Episodes
Monday Dec 31, 2018
EMBRACING THE HUMAN [YES & NO 3]
Monday Dec 31, 2018
Monday Dec 31, 2018
In this podcast, I elucidate Embracing the Human, one of the Songs of No and Yes. The discourse mostly takes the form of a recommendation against espousing asceticism and passive nihilism in the name of 'spirituality'. [Free. 27 minutes.]
Monday Dec 10, 2018
EXPERIENCE [NO & YES 2]
Monday Dec 10, 2018
Monday Dec 10, 2018
This podcast is the second in the series Songs of No and Yes. It revisits the theme of the previous one, that of sitting meditation. The perspective is a little different and there is a strong 'no', or sealing off of escape routes which we are likely to attempt when the rawness of sitting is encountered. It also repudiates metaphysical speculation, grand-narratives, and other such hubris, seeking to point towards the ineffable rather than attempt to 'eff' it. [Free. 17 minutes.]
Friday Jun 22, 2018
LAOTZU 13
Friday Jun 22, 2018
Friday Jun 22, 2018
This podcast deals with Chapters 21 and 22 of The Tao Te Ching. Chapter 21 is poetry impelled by Lao Tzu's encounter with the ineffable and Chapter 22 outlines the non-doing doings that can allow us to experience a similar encounter. [Free. 29 minutes.]
Tuesday Jan 30, 2018
LAO TZU 10
Tuesday Jan 30, 2018
Tuesday Jan 30, 2018
In this podcast, we discuss Chapter 15 of the Tao Te Ching in which Lao Tzu delineates the character of an ideal ruler. For Lao Tzu, this ruler, though a politician, is deeply grounded in meditation and oneness with the Tao. [Free. 29 minutes.]
Monday Jan 22, 2018
THE USES AND ABUSES OF THE CONCEPT OF NATURE
Monday Jan 22, 2018
Monday Jan 22, 2018
In this podcast, I consider the concept of nature and its ideological uses in justifying inequalities of wealth and power in ordinary discourse. I find that its use in the form of 'state of nature' arguments in political philosophy is also ideological as is the idea of human nature in most of its articulations. I suggest the concept can have a less ideological use for helping us picture our situation. In this positive use, nature is understood as a complex system which embeds the human being and culture which are themselves systems. [Free. 33 minutes.]
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
LANGUAGE AND SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
In this podcast, I consider the attempts of Lao Tzu and Wittgenstein to urge upon us that the ineffable cannot be spoken of whilst themselves continuing to speak of it. This can be made sense of if we inderstand that language has many more possibilities than just fact-stating and indeed that it can point us in the direction of 'spiritual experience'. [Free. 24 minutes.]
Monday Nov 13, 2017
TIME TO STOP AND STARE
Monday Nov 13, 2017
Monday Nov 13, 2017
Misquoting W. H. Davies, I recommend taking time to stop and stare in this podcast. I draw attention to resonances between Davies' sentiment and the nature paintings of the Sung and Yuan dynasties which often feature tiny figures dwarved by vast landscapes. [Free. 21 minutes.]
Friday Jul 21, 2017
NIETZSCHE 101
Friday Jul 21, 2017
Friday Jul 21, 2017
An introduction to Nietzsche's thought in which I discuss Nietzsche's "great task" and his ludic, artistic method of persuing it. I touch on Nietzsche's anti-Platonism, anti-systematic approach to philosophy, notions of life-affirmation and life-negation amongst other things. The shifting concept of the will to power is elucidated, showing its various guises. [Free. 32 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.]
Friday May 05, 2017
LAO TZU: PART THREE
Friday May 05, 2017
Friday May 05, 2017
In this podcast, we reflect on Chapters 4 and 5 of The Tao Te Ching. The cornucopean yet empty and ineffable nature of the Tao is further considered. The logic of the Taoist influence on the development of science in ancient China is explored. We also ponder how Freud's distinction between oceanic and super-ego religions is illuminated by Lao Tzu's account of religious experience. And more .... [Free. 39 minutes.]