Intuitive Notions

A Skull with Eyeballs This was a Zen master‘s answer to a question about The Way. My interpretation: An existence, a skeletal form with ought but a few senses. An unreflective life, consumed by consumption. The highest way is the simplest, so near, yet so far and few who find it. Our senses bring us, unbidden, a stream of data impressions from the cosmos. Our mind processes or filters out the signals and thoughts are formed: … Cat shape. There is a cat. Where are my dogs? Danger! Pulse increases, adrenaline squirts. Bad feeling. Anger. Grab dog about to pounce. Shout at dog. Feel bad about that. Consider getting rid of dog. Feel bad about that. Realise I am projecting my own internal disharmony onto my environment. STOP! … Meditation is about exploring our inner cosmos, our consciousness it’s the opposite of the sense driven story above. Close eyes, breathe. Watch as thoughts arise and then watch them pass without boarding the train. Listen for, and to the inner voice (or stifled screa...

Is there a dark side to compassion ? It's a term which is almost exclusively used in a positive context. There is, apparently, too little compassion in the world: everyone is only looking out for themselves. As a radically-left socialist my priority is the poor and vulnerable, at least in theory. If I was King for a day I would be all about reducing inequality and raising up the poor. Even my more conservative friends are behind such ideas. But that is the collective, systematic level... and, as King, it would cost me nothing. Let's dive deeper and explore the individual level. When you actually have a flesh and blood human being in front of you who is suffering, it's a whole different story. Only here can we recognize if we are really willing and able to help another human. This can be a beautiful and humbling experience, especially when we realise a bond and commonality with the "unfortunate" other or even end up learning something from them. Let's dive deep...

Have you ever met someone unhappy in their job who claims it's right for them? A few years down the road however, they quit and you hear how unappy they actually were? I've noticed the same tendency in myself: as long as we are in a problematic situation and perhaps, see no way out, we convince ourselves that it's "not so bad" or even that it's right for us or that we are happy. We are only able afterwards, to admit to ourselves that it was terrible. I'm trying to buy land and build a house. As long as I am battling the odds I convince myself it's the right thing for me. But I know myself well enough to recognize: if it all falls throug I will suddenly have a dozen reasons why it wasn't the right thing for me. The lies we tell ourselves to get by...

  Before there was an economy of exchange (or money) there was, with the exception of societies with slaves, little to no division of labor. Mankind, in their free and primal state, did not purchase a house they built it themselves. Food was found grown or hunted. What was needed was fetched and also used not wasted.O Cooperation was free or in kind: everyone helped raise my roof on the understanding that I would do the same for them. The answer to Help! was in the beginning simply a Yes! The response to help given was merely a gracious gift if possible. At some point, gracious gifts, say a feast for the village after the raising, a bucket of apples or the promise to help with some task, became an obligation and the first payments were invented. In a barter system, a man with lots of resources need no longer build his own house: others would do it in exchange for his wealth. Money followed and the division of Labor was complete. From then on the Butcher, Baker and Candlestick ...

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. This famous and elegant quote by Wittgenstein was conceived as an end to the kind of senseless and irrefutable mystical concepts and metaphysical constructs which take up so much space in philosophy. Wittgenstein was perhaps the first to cut the Gordian knot and say: this is non–sense, I need not refute it, it has no meaning. As an example: any discussion or debate about “God“ is an exercise in miscommunication. We have no objective access to anything which fits the label “God“ and nobody can define the term so we’re talking past each other. God is vengeful, no, he’s not. How could this dispute ever be resolved. It can’t. Just be silent on mystical issues. But, being silent sells no books. A true Zen book consists of one, empty page. If I had such a book, I imagine possibly, over a lifetime, probably with much correction and crossing out filling out some of the page with my learnings and hoping it may do someone else good. But reall...

The world we experience is inside us. Yes, there is a big wide world “Out there” which we inhabit and share with others. It’s not an illusion, but it’s not where we, our consciousness, lives. What you and I experience right now and remember is an internal representation of that external world, an image or reflection based on our own selves. This weird realisation means that it is possible to live outside the present - either in the remembered past or in an imagined future. I first realised this when someone asked me how I was feeling and didn’t let me tell some story about my life in general, last week or earlier that day but insisted I talk about right now. I realised, for all my “problems” I could list, I actually felt just fine in that particular moment and could admit it. If I had been allowed to tell my remembered or anticipated woes I would have simply relived them by dragging them into my consciousness from out of nothingness. How do you feel in this exact moment? What sensation...

Thoreau pointed out that modern man pays vastly more for his dwelling (if he owns it at all) than the primitive. Indeed home ownership in poorer european countries is upwards of 90% whereas in Switzerland it is it has just dipped below 50%. Another indicator is location within a country: city folk rent and only the very wealthy afford a purchase. Italy even offers €1 houses in dying villages - a stunning reminder of how far our dash into cities has taken us! Being a tenant however is, I have discovered, not all bad. It is more expensive in general but one has the freedom to move out inside a few months without much effort. One apparent burden may be the obligation to pay rent and thus earn constantly but houses incur costs too even if fully paid off.  Thoreau’s point however, was that our demand for luxury has a high price and we may pay up to 40% or even 50% of our wages for the privilege of living way above our basic needs. So-called “savages”, living in a wigwam, pay almost noth...