you find a piece of clothing that ...
18/11/2025

So a basic practice you can do is you go to the shops and you look at the clothes and you find a piece of clothing that you don't like and you buy it and you wear something that you find uncomfortable in. Its not really your colour, 'lime green, maybe not with your eyes'. 'It feels uncomfortable'. Why would you feel comfortable in this world, this world is cheating you. Its saying wake up, wake up. Don't fall asleep in this world its too dangerous

- James Low

So it's a very important thing to observe how much of the past I am carrying on my shoulders. How much I burden myself w...
15/11/2025

So it's a very important thing to observe how much of the past I am carrying on my shoulders. How much I burden myself with the knowledge I've had

- James Low

The Dzogchen yogin is first a shape-shifter. No outer or inner form expresses his secret nature, which is emptiness, mor...
14/11/2025

The Dzogchen yogin is first a shape-shifter. No outer or inner form expresses his secret nature, which is emptiness, more than any other; no one specific form of practice is correct practice; and no outer form of conduct can be adopted as a universal method of service to sentient beings over any other. Insofar as each situation demands a different form of response and expression, the Dzogchen yogin is a chameleon

- Keith Dowman

The reason you want to be better is the reason why you aren’t, shall I put it like that? We aren’t better because we wan...
14/11/2025

The reason you want to be better is the reason why you aren’t, shall I put it like that? We aren’t better because we want to be. Because the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Because all the do-gooders in the world whether they’re doing good for others or doing it for themselves are troublemakers: on the basis of “kindly let me help you or you will drown,” said the monkey putting the fish safely up a tree. Sometimes doing good to others and even doing good to oneself is amazingly destructive because it’s full of conceit. How do you know what’s good for other people? How do you know what’s good for you? If you say you want to improve then you ought to know what’s good for you, but obviously you don’t because if you did then you would be improved. So, we don’t know. We do not really know how to interfere with the way the world is

— Alan Watts

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The Valley Retreat
Truro
TR11TW

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+447966237344

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