A Dream of Brahman

In my previous essay which I titled “Such is Life” I explained the basic cosmogony of Hindus and others is that the world and all in it were created by a dream of Brhman. The sceptics will probably laugh that I should pay any respect at all to such a fanciful concept. My critics will […]

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Such is Life

I recently published an essay Reconciling with Impermanence. Whilst rummaging through my archives recently I discovered another essay I had written almost twenty years ago that throws some light on this important subject. I have updated it somewhat and now share it with you. Let us begin by asking the question, “What is a man’s […]

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Reconciling with Impermanence

In our normal day to day existence there are many things that we hang on to because they give us a sense of permanence. Our consciousness compels us to be aware of our own mortality. Advances in nutrition and health may have enabled us on average to exceed the biblical “three score years and ten”. […]

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On Dreaming

To die, to sleep –To sleep, perchance to dream, ay there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause there’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life. Hamlet, William Shakespeare The above quote, which will be familiar […]

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Getting Off The Treadmill


In the tumult of modern society I see more and more people struggling psychologically. They struggle with anxiety, despair and depression. Many are on a treadmill that they are finding difficult to keep up with. The treadmill is driven by expectations of employers to keep improving the bottom line. It is driven by expectations of […]

September 8, 2010

Being and Meditation


It is difficult for human beings to just be. We are driven to meet the expectations of others, to pursue the goals of organisations and to meet, what appear to be, essential imperatives. Consequently we are soon lost in our strivings to achieve and our desires to be something we are not, to meet the […]

August 31, 2010

The Struggle With Self


Many years ago my good friend Dr Phil Harker taught me that the route to good psychological adjustment had three steps, viz. Know Yourself>Accept Youself>Forget Yourself. This has over the years, proved to be good advice. This seems such a simple formula – and it is. But it is also very profound and quite difficult […]

August 24, 2010

The Way of Vedanta


Vedanta is the wisdom of the Vedic sages. It is one of the oldest forms of religion and was the precursor to Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism. It is the spiritual path outlined in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. The Ultimate Reality, according to Vedanta, is all-pervading pure consciousness. As one adept wrote, “ […]

August 19, 2010

Power and Fear


‘The Emperor of Tsin Chou province was a proud and haughty man. He was jealous of his power and authority and went to great pains to defend his little empire. He had numerous spies who were always abroad in the neighbouring provinces gathering intelligence because he was anxious that he would be attacked. Anyone who […]

August 11, 2010

The Mind of Ted


What a paradox it is that I have had an ongoing sense of identity all my life. The “I-ness” I now experience seems little different to that which I experienced when I was younger. Yet I am substantially a different person from that Ted Scott that existed thirty or forty years ago I am older […]

July 26, 2010

The Ground of Being


It is all there, all the time, everywhere and everywhence. How overwhelming but how strange seen from the limited perspective of one man or woman’s eyes, or discerned by their senses; beyond our perception and our conception and therefore beyond normal belief. And so we break it down to that little bit we can physically […]

July 21, 2010

Where To After The Monarchy?


One of the more pleasurable things that have happened to me in recent times was to become the Chair of the Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA).FBA is one of Queenslands thirteen community based Natural Resource Management (NRM) Groups. As a result of this position I get to sit on the Board of the Queensland Regional NRM […]

July 15, 2010

On Life in General


However you might view it, it is quite apparent to me that I have had a very fortunate life. One of the reasons I would make such a statement is the number of marvellous people I can have called friends. One such person is Brian Turnbull. I first met Brian more than ten years ago […]

July 6, 2010

The Nature of Existence


Some time ago, Greg Brown, who frequently comments astutely on my blogs as you may have noticed, sent me a few interesting quotes to ponder on. Let me share one with you. This particular one is from Steve Biller, Tutorial Fellow in experimental particle physics, Mansfield College, University of Oxford, England. “Particles, in fact, don’t […]

June 30, 2010