The Emerald Isle?

At its peak, following the last ice age, Ireland was covered in forest. The first humans, initially hunter gatherers, arrived around 9000 years ago. About 6000 years ago the forests began to disappear as farming began to take hold. By 1600, forest cover was still substantial, but as population pressure grew, and in particular clearance… Continue reading The Emerald Isle?

Bliss

In late 2015, after a moment of bliss, I decided to write down some of the peak moments, those little appearances of bliss, that I’ve experienced in my life. They’re in no particular order, just what came to mind at the time. 1) In my parent’s garden, doing chi kung at midnight, a clear sky,… Continue reading Bliss

Preferred Mind States

I was meditating tonight, and going into the meditation was in a fantastic mood. I’m starting something new, which always excites me (it’s the persisting that’s the downer), and had been listening to Eddie Vedder’s Acoustic Songs. A common trap in meditation is to judge a session as “good” or “bad”, and usually it’s “good”… Continue reading Preferred Mind States

Projection on projection

I’m doing a five-year insight meditation course, and the most recent topic for our meditation was projection. Projection is, essentially, the act of attributing the traits that we deny in ourselves onto others. These can be negative, such as thinking someone else is aggressive, unfriendly, disorganised, or positive, such as thinking that someone else is… Continue reading Projection on projection

Sam Harris on Free Will

Sam Harris recently released a book on the topic of free will. I haven’t read the book yet, but watched a presentation he gave of ideas from his book. Traditionally there are three positions offered. Determinism, which essentially states that we could not have made any alternative choices, as our choices are determined by pre-existing… Continue reading Sam Harris on Free Will

On Gratitude

I wrote a post for the Ethical Co-op newsletter briefly mentioning gratitude. Since it’s short, I’ll quote it here in full: Gratitude is a key to happiness. When we are more grateful, we are happier. Gratitude is also much like love. It’s easy to apply conditionally – to be grateful for wonderful food, or wonderful… Continue reading On Gratitude

The Ethical Bank

South African banking is dominated by the big four, Absa, First National Bank, Nedbank and Standard Bank, with little Capitec trailing in very distant fifth place. If you’re looking at opening a savings account, Capitec are the only one where the account has even a chance of living up to the name, with the others… Continue reading The Ethical Bank