Negotiating a Tumultuous World

We live in an ever-changing world where uncertainty seems to be increasing. We have major conflicts playing out in Ukraine and the Middle East. Western countries are facing cultural stress largely due to the burgeoning rates of migration of Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa. Our culture is also challenged by the left […]

Continue Reading

Our Undue Expectations of Happiness

Malcolm Fraser was a pretty uninspiring Prime Minister. Most of us remember him for two things. Firstly he was once discovered wandering around in the foyer of a hotel in the USA in his underpants! Secondly, and somewhat more profound, he once proclaimed that, “Life wasn’t meant to be easy.” Whether he was aware of […]

Continue Reading

Some Home Economics Fundamentals

My interest was piqued recently when reading the letters to the Editor in The Australian newspaper when someone wrote: The two must haves for young families today, a home and childcare are being kept out of reach of ordinary young Australians by unreasonable profit margins. The writer (rightfully) bemoaned the fact that a socialist government […]

Continue Reading

Time on Our Hands

As I have often written, time is such a difficult subject, but nonetheless a fascinating one. But in this essay I want to direct my reader’s attention to another fascinating issue about time. It is the notion of the benefit of “Spare Time”. The traditional Protestant ethic would suggest that having spare time is surely […]

Continue Reading

Desire and Attachment


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 […]

July 29, 2009

Freedom from Fear The Tale of the Blue Dragon


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 […]

July 23, 2009

Froth and Goblets


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 […]

July 17, 2009

Another Way of Knowing


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 […]

July 8, 2009

Love Makes The World Go Round


“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 […]

July 1, 2009

The Pursuit of Happiness


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 […]

June 26, 2009

Consciousness and World Views


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, […]

June 20, 2009

A Begginner Blogger Blogs a Beginning


Hi world of readers. Let me introduce myself. I am Ted Scott. I have had a couple of careers, firstly as an executive and more lately as a management consultant and executive coach. I have been writing for some time, having written articles for magazines and journals. My first book, “Humanity at Work” was written […]

June 15, 2009