Episodes
Saturday Sep 16, 2017
LAO TZU: PART SIX
Saturday Sep 16, 2017
Saturday Sep 16, 2017
In this podcast, we consider Chapter Eleven of The Tao Te Ching. This chapter deals with the uses of emptyness, not only in the sphere of practical life but also for meditation. [Free. 17 minutes.]
Saturday Sep 09, 2017
LEFT-RIGHT: PART TWO [COSMOPOLITANISM, ETHNO-NATIONALISM, HEIDEGGER, NIETZSCHE]
Saturday Sep 09, 2017
Saturday Sep 09, 2017
In this podcast I compare and contrast cosmopolitanism with ethno-nationalism. I discuss the use of Heidegarian tropes by alt-right ideologues to justify their stance which regards cosmopolitanism as the cause of all the ills of the modern world. I show how this move is easily countered and that Heidegger's view of 'the self' can actually be used to counter the notion that cosmopoitanism leads to the modern carelessness with the environment and 'rootlessness'. What is missing from the alt-right reading of the Heideggarian human 'self', I argue, is the questioning nature of this 'self' which in turn leads to the yoga questions: 'Who and what am I?'. At the very least, if we are honest with ourselves, the answer is that of Diogenes the Cynic: 'I am a citizen of the world'. At the same time, the beauty of one's particularity is revealed, even as one might rhapsodically experience oneness with everything. I trace some of this path of thought through a brief discussion of Heidegger's relationship to Nietzsche, to whom he dedicated four thick volumes of reflection and criticism. [Free. 43 minutes.]
Friday Sep 01, 2017
Friday Sep 01, 2017
In this podcast, I reflect on recent events that took place in Charlotteville, Virginia. The discussion inevitably ranges far and wide and covers such issues as the role of violence in politics, the nature of the left-right binary, the question of the moral equivalence that President Trump et al seem to draw between neo-fascists and their anti-fascist detractors, the natures of free speech and propoganda, the significance of history and future thinking for politics, the nature of the symbolic universe inhabited by some activists, and the phenomenon of meme wars. The question of how far we can, and should, extend our sympathies is once again brought to the fore. [Free. 47 minutes.]
Friday Aug 25, 2017
LAO TZU: PART FIVE
Friday Aug 25, 2017
Friday Aug 25, 2017
In this podcast we consider Chapters 9 and 10 of The Tao Te Ching. Amongst themes we draw out are Lao Tzu's advice on meditation and how it is deeply practical and has ramifications for social organisation and politics, and the value of un-acquisitiveness, quietism and psychological balance for living a good life. [Free. 38 minutes.]
Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
PARENTS
Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
Tuesday Jul 25, 2017
This podcast considers "making your peace with your parents" and why, if possible, it's a good idea. [Free. 20 ,minutes.]
Friday Jun 16, 2017
ARE WE IN CONTROL?
Friday Jun 16, 2017
Friday Jun 16, 2017
In this podcast, we consider the question "Are we in control?" The discussion takes in the matters of determinism, language, fundamental ontology and meditative yoga practice. We conclude with a recommendation of letting be with bright awareness whilst playfully recognising the role of (what we experience as) will and control in the practicalities of life. [Free. 36 minutes.]
Thursday Jun 01, 2017
LAO TZU: PART FOUR
Thursday Jun 01, 2017
Thursday Jun 01, 2017
This podcast deals with Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of the Tao Te Ching. Themes covered include breath and the pulsation of the universe, poetry and the attempt to eff the ineffable, up and down mysticisms and letting be, water and flow, the sage, confucianism, politics, desires and political manipulation, maternal nurturing, compassion and strategies for living, etc. [Free. 40 minutes.]
Thursday Apr 20, 2017
LAO TZU: PART TWO
Thursday Apr 20, 2017
Thursday Apr 20, 2017
In this podcast, we engage with Chapters 2 and 3 of The Tao Te Ching. Themes include language and opposites, the pregnancy of emptyness, past, present and future times, human character and the nature of a sage, social organisation and meditation. [Free. 43 minutes.]
Friday Mar 24, 2017
ON OPTIMISM
Friday Mar 24, 2017
Friday Mar 24, 2017
In this podcast, we take a look at optimism, invoking the help of Voltaire's satirical tale Candide (1759). We end up suggesting that the bouyancy that is the corollary of optimism might extract too high a price in the loss of realism that goes with wearing rose-coloured spectacles, and that dropping the half full- half empty binary might be what William Blake is suggesting we do when he tells us that 'energy is eternal delight'. [Free. 30 minutes.]
Friday Mar 17, 2017
LEGS ON A SNAKE
Friday Mar 17, 2017
Friday Mar 17, 2017
In this podcast we ask if consciousness is in need of improvement through 'spiritual cultivation' or if such games are 'legs on a snake'. [Free. 18 minutes.]