A Few More Thoughts about Leadership

As you undoubtedly would know by now, the person who had the biggest influence on my career as an executive was the late Dr Pill Harker. Whilst Phil helped me understand the basic psychology of human beings, he was sometimes naïve about the politics of organisations. Nevertheless I will be eternally grateful to him for […]

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The Dualism Quandary

Having studied physics, chemistry and mathematics, I have always been intrigued by what is the nature of the natural world. Conventional science would have us believe that science is about “discovering” the Laws of Nature that have governed the Universe since its creation. If you are religious you probably believe that God laid down these […]

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Guarding Our National Values

I am now in my eightieth year and remain a loyal and grateful Australian. As others have rightfully said, “To be born Australian is akin to winning the Lotto”. But being Australian has become more problematic in recent decades. As a young man, I and my peers were unabashedly patriotic. Sometimes our beliefs might have […]

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How the Middle East Succumbed to the Enigmatic Donald Trump!

As I write, Hamas seems to have agreed to a peace deal brokered by Donald Trump. This is a great achievement for Trump and, although many things could still go wrong in prosecuting the peace plan, we should give credit where credit is due. The struggle between Israel and Hamas was a seemingly intransigent problem […]

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Telling Stories


The Blessed One thought, “I have taught the Truth, But simple as it is, the people can not understand it. Therefore I will tell them stories.” I have written many times that it seems to me that the essential truths of Mankind are largely taught through the medium of parables and metaphors. This seems true […]

November 3, 2012

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