Ok, I went and did something a little bit different. I spoke directly to the time we live in. It may work. It may not. This is the first in a short series of audio articles. You can read the text version if you prefer over at the Imperfect Buddha site. It steers a path towards the practising life through the tumultuous times we inhabit...in stages. This is the preamble...and this is the intro to the it from the site; "And so it begins. This is clearly the preamble, but to what? A short series on the world we currently inhabit with a view to ho the practising life might engage it. Can we think away from the enticing polarised landscape we are often pulled into by social media, the media and the politics of the moment. It's not enough to remain aloof, or indifferent, so what do we do? Not, what should we do, that's not up to me, but how could we relate, openly, with curiosity, with presence, with care, with intellectual honesty, with a refusal to kowtow to the unthinking games of politics on display. Engage politically, but avoid the allure of merging with the crowd, and the cheap payoffs promised, or dive deeply into a tribe and swim in their idealogical formations and performance; both can be worth a try if you can hold your shit together as you do so. Heaven forbid I should advise you to do otherwise. What I will do though is explore out-loud, and possibly fail. Either way, I'm willing to have a go.

Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha).

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69 The Wonkiness One (Preamble ahoy)