Q&A: Karma, Jhānas and Enlightenment

Do the four stages of enlightenment, from stream entry to arahant, really happen, and can an awakened person still have problems? What are the jhānas and are they essential? On the final evening of a retreat, Christopher takes on some of the biggest questions in the dharma. He also reflects on "I am that" versus "I am not that" in Hinduism and Buddhism, why trust outlasts hope, whether AI can answer dharma questions, karma and rebirth, and burnout.***Christopher’s teaching scheduleJoin the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC)Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation***Recorded on retreat at Waldhaus, on 22/10/2026.

"My mind is always wandering," people tell Christopher. His reply: where exactly can it wander to? In this talk on non-self, Christopher explains that the thoughts themselves are not the problem - the trouble only starts when the self tries to control them. He also covers why "no thought is for the dead", why he's happy about his typos, and lessons from a hairdresser, a tattooist and men just released from prison.***Christopher's teaching scheduleJoin the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC)Support Christopher's teaching by making a donation***Recorded on retreat at Waldhaus on 15/10/2026.

Future generations will look back at our time and ask: why did they do nothing? Probably for the same reasons you will do nothing.Christopher holds up a mirror to a world that has never been so well informed about suffering, and never so practised at carrying on as usual. With war in Palestine, Ukraine, Russia, Sudan and beyond, he questions how the unacceptable quietly become normal, how indifference hides inside a busy life, and what it would take to wake our conscience up. This isn't just a call to care; it's a call to respond.***Christopher's teaching schedule: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/schedule⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/donations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠***

Christopher answers retreatants’ questions. He explains why mindfulness alone isn’t enough to become less reactive, and offers practical next steps, including the Buddha’s advice to his son Rāhula to cultivate the opposite quality. He discusses rebirth and “re-becoming”, why he doesn’t identify as a Buddhist, and loving-kindness (mettā) as a doorway to liberation. He talks about when exploring childhood trauma helps and when it doesn’t, why liberation can show up in many different ways, and his concern about mindfulness taught without ethics. He ends with his own creative process as a writer and poet. ***Christopher's teaching schedule: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/schedule⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/donations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠***Recorded on retreat at ⁠⁠Waldhaus, Germany⁠⁠, on 1 August 2026.

A 30-minute guided body scan led by Christopher Titmuss, developing mindfulness of the body, the first of the four foundations of mindfulness. Suitable for any level of practice, sitting or lying down.***Christopher's teaching schedule: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/schedule⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC), a one-year CPD-certified course: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org/⁠⁠⁠⁠Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/donations⁠⁠⁠⁠***Recorded on retreat at Waldhaus, Germany, on 29 July 2026.

A dharma talk on the eight worldly winds: success and failure, praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and pain. Christopher shows how they shape our lives from the classroom onwards, then turns to what transcends them, drawing on Rumi, Meister Eckhart and the Buddha’s description of nirvana as the absence of greed, anger and delusion: not far away, but immediately accessible.***Christopher's teaching schedule: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/schedule⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC), a one-year CPD-certified course: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org/⁠⁠⁠⁠Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/donations⁠⁠⁠⁠***Recorded on retreat at ⁠Waldhaus, Germany⁠, on 3 August 2026.

A dharma talk on the three meanings of mettā: loving-kindness, friendship and love. Christopher explains the brahmavihāras: to “abide in Brahma” is to abide in love, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity. He reads two of his own love poems and reflects on romantic love, trust, and how holding on to the past clouds the way we see the people we love.***Christopher's teaching schedule: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/schedule⁠⁠⁠Join the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC), a one-year CPD-certified course: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org/⁠⁠⁠Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/donations⁠⁠⁠***Recorded on retreat at ⁠Waldhaus, Germany⁠, on 2 August 2026.

A dharma talk on mindfulness of the mind from the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Buddha’s discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness. Christopher explores greed, aversion and delusion, both when they’re present and when the mind is free of them, and how advertising and social media are designed to hook our attention. He also explores the narrow and expansive mind, concentration and genuine freedom, and tells the story of Leonard Cohen.***Christopher's teaching schedule: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/schedule⁠⁠⁠Join the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC), a one-year CPD-certified course: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org/⁠⁠⁠Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/donations⁠⁠⁠***Recorded on retreat at ⁠Waldhaus, Germany⁠, on 30 July 2026.

Many people feel they don’t understand the Buddhist teaching of emptiness. In this dharma talk, Christopher explains it in plain, everyday terms. He explores how desire shows up in our lives, the problems it causes, and what it means to see the emptiness of desire.***Christopher's teaching schedule: ⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/schedule⁠⁠Join the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC), a one-year CPD-certified course: ⁠⁠https://www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org/⁠⁠Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation: ⁠⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/donations⁠⁠***Recorded on retreat at ⁠Waldhaus, Germany⁠, on 2 August 2026.

A dharma talk on worry, excessive thinking and why there is no quick fix: telling ourselves to stop worrying is just more worry. Christopher explores the antidotes: space, trust, silence, and intimacy with the world through the senses. He looks at the quiet insights that can change a life without any “big bang”. He draws on the Buddha’s fourfold way of looking: yes, no, both and neither. He also tells the story of the Buddha being asked who creates our suffering, covers gradual and sudden awakening, and answers the question: can a human being genuinely live free from suffering?***Christopher's teaching schedule: ⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/schedule⁠Join the Mindfulness Teacher Training Course (MTTC), a one-year CPD-certified course: ⁠https://www.mindfulnesstrainingcourse.org/⁠Support Christopher’s teaching by making a donation: ⁠https://www.christophertitmuss.net/donations⁠***Recorded on retreat at Waldhaus, Germany, on 27 July 2026.