An Atheist’s Guide to Nirvana

Transcendence is a reality and can change life for the better.

It’s the Bloody Immigrants

They’ve ruined the country.

How to Meditate

I am no teacher.  All I can tell you is how I meditate and what it has done for me.  Anything else would be a shocking arrogance.

Meditation – a wider perspective

So much can be found on the internet on the subject of meditation, and so little of it has any value.

Opinions and the Opiniated

I have become very wary of expressing any opinion – it can so easily turn into aggression.

A Mesmeric approach to the Dark Night of the Soul

Would Mesmerism prove any more effective than any of the other thus far useless approaches which promised salvation?

Under the Bodhi Tree

A descent into silence and meditation. A search for the soul.

Meditation – Proof of the Pudding

Does it work?

“What is it like to be”……Trump?

The soon to be ex President of the USA represents everything that is wrong with our species and yet what must it be like to live inside that shell of violent emotion? We should pity the man and people like him.

Gardening for the Soul

Recently, gardening has become more than a metaphor for me. I have followed Candide in a literal sense and found great peace in our garden.

Chaos and Uncertainty

I have not found it any easier to accept uncertainty in recent years despite my intellectual acceptance that it is unavoidable.

Anger

It is very disappointing to have given in to anger, which in retrospect could easily have been averted by withdrawing from the scene.

Nosce Te Ipsum

Can we ever know ourselves? And what is there to know?

Preparing for the Apocalypse

I’m pretty relaxed about the whole thing and since I have self isolated now for nigh on 30 years, I’m not too bothered about keeping myself to myself. If the writing is on the wall, so be it.

Blogging – A Window onto the Soul

I was struck today when looking at my collection of Blog “Tags” just how much they reveal about my character and obsessions.

Should you Revisit the Past?

No, I am minded to believe you should remain firmly rooted in the present, making new experiences.

On Choosing Happiness

I believe on any number of counts, including personal experience, that we have the power to choose to be happy but the road is not altogether straightforward.

The Algorithm

The parallels between Taoism and the Algorithm are unmistakable, comforting and instructive.

To Concentrate on “Good Things”

How much better you feel when you focus on the good and ignore the bad.

The Internet of Fools

The internet is colonized by those who do not know that they do not know.  Fools to put it less politely. Why?

Out of Your Head

It is easy enough to empathize with addicts if, for large chunks of your existence, you have had an overwhelming need to get out of your own head.

To be a Prisoner

I spent the week incarcerated in Calais. It lead me to contemplate the unimaginable horror of prison life.

Is Sex Dirty?

Objectively, as a mere means of reproduction, it is hard to see how sex can be considered disgusting. And yet many humans consider it so.

Sore Points: Settle or Leave to Fester?

Should sore points be discussed and settled in the open or be buried in the hope they will go away?

The Benefits of People Watching

If you are going to talk to people at all, make sure they are people you do not know and are foreign as regards your class, tribe or social milieu. 

On Facing Daemons

“Exi ergo, transgressor. Exi, seductor, plene omni dolo et fallacia, virtutis inimici, innocentium persecutor.”

The Destructive Power of Cynicism

Reading of the demise of renowned fund manager Neil Woodford, I was reminded of my deep capacity for destructive cynicism. … More

Seek and You shall Find

In the mental world, in our interior “reality” we can find whatever we want. Whatever we are looking for.

Processed for the Slaughterhouse.

In the featured image, Leni Riefenstahl and a camera crew stand in front of Hitler’s car during the 1934 rally … More

All Victories are Pyrrhic

Whether or not you win a conflict, something will have been lost. 

Gillette Advertisement Controversy

Good on Gillette: it would be hard to deny that male aggression has played a vast and malignant role in our history.

How to be a Happy Human

Given the basic needs of life and in the absence of physiological abnormality, the solution is fairly simple.  The trick … More

Cast Out the Beam

It seems so inordinately difficult to be a decent human, unless you were born that way.

Could Adolf have chosen to behave differently?

Pavlov’s dog aside we do not expect, largely, to change the nature or behavior of an animal. Why should we expect to change our own?

The Unknowing Fool

The unknowing fool is one who does not know he does not know.

Get Rich Quick: El Dorado

The legend of El Dorado, a fabulous golden city in South America, inspired many expeditions in the 16th Century in search of wealth and excess. 

The Internet – Saviour or Satan?

Is the internet a curse or a blessing? Used carefully, in my opinion it is a huge blessing. 

Do I mean what I write, do I write what I mean?

I was wondering whether I really mean what I write? Or to turn it round another way, do I write what I mean?

The Internet Troll and the Origins of Conflict

Internet forums are the perfect place to understand the petty origins of conflict.  The Troll must be studiously ignored.