dharma-licious

About dharma-licious

Buddhist inspired wisdom for modern-day resilience and flourishing. Presented by Paul Dalton - insight meditation teacher and Buddhism nerd. Subscribe for regular insights and guides that might just help you do life better. dharmalicious.substack.com (https://dharmalicious.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Paul Dalton

Category

health & fitness · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jul 2025

Latest episode

9 Feb 2026

Latest episodes

28 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   9 Feb 2026

   What Inner Tranquility Actually Means

   To watch the original video of this episode and/or become a FREE dharma⌁licious member here: https://dharmalicious.substack.com (https://dharmalicious.substack.com) Do you ever wish that you could have a more tranquil mind? For a lot of folks who turn to meditation, this is often one of the big outcomes that they’re after. But there’s this common thing that happens. When people have been practicing meditation for a little while, it can seem to them like their minds are becoming more busy rather than less busy. It’s as if their concentration is getting worse rather than better. It has to do with their ability to notice the thoughts that are arising in their minds. It’s not that they are having more thoughts or that they’re becoming more easily distractible. It’s just that as our awareness becomes more refined, we naturally start to notice the subtleties of our mental activity more acutely. In other words, our minds are pretty much the same. It’s just that we’re able to catch those little thoughts that would normally have gone undetected under the radar. And this is a good thing. It’s at this stage that it becomes really apparent just how often and how much we’re typically going through our days lost in our thinking without even knowing that we’re thinking - and the consequences that that can have on our happiness and well-being. It’s also at this stage that it starts to sink in that it really isn’t our job in meditation to stop our thoughts from coming or to block them when they do. The only requirement is that we see and learn about the nature of our minds and to let go of being overly identified with our naturally flowing experience, to loosen our grip of that metaphorical fist so we don’t hold on to our thoughts, ideas and beliefs quite so tightly. It’s clear that many of us start out being attracted to mindfulness and meditation because we’re seeking some kind of inner tranquility. Usually, the idea we have of tranquility is that it’s what happens when our minds stop and our bodies relax and we can just chill out in the beingness of it all. But the true definition of tranquility as it pertains to our minds is that it’s the state of being undisturbed by our thoughts, which is a very different definition. It means that it’s okay for our thoughts to flow. It’s okay for them to be there. We don’t need to get rid of them. But that we develop this capacity to meet them with calm observation - to see them for what they really are and not be agitated by them, regardless of what the content of the thought is about. It’s through this trainable capacity that we can then start to meet the circumstances of our lives with increased wisdom. And in this context, wisdom means seeing reality as it really is and responding appropriately. Now, imagine what this would mean for you in your extremely busy day-to-day life. How useful would it be to have that mental wherewithal more often than not to see what’s going on around you so super clearly as it really is rather than through the distorted perceptions of an agitated and distracted mind to be undisturbed by your thoughts? To my mind there are very few things we can do for ourselves that are more important and more valuable than that. It’s not an overnight thing, and it does take a willingness to engage in a consistent practice, but it is possible and it is available to you. If you’d like to explore developing a more tranquil, resourceful relationship with your mind, then get in touch and let’s discuss options of how and where to start. Be well. Paul 🙏 Get full access to dharma⌁licious at dharmalicious.substack.com/subscribe (https://dharmalicious.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   27 Jan 2026

   The 1st Noble Truth In Buddhism (The Truth Of Dukkha)

   Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com (https://dharmalicious.substack.com) to join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. When we settle back and look at our minds, it’s not too difficult to recognise that our thoughts, behaviours, and actions are primed to move us away from pain and towards comfort. Even if sometimes our thoughts, behaviours, and actions are clumsy and maladaptive and end up entangling us in ever stickier webs of suffering, the motivation behind them – the core intention – is to get us back to some form of happy as swiftly as possible. You could say that each of us, in our own way, is obsessed with happiness. Or at the very least, with not suffering. It consumes us. It’s been consuming us since the lights of human consciousness were switched on. Which makes it even more perplexing that in most cultures - particularly western, capitalist cultures - that true happiness is the thing we understand the least. The most potent misunderstanding we have about happiness is that we’re not supposed to suffer. We’re not supposed to feel discomfort. We’re not supposed to get sick. We’re not supposed to feel icky emotions. We’re not supposed to be vulnerable to having everything change on us in an instant. We have a deeply rooted sense that suffering is wrong. Or worse, there’s something wrong with us when we suffer. So, our instinct is to dive in and try to fix or banish every kind of wrinkle, crease, twinge, or niggle in our lives. Our conditioning has us believing that it’s only through an absence of suffering that we can be truly happy. Now, the obvious question is: How’s that working out for us? Understanding Dukkha The Buddha understood that true happiness, peace, and contentment—within ourselves and with the world—is achievable. But only when we see the truth about what it means to be born into a human body with a human mind; the truth that we cannot avoid the inevitability of unwanted and unpleasant experience. There’s no getting away from it. Unwanted and unpleasant experience is the non-negotiable admission fee for taking part in humanity. So, if we want to be truly happy in life we’ve got to work out how to skilfully navigate and relate to our suffering. And that can only start by getting a handle on why and how we suffer in the first place. The first teaching the Buddha ever gave was that of The Four Noble Truths, which remains steadfastly at the core of all Buddhist philosophy and practice. The first of these truths is the Truth of Dukkha. Dukkha is an ancient Pali word (Pali being the language the original Buddhists texts) and is often translated as ‘suffering’. But, like many Pali words, there is no single English equivalent word that can capture the true breadth and depth of its meaning. You may have heard that the Buddha said, ‘Life is suffering’, but that’s not a particularly helpful or accurate translation. Afterall, life can also be extremely joyful. It’s more accurate to say, ‘In life there is suffering’. But even then, each of us have different ideas of what constitutes suffering in our own experience. Dukkha is better understood to mean a kind of ‘unsatisfactoryness’, or ‘a bumpy ride’, or ‘that which is difficult to be with’, or ‘that which is hard to endure’. And in terms of what it’s referring to, it covers the full range of unpleasant and unwanted human experience, from intense physical and emotional pain and mental anguish to mild frustrations or things just seeming “a little off” or “not quite right”. When we frame it that way, it’s a lot easier to see that, yes, on any given day we inevitably bump up against and array of events, thoughts, and emotions we’d rather be without. Think about when you wake up in the morning. How long does it take for the first moment of Dukkha to arrive? For many, it might be before the eyes have even opened. A heart-sinking resistance to it being morning already. Not wanting to leave the comfort of the pillow. Thoughts about the busyness or challenges that lay ahead. And that’s before even placing a foot on the floor. And then, of course, there’s the bigger stuff. The interruptions, the bad news, the disagreements, the setbacks, the losses, the betrayals, the illnesses, the injuries, the bereavements, the accidents. It’s all Dukkha. And none of us are exempt. Accepting that Dukkha – or suffering – is a natural, normal, to-be-expected, and unavoidable part of life, is the essential first step on the Buddha’s path towards cultivating a more peaceful and happier mind. Or as the wonderful Buddhist nun and teacher, Pema Chödrön, said, “The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we suffer, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong. What a relief!” So rather than turning away from our suffering, trying to resist it, avoid it, or paper over it, the wisest move we can make is to get to know it—to investigate it, to understand it. The Suffering Of Suffering One of the things I really appreciate about the Buddha is how he laid it all out so clearly, including categorising the 3 types of suffering that each of us inevitably experience. The first category is called The Suffering of Suffering (or, in Pali, ‘Dukkha Dukkha’, which is fun to say). This describes the fact that we live in a world where there are many things going on around us, or that we may even get embroiled in, that are incredibly difficult to be with. Things like violence, hatred, cruelty, abuse, poverty, sickness, pandemics, homelessness, racism, sexism, all the ‘isms’, natural disasters, climate catastrophes, the list goes on. There is no reframe to convince us that any of this is good. It’s not, it’s hard. And to a large extent it’s the backdrop to our lives. The route to peace is not to deny that any of this is real, but rather to examine our options for how we might relate to it. Also included within The Suffering of Suffering—which is sometimes known as ‘Ordinary Suffering’—are the difficult emotions that none of us are impervious to. If you have a human body and a human mind at some point you are going to experience anger, resentment, sadness, sorrow, grief, embarrassment, guilt, fear, anxiety, stress, nervousness. Again, the list goes on. We don’t feel any of these emotions because there’s something wrong with us. We feel them because they are baked into the fabric of what it means to be human. And then there are all the difficult or uncomfortable physical sensations we experience. We get tired, we get hungry, we get aches and pains, cuts and bruises, we get sick. Just think about temperature. How often is it just right versus it being too warm or too cold? It’s all Dukkha. The Suffering of Change The second category is The Suffering of Change (Viparanama Dukkha) One of the core conditions of life that we find most difficult to bear is that everything changes and nothing is permanent. We’re conditioned to based much of our happiness and satisfaction on things being a particular way. We chase after the conditions and the things we want, and when we get them, we want them to remain and stay the same. We crave certainty, predictability and stability. And, of course, this is a problem when we live in a universe that is characterised by change and impermanence. Life itself is not stable. It’s uncertain and unpredictable. It’s in constant flux. The Buddha said, “Whatever is of the nature to arise, will also pass away.” As a simple example, think about what it’s like buying a new item of clothing that you really, really like. Two ways we feel the effects of change is 1) the level of happiness you feel towards that garment is going to fade, it’ll become old news quite quickly, and 2) The garment itself will fade—it’ll wear out, get tattered, and might end up as rags. The Suffering of Change describes the suffering we feel when we pin our satisfaction on things that, by their nature, cannot stay the same and cannot last. They are inherently unsatisfying. The Suffering of Existence The third category of suffering is The Suffering of Existence (Sankhara Dhukka). Often referred to as ‘all pervasive suffering’. This is about the basic experience of what it’s like to be a human being, and the deeply held, though erroneous, sense that we each have these inherent and fixed identities that are separate to the inherent and fixed identities of everyone else. While this gives us a sense of being special and unique in the world, it inevitably comes with its own subtle sense of isolation, accompanied with the not-so-subtle weight of responsibility to keep ourselves happy and alive. All pervasive suffering is born out of the fact that we want ourselves to remain stable and unchanging. If only we could wave a magic wand and stay forever young, beautiful, vibrant, and healthy. But the reality is, every one of us faces the same circumstance. We’re born, we grow and, if we’re lucky, we get to grow old. At some point the body inevitably gets weaker and wears out, we get sick, and, eventually, we all arrive at the same end. None of us are exempt. And that is incredibly hard for us to come to terms with. It’s the thing we find hardest to fully accept. We don’t like thinking about it. We’ll often do anything to avoid thinking about it. But we’re all too aware of our finitude, and with that comes an existential low-level hum of anxiety that lingers in the background. So, we do what we can to hold back the tide, to keep ourselves younger for longer, to stay fit, avoid getting sick, to distract ourselves from the whole ‘passage of time’ conundrum. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t be doing what we can to keep ourselves healthy. Of course, it’s really important that we do. But when the behaviours we engage in are born out of a subtle act of rebellion against the precariousness of life, then they create their own kind of suffering, because ultimately, they never work. We’ll always find ourselves back at the second category: The suffering of change and impermanence. Now if you’ve made it this far, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that this all sounds rather pessimistic. But remember, the Buddha’s teachings really are laid out to provide a path for peace. The intention of exploring these categories— The Suffering of Suffering The Suffering of Change The Suffering of Existence —is, if we want to be truly and genuinely happy in life—to transcend our suffering—then we first must investigate and understand how suffering shows up for us in the first place. It’s by seeing the truth of Dukkha clearly in this way that we’re then ready to recognise and appreciate that the contentment we seek is not being held ransom by the realities of life, but by our deeply conditioned tendency to get caught up in being attached to our lives having to be a particular way. This leads us neatly on to the 2nd Noble Truth – The truth of the Cause of Dukkha Which—spoiler alert—is Craving. This is a topic for another day, so please look out for that. Warmest, Paul 🙏 Get full access to dharma⌁licious at dharmalicious.substack.com/subscribe (https://dharmalicious.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   20 Jan 2026

   Skilful & Wise Effort

   Visit https://dharmalicious.substack.com (https://dharmalicious.substack.com) to watch the original video and / or join the newsletter and receive Paul's additional content. ----------- A couple of questions I want to share with you that I’ve been playing around with a lot recently and that come lifted directly from my meditation practice are: “Is this skilful?” and “Is this wise effort?” I’ve been practicing asking myself these questions throughout the day in context of whatever I happen to be doing in that moment. And the reason for that is I find these questions to be hugely helpful in reorienting me to what’s most important to me in my life and work, in a way that helps me to attend to that, while protecting my energy and well-being. The first question, “Is this skilful?”, is related to the thoughts and intentions and choices that have been underpinning my behaviour in that moment. It’s really a shortcut way of asking any number of other things like: * Is this really benefiting me or others in a meaningful way? * Am I responding or merely reacting to what’s going on? * Am I doing what’s right or just what feels easy and comfortable? * In a work context, it might mean, is this strategic or just noise? * In a relationship context, it might mean, is this respectful and ethical? * Is it morally sound? * Am I creating unity or division? * Togetherness or friction? So in essence, asking the question, is this skilful, is like asking, “Is my current inner state and behaviour oriented towards something wholesome and worthwhile? Or is it perhaps leading towards something I don’t want further down the line?” The second question, “Is this wise effort?” relates to energy and application. Now, like many people, I suppose, I’ve been known to flit between 1) Strenuously striving and grasping for the things and the outcomes that I want and 2) Backing off to such an extent that I’m not really achieving anything worthwhile at all. So wise effort is about finding that healthy balance between completely zoning out on one hand and trying too hard on the other. It’s about recognising where the energy of my behaviour is currently at on a continuum between full-on avoidance and resisting at one extreme and desperate striving, clinging, grasping, controlling and over-efforting on the other. Usually, for me, I know I’ve got that balance just about right when I feel that what I’m doing is important and worthwhile. And when that is accompanied by the sense that I’m not really taking it or myself too seriously. It’s about giving it just the right amount of effort for it not to feel like a burden on my well-being and sanity. A little bit like a guitar string that only plays in tune when it’s not too tight and not too loose. Now these two questions, “Is this skilful?” and “Is this wise effort?”, don’t come with any instructions for what to do. That’s up to you and your intuition. But what they do is help you to notice when and how you’re out of alignment with how you really want to be showing up for your life. And by getting into the habit of asking these questions frequently throughout the day, you give yourself lots of opportunities to spot it more quickly, and to not allow too much time to pass for that habit energy of unskillful, unwise effort to lead you down avenues you’d really rather not go. So I want to encourage you to give this a try. As often as you can remember throughout the day, simply pause and with whatever you’re doing, ask yourself the questions, “Is this skilful?” and “Is this wise effort?” Get full access to dharma⌁licious at dharmalicious.substack.com/subscribe (https://dharmalicious.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

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