The originator of Taoism is thought to be Lao-tzu. Lao-tzu lived around 500BCE and was a contemporary of Confucius. Alan Watts, with his usual insight wrote, “The essence of Lao-tzu’s philosophy is the difficult art of getting out of one’s own way – of learning how to act without forcing conclusions, of living in skilful […]
In Chapter 13 of Augustus Finds Serenity, the sage Takygulpa Rinpoche has been asked to give advice to a religious community. Among other things he tells the assembled throng: “Do not take life too seriously. The glue that holds our communities together best is made from shared joy and good humour. Just as we are […]
My good friend, Dr Phil Harker and I have been communicating about intuition. He has some useful insights that I will share with you shortly. We shared recently, the comments of Aldous Huxley in his introduction to the Bhagavad Ghita (translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood). Huxley referred to what he called the “Perennial […]
In the Four Noble Truths the Buddha reminds us that the origin of suffering is attachment. I am going to try and convince you of the truth of this assertion. You might remember the quote from “A Course in Miracles” that I commenced my previous blog with: I am affected only by my thoughts. This […]
We have seen in a previous blog (“Consciousness and World Views” June 20 2009) of the importance of world views and how we learn to interpret the world in different ways. Chapters 2 and 16 of “Augustus Finds Serenity” deal with this subject. In essence there are essentially only two world views (or paradigms through […]
I have written a story about a time when my little Buddhist character, Augustus, helped a princess deal with depression. Chapter 14 from “Augustus Finds Serenity” is an extract from that story. Let me quote a little of it for you. The princess looked up at Augustus and asked, “Perhaps you can explain something for […]
In the introduction to “Augustus Finds Serenity” I outlined the reason why I had sought to use the medium of metaphor and parable to outline the concepts that I thought were useful in helping people live more fulfilled lives. I started my career as an engineer and the principal tools I used were built on […]
“Love Makes the World go Round” is a title of a song I remember from my youth. It might be evocative, but it isn’t strictly true – but certainly the quality of our existence in this world is enhanced by love. My friend and colleague, Dr Phil Harker points out that we are often confused […]
My friend, the psychologist, Dr Phil Harker, has a formula for achieving psychological robustness. If we are to be well-adjusted, he teaches, first we should take steps to know ourselves, then we must learn to accept ourselves, and then finally, if we are to live lives of contentment, we must forget ourselves. It has been […]
In 1637, Rene˙ Descartes set the modern study of the mind-brain relationship in motion. It was at this time he took his famous sojourn in a Dutch farmhouse to escape authority and contemplate humanity’s innate nature. In trying to distill philosophy back to only those things he felt he could be sure about, he wrote, […]