Practical Thoughts

Dear Reader, The world of ego has once again loomed large, this time in eastern Europe. Particularly now, this is a time to seek inspiration. The story of Robert the Bruce and the spider is famous. Robert was crowned King of the Scots in 1306 AD and eventually led Scotland to victory and gain Scottish independence against the English. But things weren’t always so sunny for King Robert, and that’s where the spider comes into the story. After suffering defeat against the English, Robert was forced into hiding. Legend has it that when Robert’s spirits were broken, he took refuge in a cave. While sitting in that cave, he noticed a small spider attempting to weave a web. The spider tried and failed over and over again. Each time the spider fell, it climbed back up to try once more. Finally, the spider’s silk took hold, and the spider managed to spin a web. By observing this and reflecting upon it, Robert the Bruce was inspired to see himself reflected in the spider’s struggle and ultima...

 Dear Reader, Life seems to contain constant contradictions and perhaps the most obvious is the situation of the world today, further provoking the question, "With so much suffering prevalent in the world, why - if there is a God - is God not doing anything about it?" So now we have the situation in the Ukraine with what we must take to be unwarranted suffering being applied to its citizens, and yet the man sitting on the Russian throne seems to be utterly unfeeling about their plight. We watch on, wondering, "What next?", and perhaps asking, "What are we to understand from all that has been building up, particularly since the start of the Millennium?" I choose to take William Blake's view in his quote above.  For me, there is a satisfactory explanation as a result of becoming more aware of the history, knowledge and sciences that have existed in India for countless years. In the situation that exists, I point to the Indian knowledge that we are now ex...

Dear Reader, My last four posts have talked a lot about India and how its advanced civilisation of thousands of years ago influenced the rest of the world, as recently as within the last 500 years. And yet we are generally unmindful of that influence; we do not acknowledge it even if we know about it. Yet that wisdom is still there in the place of its origin, India. Now, why is this such an important issue and not just a lesson about history? It is so important because we in the West have only absorbed the end product of India's wisdom, in its numerical system and sciences in general. We have absorbed them as facts and have ignored the basis from which those facts emerged so very long ago and so far away. The essential corollary to those facts is the wisdom teaching itself, and if we have ignored that wisdom teaching while accepting only that which we have taken to be practically useful, surely we have missed something. What do I mean by that? Well, part of what I am alluding to is...

Dear Reader, This is a real "Where do I come from, Daddy?" story! There have been many plausible attempts to identify the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden and, after my research over the last three years, I can now present what seems to be (to me, at least) the most likely story. This account is based on a combination of two important sources, one ancient (again from India!) and one from modern research into an ancient source. Having discussed, in my last three posts, the topic of the importance of India in the development of western thought over a very long period of time, the question could be asked why it was that while Europe was apparently evolving out of a Stone Age, India (and Egypt for that matter) was in an advanced state of civilisation? The answer, partly at least, is because India and Egypt and surrounding lands were not in the grip of the Ice Age that caused the very northern parts of Europe to be uninhabitable for a long stretch of time. The various peopl...

Dear Reader, We have, clearly, mismanaged the resources of the earth, water and the sky. With all the universities and halls of knowledge that we enjoy in the West, just where have we gone wrong in our identification of Truth and how to apply it? Western education still appears to be telling us that everything we now know comes from the study and experimentation of the last four hundred years or so, based on rational thought. My previous two posts will have surely put a seed of doubt into the reader's mind, as, based on the sources of considerable evidence available, what I have written is correct, and that western knowledge is very much based on previous knowledge of great antiquity; that the source of that knowledge lies in India.  Even then, much of what India knew was unknown to the West until very recent times. And, very importantly, India knew (and knows) one more important aspect that the West has yet to address: how to live in balance with nature. Despite receiving such poo...

Dear Reader, When we look at what is happening around us in the world, it would be easy to feel negativity in response to what we see. Afghanistan is one place that causes me to feel utter sorrow at what has been perpetrated there. Much has been wrong in that country for decades - before Western intervention - but now that 'we' have pulled out, the situation has just got immeasurably worse. But it's not just there. There have been several Middle Eastern countries where people have been reduced to desperate measures just to survive. And the effect of Climate Change in many countries, such as (but not only) Madagascar. South America is another region where much desperation exists.  But there are rays of hope. In Peru a simple country woman named Maxima fought largely American-owned gold mining giants who had perpetrated the deaths of local people as a result of poisoning their water supplies, and in general behaving like bullies towards Maxima and others. They tried to usurp ...

Dear Reader, Daddy's answer to the child's question about his origins might lie in the proverbial gooseberry bush, of course, or Daddy could be more forthright and tell the child more fully about the birds and the bees. But there's another, possibly more profound, meaning in the question. It could be interpreted as a question about who we are as a culture; what is our culture?  I suppose we all know that we British are more of an amalgam created from Latin and Germanic sources than anything else, but where lies the root of the Latin and Germanic peoples? This is a question that you might say is only relevant to the academic; that in this day and age we are merely concerned about survival and "progress". Er, except that the definition of "progress" is now very questionable given the nature of environmental and climate change issues, apart from social problems - not just in our little part of the world but increasingly around the world where 'the West...

Dear Reader, The passing of Desmond Tutu is sad in its own way, but when I think of him I think of the smile and the sheer sense of honesty and courageous purpose that he portrayed. Those that knew him well have come forward and testified to what he did for South Africa in helping to bring the country out of apartheid and leading the population towards a sense of unity. His face and words were a galvanising force - but of peace, not anger. That he was a man of deep faith seems to be beyond question. One witness to his behaviour actually said that in all (even dangerous) situations, Desmond Tutu knew only one way forward - and that was through prayer. It has even been said that when driving a car he would often be deeply in prayer while at the driving wheel, even with his eyes closed! So, to those who would ask: "How can I be a Christian? How can I be a good man? How can I be the kind of man I want to be? How can I relate to my society and how can I carry out the way of life that I...