MEDITATION TIME: Know Yourself and the World Around You

The title says nothing and everything at the same time.

Does life have meaning outside of the religious narrative? This is the question being debated here.

Ever so elusive, the mystery of the obvious, namely the beingness of what is, within and without, is inviting all manner of metaphysical frameworks that compete for our mental space. What in the end takes hold between our two ears is a matter of cultural sensitivity that is never devoid of arbitrariness.

When tolerance becomes leniency toward hate and incitement to violence, the defence of liberty turns into destructive chaos, but otherwise freedom of speech and behavior are conducive to the wholesome realization of our human potential.

The difficult topic of euthanasia. When it makes sense against every pro-life argument.

Much about happiness hinges on a positive attitude that can turn a bad situation to good account.

The universe only manifests its creative potential incrementally in the course of evolution, from one stage to another of growing complexity that corresponds to emerging properties of a new order.

Life, by nature, loves life, and since life is profoundly interconnected with its natural and social environment, the self at the core of life should expand to include this vast network of interconnections. And yet, by reason of our inborn limitations, physical, emotional and intellectual, that impose limits in our ability to love life on a grand scale, we must make the best possible compromises that safeguard our life without which we cannot pursue this labour of love.

The buzzword for this part of self-management is emotional intelligence. This is all part of the art of living.

Love described as the highest form of awareness in the communion of our mind with the very foundation of being, but also in our embodiment of this foundation in a spirit of love, the giving and forgiving kind.

How to make sense of the concept of God as Love within the scope of a rational investigation about the nature of Nature.

This chapter argues in favor of soft determinism, blending randomness and necessity, in the image of improvisational jazz finding inspiration in a melody that it follows loosely with creative freedom.

The middle ground between commitment and detachment in the face of possibilities and limitations.

A wholesome roadmap that defines the art of living.

How the fall of man in the book of Genesis resonates with our experience in the face of the daunting challenge of surmounting our state of ignorance and nudity with everything to learn and a world to fashion in the company of our fellow humans.

This lecture is in defence of naturalism that puts squarely the cause of everything within nature itself and its spontaneous unfolding according to laws.

Past and future are but traces of memory and flights of imagination. There is never anything else but the present, which becomes the past present and the future present when it is no longer happening or perhaps will happen at a later date.

All too often caught up in the moment of our daily habits, we should reconnect with the very foundation of our being, both in terms of the universal principle that underpins everything and in terms of our remarkably adaptable self that can acquire and modify habits, of thought or behavior.

Whereas we can easily become numb with a sense of familiarity after years of exposure to the richness of life, we must re-awaken our sense of wonder as when we were children in a moment of discovery.

Life may be given; the art of living it well is acquired by way of a difficult adaptive process.