So, another year has passed. There is nothing particularly special about that but I am heartily sick of people saying to me, “Where did the year go! It seemed to go so quickly.” In fact it went where every other year we have experienced went. (It is as though they expected to turn a rock […]

“If you open your mind too much, your brain may fall out!” Attributed to The Telegraph commenting on a video purporting to show an alien body being dissected. (Although I have also noticed someone recently attributing it to G K Chesterton!) It seems a harmlessly endearing quality of the human race that it seems capable […]

Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses, the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints, and the Turks their Mahomet, as if the way to God was not open to every man alike. Each of those churches […]

In the early 1960’s, as I remember, the American comedian, Stan Freberg, was quite popular and his recordings were regularly played on Australian radio stations. One such piece (which I think was taken from his radio show in the US) was a bit of a spoof of him attempting to sing the Jerome Kern standard […]

It is said that the eminent Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky was famous for the psychological insights of his writing. In his Winter Notes on Summer Impressions he mounted the following challenge: Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that cursed thing come to mind […]

Woe to them who fake Scriptures and say ‘This is from God’ so that they might earn some profit thereby. The Koran   Most of us are familiar with the famous painting by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It was commissioned by Pope Julius II, a commission only reluctantly […]

I have written a few essays on education in the past, being an area of some interest of mine. I have been thinking lately, that perhaps we should go back and ask some basic questions about education. It is a very ambitious task, I know, but I am going to attempt to address the following […]

Fiddle de dee, fiddle de dee, The Fly has married the Bumblebee Children’s Nursery Rhyme Evolutionary psychologists tell us that monogamy is the most likely natural disposition of human beings when their mating patterns are considered. They draw this conclusion from the fact that whilst men are on average slightly bigger than women and generally […]

The conventionally religious have historically believed that morality is handed down as a prescription by God. They think that Mankind is so debauched they could not possibly develop a moral code that got beyond individual benefit. Plato had a higher opinion of Mankind and believed that human beings were imbued with ideals that were innate […]

Augustus sat at the feet of his teacher, Takygulpa Rinpoche. “Tell me Master, about leadership. What is the quality that most helps someone exemplify leadership?’ “True leadership emanates from a sense of inner strength and equanimity. You know how that is attained for that has been the subject of our practice for many years.” “Yes, […]