Archive for March, 2007
Touching
I grew up in a loving but touch-phobic household. My parents’ generation were like that: I remember hearing Peter Cundall say that he liked the idea of hugging but it wasn’t for him and he’d just as soon that people who were into such things left him out of it. My mother feels much the [...]
The spirit of the valley
The valley spirit never dies
Call it the mystery, the woman.
Taoists use the metaphor of gu shen, “the valley spirit.” A valley supports life, feeds the animals who live there and provides fertile earth for agriculture. It can do this only because it is empty. It accepts the flow of the river because [...]
The danger of safety
If you have ever had a horse it’s worth paying attention to what it’s ever been spooked by. Suppose there was a blue car which tooted it’s horn and gave the animal a shock. Chances are anything which reminds it of that event will make it startle for years afterwards. Are horses colourblind? They are [...]
Gift
What can I give you?
The strength to face your fears? You have it. You know the trick of it: that fear cannot prevent you. When the monsters at the top of the stairs lurk with absolute certainty just within the darkness, you take the next step because you will.
Respect for your body? You make this [...]
The god in small things
A friend of mine is a multi-millionaire. I’ve known him since high school and he was at that time dirt poor. He’s bright, though, and he had a good idea and worked amazingly hard turning it into a fortune. Now he owns a winery and buys fascinating ancient artifacts and fast cars.
So a particular conversation [...]
The subject-object experience
The excellent Charlotte Joko Beck wrote something I’ve read many times, but it turns out I’ve never quite taken it in. It’s from Nothing Special Chapter 3, p. 84
In everyday terms, the world is divided into subjects and objects. […] Yet intuitively we know that we are not separate from the world and that the [...]
The immanence of flesh
Think of the gathering of thunderclouds, tension like a clean muggy smell in the mental air. The gravid psyche reaches term and, suddenly, rips apart the mundane to release a wave of intense experience which fills my senses and my heart. It is profane, sublime, ecstatic. It steals upon me and creates in a still [...]
the technical use of karma in magic
With our thoughts we create the world. The experience of our senses reaches our consciousness not raw but filtered and interpreted. Babies learn to recognise faces, from the blurred shapes they see above them. The world’s sounds separate into wind, voices, automobiles and dogs. Objects, people, future and past, cause and effect, mind and intention [...]
This is what you shall do…
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing [...]
A change of style
I’ve realised that my interest in politics, if it hasn’t waned, has at least shifted. There seems, therefore, little point in keeping the philosophy / psychology writing separate from this (previously politics focussed) blog. So I’m moving all the recent non-politics stuff here, and from now on Writings will have a broader collection: everything I [...]
A think is not true unless it is also kind
A thing is not true unless it is also kind.
I wrote this at the end of a recent article, and I think it’s really an important idea although my attempts to get it across to anyone else have so far been unsatisfactory. So I want to give it one last try.
Fox News provides a clear [...]
Venezuela and development
You must take a look at this. Forest Browne takes a detailed look at the deliberations of a mining company in Venezuela.
There’s no clearer way to explain why globalization is making the world poor.
