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Jack Kornfield asked me over lunch at the Spirit Rock Meditation Centre in Marin County (or is it More In County?) whether I ever felt lonely as a teacher. I suspected there was a sub-text to this question, as he asked me the same question three or four years ago. I replied: “I wish had the opportunity to experience aloneness while teaching.” Continue reading
I have taken a four-year sabbatical from launching into writing another book. I wrote one book per year between 1989 and 2003. I suspect that some of them climbed quite high towards the Top of the Least Sellers List. I continue writing articles, poems. Friends kindly transcribed a number inquiry sessions that consists of a dialogue with a practitioner to unravel the deeper truth of the experience or question.
In the past few months, I have carefully gone through my computer to put together the various matters that I have written about in the past few years to see what the potential is to form some new books. I had more unpublished stuff available than I realised. David Cassard, who stated at my home when I was overseas, helped put together the order for the first two books. Continue reading
I sent a letter to The Independent newspaper following the defeat of the English football team by Croatia. The defeat meant England would not be playing in Europe with the top European nations. We often refer to football as the beautiful game but money and corporate power has cast its ugly shadow over the game. There is a certain malaise in football – off the football pitch and sometimes on it. Continue reading
I am not a fan of democracy. The belief that the vote of the majority is the best form of government is questionable to say the least. Poverty, violence, addictive behaviour, unhappiness are widespread in democracy. Do our politicians express the will of the majority? There is an epidemic of alcohol abuse, drug addiction, depression and compulsive spending. Wisdom and compassion ought to be the criteria. If democracy is not working, why on Earth do we want to convert with missionary zeal the rest of the world to a two party state, corporate ownership of all resources and individuals into consumers? Our mad ideology with its belief in self, choice and status expresses a pathological form of conditioning that goes unexamined. Continue reading
Thankfully, the flight touched down right on time at Brisbane Airport at around 6.30 am. My mother greeted me. “I need to go to the doctor and the hospital,” I told her.At the clinic, the doctor gave me an examination. “Without x-rays, I cannot be sure of what the problem is, he said. “ From my initial examination, it could be that you have a swollen liver.”
“A tumour?” I responded.
“That diagnosis is a long way down the line. Nothing can be ruled out.” I then gave a blood, stool and urine sample to go to the laboratory. The doctor arranged for me to have x-rays the following day. Continue reading