In the ancient Buddhist literature there are many references to the demon, Mara. In some respects Mara resembles the Satan of Christian tradition. For example just as Satan tempted Christ, Mara tempted Siddhartha Gautama. It was only after resisting Mara’s temptation that Siddhartha Gautama was able to attain enlightenment and become the Buddha. Just as […]
It is a great privilege to be parents and a wondrous gift to be grandparents. We invest so much in our offspring and for many of us this becomes a huge part of our identity. Children are also useful for the education of adults. As the American humourist Franklin P Jones wrote, “You can learn […]
Some time ago in a blog essay I wrote the following: M Scott Peck began his great little book The Road Less Travelled in this way: “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once […]
In recent essays I have referred somewhat to the birth of Christianity and its emergence from previous Pagan religions. The countries of the Middle East were reasonably tolerant of a range of such religions. Christianity itself seems to have been a derivative of the various mystical religions that had developed in the preceding centuries. Initially […]
“Remember that there are two kinds of lunatics: those who don’t know they must die, and those that have forgotten they are alive.” Patrick Declerk (As quoted by Matthieu Ricard in Happiness) In a commentary to one of the chapters of Augustus Finds Serenity, I wrote the following: Once, Augustus asked Takygulpa to explain how […]
Christmas is a rather pleasant time even for a disgruntled, old reactionary like me. Despite not being a Christian, the Christmas story can still bring a lump to the throat and the songs and carols from my childhood fill me with pleasant nostalgia. The only downside is having to listen to blokes in skirts with […]
One of my sons is a primary school teacher. It pleases me when I meet people who say, “Our child really prospered when he/she was in your son’s class” or quite frequently, “I hope our child gets into your son’s class”. Guiding young minds in such formative years is no doubt an important and often […]
What a wonderfully absurd, unbelievable, preposterous place is the universe! And yet most of us take it for granted. Some 13.7 billion years ago, give or take an eon or two that amazingly stupendous event, which we currently call the “Big Bang” occurred which commenced the evolutionary process that led to the world as we […]
You know it is not all downside getting old. I notice when I have my geriatric jog in the mornings these days I have more time to think than I used to. This, of course, is mainly a factor of my reducing speed which means it takes me longer to get around my jogging route […]
“To ask ‘What is consciousness?’ does not appear to be unreasonable: yet the question does not seem to be fully answerable in reasonable terms. So along with questions like ‘What is God?’ and ‘What is life?’ we generally rule out consciousness from scientific enquiry. After long searching for answers in many places, I have […]