Augustus and the Prince

Augustus and the Prince “What cannot be seen with the eye, but that whereby the eye can see: know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit, and not what people here adore. What cannot be heard with the ear but that whereby the ear can hear: know that alone to be Brahman, the Spirit, and […]

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Love vs Fear

The Essential Phil Harker Some weeks ago I published a tribute to Phil Harker. I thought it might be useful to outline some of his key beliefs. As we travelled on this journey of discovery together, his philosophical understandings and psychological insights had a beneficial effect on my life. It is likely they might be […]

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Australia’s Looming Electricity Catastrophe

The overwhelming victory by Labor in the recent Federal Election will have many flow-on effects. One of the more disastrous will be Labor doubling down on its renewable energy policy. Chris Bowen is already claiming the victory as a mandate to continue his reckless pursuit of renewable energy. It is an assertion that is pretty […]

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A Last Salute to the Good Dr Phil

  My friend of 40 years has now departed this earth. Dr Phil Harker my long-time associate and mentor has left his body and gone to a better place. The world is diminished with his passing. I first met Phil sometime around 1986 when he was part of a selection panel assessing applicants to be […]

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Beyond Intellect


I posted on my Facebook page the other day a quotation from the famous Robert Oppenheimer (theoretical physicist and to his everlasting regret, one of the “fathers of the atomic bomb”). This goes to show, I suppose, how unsuited I am to Facebook and such as a medium of communication– when others are posting pictures […]

October 27, 2012

Positive Psychology and Buddhism


Positive Psychology has only emerged as a defined field of study in psychology in the last decade or so. Martin Seligman is credited with its birth. Martin Seligman was elected as president of the American Psychological Association in 1998. He chose “positive psychology” as the theme for his term. Seligman had a few predecessors in […]

October 20, 2012

Seeing Things Differently


I recently heard a radio interview with Professor Gordon Parker who was for many years associated with the Black Dog Institute which as you may know seeks to help those suffering from depression. In the course of the interview, the interviewer asked Professor Parker how he would distinguish between depression and melancholia. Without hesitation Parker […]

October 14, 2012

Froth and Goblets


You might wonder why I might have imbued my new book with such a title. Those of you that have read my small offerings over the years would know that I have a belief that most of the great truths are propagated through stories and often through the use of parable and metaphor. I like […]

October 7, 2012

Coming to Grips with Mind


In my blog essay last week, I stipulated how important to our personal well-being it is be able to cultivate a sense of equanimity in our internal world, our theatre of mind. Our state of mind, rather than our external circumstances, is the prime determinant of our well-being. You and I both know people whose […]

September 28, 2012

Some More Thoughts About Depression


As I have written often, the essential nature of our humanity comes from our consciousness of self. From this faculty we immediately are confronted by two worlds. The first is the world “out there”, the physical world of objects, space, matter and other beings. The second is the world we are aware of within ourselves, […]

September 21, 2012

A God For Our Times (II)


After I wrote my recent essay which I entitled “A God for Our Times” Bruno made the following comment: You articulate clearly your “future god”. But what purpose does he serve? It seems that you still describe an adult/child relationship. He is still a “god of the gaps”. We don’t need a god to live […]

September 16, 2012

Where To For Welfare?


If you read my blogs you might come to the conclusion that I am reasonably opinionated. I certainly have shared with you opinions on some of the more controversial subjects such as politics and religion. But I must confess that there are areas where I feel frustrated that I can’t make up my mind. One […]

September 8, 2012

A God for Our Times?


In the beginning there were many gods. As Man’s consciousness evolved and he tried to make sense of his world, he invented gods to help explain it. Early on most gods related to natural phenomenon like the moon and the sun, rain and floods, fertility and fecundity and so on. Such gods were often embodied […]

September 1, 2012

We’re Not Growing Old, Are We?


A few weeks ago, I was having a geriatric jog, as I am occasionally wont to do, when I pulled a muscle in my lower calf on my right leg. Over the years I have damaged muscles reasonably frequently. Normally you just stop running for a while and revert to walking until the muscle repairs […]

August 25, 2012