If we were to blame anybody for the plethora of self-help books in recent decades, it should probably be Norman Vincent Peale. Peale was the author of the enormously successful, and still available, The Power of Positive Thinking. The book was first published in 1952. Peale was a modern day evangelist who promoted the dogma […]

It is not difficult to make the case that that advancement of Mankind has been greatly facilitated by the general agreement on a basic set of shared values by the various aggregations of its personnel in families, tribes, communities, states and nations. In days gone by those beliefs and values were perpetuated through the institutions […]

It is interesting to ask the question that what is it about sport that it has caught the attention and held the interest of Western societies so strongly. I don’t feel competent to comment on the phenomenon in Western societies generally and therefore I will restrict my comments to observations about what I am familiar […]

Many in today’s society seek for easy answers. We would like to believe that our desires are readily attainable. Many of our pop psychologists and our self-help books reinforce this misguided notion. There is always a by-line asserting that a particular guru can show you the “three easy steps” to enlightenment, weight loss, improved self-esteem […]

Many of our beliefs are assimilated rather early in our lives and then are seldom challenged. Because of our egos we desperately want to believe that our beliefs are in fact true and they are superior to other beliefs (or perhaps more pertinently to the beliefs of others). Of course we don’t come by our […]

“To understand anything, what is essential? A quiet mind, is it not? So long as the mind is in conflict, blaming, resisting, condemning, there can be no understanding.” J. Krishnamurti The First and Last Freedom As we have seen in previous essays, suffering seems to be an inevitable part of being human. And of course […]

It is amazing how special we think we are in the face of evidence to the contrary. Surveys show that most people feel they are above average on most criteria ranging from attractiveness, driving skills, physical fitness and generosity. Of course our opinion of ourselves is jaundiced by a subtle conspiracy between our eyes and […]

There are few areas of human endeavour more difficult to fathom than our attempts to come to grips with the issues of ethics and morality. The traditional question of the ethicist is, “What ought one do?” It seems to me that there are many circumstances where there is no easy answer to that question. It […]

Education – What Are The Real Lessons? I remember reading a passage by T H White many years ago. He talked about somebody “who got upon his favourite hobby horse and rode off in all directions at once”! Well I am about to emulate this feat (or at least I am sure some of you […]

The dramatic TV coverage of the terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001 is still dramatically vivid in most of our memories. The hijacking of four passenger jets from domestic passenger flights and their subsequent deliberate crashing in order to kill defenceless civilians horrified us all. The appalling sight of the demolition […]