Episodes
Sunday Feb 21, 2016
HEALTHY THOUGHT? WHAT IS IT, IF ANYTHING?
Sunday Feb 21, 2016
Sunday Feb 21, 2016
In this podcast we chew on the notion of 'healthy thought'. Whilst seeing that the notion can be used ideologically as a conformist moral cudgel, we consider the idea that certain patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour can cause unnecessary suffering to self and others. [Free. 38 minutes.]
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
This fourth part of our series THINKING ABOUT THINKING concludes the discussion on Zen mondo and the uses of unreason. [Free. 30 minutes.]
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
THINKING ABOUT THINKING [PART THREE]: ZEN MONDO AND THE USES OF UNREASON
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
Sunday Feb 07, 2016
This podcast is the third part of our series THINKING ABOUT THINKING. In it, we deal with the uses of unreason, particularly focusing on Zen mondo. This is a big topic so we have also dedicate part four of the series to it. We touch upon the dialogues of the Buddha, Bodhidharma,and Joshu and the works of Nagarjuna, Wittgenstein and Freud. [Free. 1 hour 15 minutes.]
Tuesday Feb 02, 2016
THINKING ABOUT THINKING [PART TWO]: TYPES OF REASON
Tuesday Feb 02, 2016
Tuesday Feb 02, 2016
In this short second part of the four part series on thinking, I outline a taxonomy of types of reason derived from Habermas'. [FREE. 17 minutes.]
Friday Jan 22, 2016
THINKING ABOUT THINKING [PART ONE]
Friday Jan 22, 2016
Friday Jan 22, 2016
In this podcast, Anna and I engage with a subject that we have been gnawing upon for many years, namely, the nature, scope and potential of thought and how it is intimately entwined with spirituality. We take issue with those who recommend the exclusion of thought from spiritual life and who see it as inimical to meditation. By contrast, we celebrate thought and relish the manfold vistas it opens up for us. This is a vast and juicy field and we will return to it! [Free. 47 minutes.]
Friday Jan 01, 2016
NIETZSCHE, GURDJIEFF AND DISGUST AT MAN
Friday Jan 01, 2016
Friday Jan 01, 2016
In this podcast, we discuss Nietzsche's 'disgust at man' and Gurdjieff's 'horror of the situation'. Both of these, it seems, are due to a propensity on the part of humans to succumb to mass hypnosis, which can nevertheless be avoided. [Free. 32 minutes.]
Friday Nov 27, 2015
LOVE & COMPASSION
Friday Nov 27, 2015
Friday Nov 27, 2015
This podcast delineates types of love and locates compassion in the resulting schema. The vajrayana interpretation of enlightened consciousness as an erotic coupling between wisdom and compassion is elucidated. All of this is viewed through a lens of scepticism towards ideals and a gut-conviction that all phenomena are pure. [Free. 40 minutes.]
Wednesday Nov 18, 2015
Wednesday Nov 18, 2015
In this podcast, I start by considering the nature of a compliment. This opens the door onto all the questions that human interactions give rise to and I sketch out some of them. In particular, I consider mutual recognition and the distorting effect that power differentials have on it. I relate this to the nature of the ego in the psychoanalytic sense and suggest how things could be better. Contemplation of the Other in Patanjali's spare style is, I suggest, emancipatory and not difficult, though elusive. Rumi, amongst others, made this very point. [Free. 18 minutes.]
Saturday Nov 07, 2015
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT EVERYTHING ISN'T AN ILLUSION?
Saturday Nov 07, 2015
Saturday Nov 07, 2015
In this podcast, we address a question asked by a friend. "How do we know that everything isn't an illusion?" The question quickly turns into a discussion of genealogy, vedanta, maya and myth, the role of the possibility of illusion in the genealogy of philosophy, perception, science and yoga. [Free. 44 minutes.]
Tuesday Oct 27, 2015
IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR THE HUMAN SPECIES?
Tuesday Oct 27, 2015
Tuesday Oct 27, 2015
In addressing this pressing question, we consider what a 'yes' answer would be like. Firstly we ask, 'what is hope anyway?' This leads us on to considerations of violence, equality, freedom, desire, future thinking, evaluation and the role of big stories in human destructivity. [Free. 45 minutes.]