Practical Thoughts

  Dear Reader, From my earliest thinking years more than 60 years ago to the present day, I have wondered about the real nature of things. The sciences never attracted me as a source of truth as they seemed to dwell on physical issues, so I went within. At one point as a teenager, I was drawn to an evangelical church, but my ever-practical father debated with me for 12 hours one day.  I eventually succumbed to his argument, partly because in those days sons respected their fathers more than they do now, but also because something inside me said that there was something that made sense in his arguments: essentially that the church (in whichever form) rarely set a good example of Jesus's teachings. That was certainly true back then, ca 1960. And besides, he said, isn't it better to help with one's hands rather than pray? Though I tried to shelve thoughts of religion and search for truth at that point, life's experience brought the search for meaning back to me time and ag...

  Dear Reader, I am conscious of this pervading thought that the pandemic will be over not so very long away, perhaps a year, and though I do not wish suffering on anyone I cannot but wonder why people should think that all will be as people expect once it is over.  Yes, in former times pandemics did go away after a time, and, yes, this one (as it is now) is also likely to depart at some point, but do people not observe how the conditions of the world have been increasingly deteriorating over the past few decades - particularly since the start of the Millennium? Desperate conditions exist for refugees in various parts of the Middle East and other places - including the Mexican/USA border - and we also have Climate Change, which has brought about havoc through storms and fire. Just to name a few situations,  The underlying situation is that there must be very few people who can truthfully say they are happy, both with their lot and in the way in which world governments are...

  Dear Reader, Whenever people talk of Einstein, they tend to think of him as related purely to science; no-one speaks of his philosophy, except for those that have taken the trouble to find out: This is just one of his many statements related to his philosophy: A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. What might be of more interest is an article written by a Godson, Mark Abrams, nearly 20 years ago, who provides a more intimate view of the great man - and more: what Sri Sathya Sai Baba ("Baba" or "S...

  Dear Reader, Though it's real and surrounds us, let us try to leave COVID aside for a while and contemplate on a little history that is a bit more than history - it may point to something that has meaning. There's nothing like a good mystery is there?! By that, I don't mean the Agatha Christie kind or any fiction like it, but a mystery of the real kind. A true-life story - especially when it's one that has (to date) no conventional explanation. And is also a mystery that appears to have links with the origins of Christianity. Such is the case of the developments I have been following in a TV series on Oak Island (Nova Scotia) since 2013, and more particularly many (probably) related findings in the Hunter Mountain area of New York State, USA. And a story that concerns the entire eastern seaboard between those two places. Ever since I used to cycle in the country area near South Birmingham when about 14 years of age, I was intrigued by the name of the village Temple Ba...

  Dear Reader, Well, I'm sure you would take precautions if you knew some weather catastrophe was heading your way, so why do we not take the necessary action concerning the big issues that are facing man's collective home, Mother Earth? Let's look at a diagram derived from this link : This chart is based on 2018 figures.  How much more do we need to be told to know that we're overdoing it? Even this household (2 people), that consumes very little livestock (1 person is even vegetarian), uses the car very little and uses electricity that is 100% green, is overusing the Earth's resources according to the link I've provided above! And yet, even amidst the COVID crisis, people thought that it was imperative to get away, abroad somewhere, for a sun-tanned break. Why? Partly because the government felt pressured to get the economy working to bring in needed cash. The government, of course, is committed to strengthening an outdated economic system, so it has to behave...

  Dear Reader, Well, it seems like such a huge challenge doesn't it? This COVID-thing I mean. I accept that challenge, but for me it's one that has a solution. The problem lies - as I see it - in mankind coming to finally accepting that we're not going in the right direction in respect of our expectations.  We have allowed ourselves to follow one way of thinking for too long: the attitude that says that economics (as we have been taught and brought up with) is the basis for success - both personally and for the nation and for the world. We have somehow developed the notion that how we get to achieve that success does not really matter. Worse, that the economic end is the only tangible thing we're supposed to achieve in our lives. An example is how gambling has become an accepted legitimate industry of its own, and on a big scale. Well, they say, it provides jobs, doesn't it? Of course, there is not just the everyday gambling we see clearly but also the way that gamb...

  Dear Reader, Well, do you watch The Repair Shop?! If not, have a little look at this short video. This show has graduated from BBC2 to prime-time BBC1, and for the past week and coming week(s) has also been allocated a daily late afternoon slot on every weekday! It must be good! There is no doubting the wonderful skills of all those several master craftsmen and women that offer their skills to providing - free of charge - repair services to the general public of their prized memorabilia. Anyone who has watched Lucia and her painting restoration and the others displaying their woodwork, mechanical or precious stones restoration capabilities would surely be bowled over by their results. I am not too bothered about the teddy bears, but they know how to repair those, too! The standard response from every satisfied customer has always been "Wow!!" This week, I choose to use The Repair Shop as a theme as I believe it brings to our notice a valuable something that I thought was on...

  Dear Reader, The situation that exists today calls for a certain action based on a real consciousness of what life is supposed to be about. Kahlil Gibran, the spark of poetic genius in the early 20th c., wrote: All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence. Like the mystic William Blake, the Christian yet eastern-inspired Gibran thinks that there is an entire human soul distributed to partial souls, and that man is an entity in his soul as well as in his ...