This question that has been with me for many years, and has again come into renewed focus, it is, does God exists? It may sound trite and as old as the hills, but it goes straight to the heart of so much of our philosophy and approach to living, and the orientation that therapists take.… Read More
Our need for Philosophy
There was a lovely article today (9th Jan 17) in the Guardian arguing for philosophy to be taught in schools. It is from the point of view of enabling and teaching the young to think in preparation for a working life that will increasingly need flexibility, due to many factors including the computerisation of so… Read More
What a Year!
Syria, the migrant crisis, France’s terror attacks, Brexit, Turkey, Trump, Italy, Aleppo, all against the background of our climate’s inexorable warming and the increase in inequality in many parts of the world, makes for quite a year. The later seems to be partly emanating from the nature of capitalism and how the wealthy have benefited… Read More
Dangers of mindless Mindfulness
The Guardian recently published an article called “Mindfulness therapy comes at a high price for some” about how for some people, their training in mindfulness caused them to suffer real difficulties
More on “The Reality of Being”
Jean De Salzmann’s “The Reality of Being” It is the work of therapy that resolves many of our emotional, and thereby intellectual as well as physical, ‘tensions’. The work of therapy is all about making our suffering conscious. The trauma (pain, distress, fear etc.) we have buried is supported to be faced and accepted and… Read More
‘Problems’ really are opportunities
Because we have consciousness, and therefore choice, we are blessed (or cursed) to be inescapably tied to a developmental destiny, which is towards enlightenment, towards finding our reconciliation with death and therefore life. If we can find our way to participate consciously in this process of life, then every “difficulty” or “problem” becomes a real… Read More
The heart of Christmas
It is the season where we celebrate the birth of Christ, the birth of love. We are invited to open our hearts to the transcendent love that Christ brought. Such love brings meaning, it is meaning. However, we also need to find meaning in our lives even when we are out of touch with the… Read More
Choice – the heart of our creativity
It may seem obvious that choice is at the heart of creativity, after all, our creativity is about our originality, our uniqueness, our ability to make something new and different. But what interests me just now, is how extraordinary this process is.
Reflections on the Gurdjieff Work
I have just had a chance to catch up on a wonderful new book on the Gurdjieff work by Jeanne De Salzmann called “The Reality of Being” (2010). She talks a lot about two modes of being, that of our personal reactive, driven selves and that which is connected to a more “objective” consciousness with… Read More
Separating myself from myself
Gurdjieff made it clear that our first steps towards freedom require us to “remember ourselves” and in doing so “separate ourselves from ourselves”(1973). As I understand it, this means in today’s language to dis-identify with the reactive places we are caught in.
Knowing the Truth
I’ve just read a chapter in Robert Masters’ “Divine Dynamite” about Truth and it enabled me to put two and two together about the relationship between truth and being.