“… without the making of theories I am convinced there would be no observation.” Charles Darwin (1860) in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell. The photo image that accompanies this blog is of a hand stencil from a cave in Borneo that is now recognised to be 40,000 years old. […]
intuition
8 posts
I have been reflecting on some of the ancient sites in the UK and thinking about how perspectives of them reflect some of the limitations of perspective that we take on life generally. I wanted to start with a personal love of my own, the White Horse of Uffington. It […]
In 1656 Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum clock. In this electrical and digital age we easily forget how important this was. A means by which the clock's mechanism will keep itself working. And as such means by which we were able to mechanically measure the passing of time. I spent this […]
I wanted to reflect a little on the human willingness to sub-contract; and I am not just talking at work! Let’s start with a definition: think of guru in context as a collective metaphor for our those “experts” to whom we love to proffer the title wise. Those that we […]
So why music as meditation? The other evening, I was listening to a piece of music that I never fail to be deeply moved by and started to think of music as a meditation. For the record, the piece: the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony. For me a passage […]
This is a copy of a Facebook post from my "The Mindful Horse" page during the days of Covid-19. I received so many messages of thanks and gratitude for the share that I decided after deliberation to share it here too. I hope that it is equally appreciated. A FEW […]
I was listening recently to a podcast by scholar Joseph Goldstein. He talks about the discourses of Buddha as being invitations not instructions, as a conversation not a philosophical exposition (“Insight Hour, episode 53). In more common parlance, “here is an idea, go and try it out”. This subtle distinction […]
Let me introduce you to the Lego Batman effect? The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said that, “as soon as you try and put a thought into words it ceases to be true". There is something that is compromised when we put it into words. Language is always a summarizing, even for […]