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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Terror of another Kind


I felt compelled to write about the tragedy in Norway this week, but I scarcely know where to begin. In the face of such a repugnant act I am left bewildered and struggle to make sense of it. Norway is a socially progressive country with one of the highest standards of living in the world. […]

July 31, 2011

When Will They Ever Learn?


I remember in the sixties hearing Pete Seeger singing his composition “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”  All five verses of the song finished with the plaintive question; “When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?” It is a very good question. In this essay I want to explore learning in an organizational […]

July 24, 2011

Flies in the Ointment – A Parable for Our Times


“All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.” Thomas Aquinas In far off Moladavia there was a village called Climatesan. Now Moladavia was a poor country and most of its citizens struggled in a subsistence economy. But Climatesan was more fortunate than most. Whereas most of the land […]

July 17, 2011

Spiritual Evolution and The Perennial Philosophy


Eventually all of us have to contend with the question, “Does God exist?” and if we answer in the affirmative we then have to ask ourselves, “What is the Nature of God.” Let me confess at the very beginning of this essay that I believe that God exists, or at least my interpretation of a […]

July 9, 2011

Watching The Play


In “As You Like It” William Shakespeare wrote the famous lines: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts…” We all have multiple roles. We can at any time be for example, a father, […]

July 3, 2011

Equanimity


The minds of those of us who have an enduring sense of well-being are like deep oceans. Sometimes on the surface the elements may occasionally whip up a few waves, but they can not touch the depths which remain in deep abiding tranquility. Neuroscientists have shown that such people have more activity in the right […]

June 27, 2011

Some Patter on the Batter and Katter Matters


What troubled times we live in! As if it wasn’t enough to have to contend with climate change, seemingly losing the war in Afghanistan, and not being able to stop the boat people, all of a sudden we have two new issues to contend with. This might be OK for all you ladies that are […]

June 19, 2011

Standing on Our Own Two Feet


This week I want to go back to evolution and examine one of the very momentous events that impacted on the development of humankind. Darwin, to the chagrin of many of his Victorian contemporaries, proposed that we all are the descendants of a prehominid species whose ancestry we share with the apes. The event I […]

June 13, 2011

And Here Again Are The Laws of Physics!


There is an old joke that went something like this. Out on the Serengeti Plane there is a little knoll. The knoll is a favourite observation point for the senior members of a pride of lions. Close by is a waterhole where many animals come to drink. In the late afternoon the head lions wait […]

June 6, 2011

The Uncertain, Disorderly, Changing Universe


Once many years ago I came across a fictional exam paper with questions designed to amuse. One question for example was: “Captain Cook had three voyages to the Pacific. On which voyage was he killed?” And another question more germane to this week’s blog essay, was: “Define the universe and give three examples?” Notwithstanding that […]

May 29, 2011