Will Smith. Amber Heard. Johnny Depp. These are not names that spiritually inclined people usually give much attention to. But perhaps we ought to take more notice, because people who live out their personal dramas for all the world to see are, whether they know it or not, spiritual teachers. As my late teacher Arthur used to say, “other people are there for us to learn from.” The same energy is at play if you witness a multi-car pile-up on the motorway. You can feel sorrow and empathy for the victims, be shocked at or transfixed by the sight, annoyed at the traffic jam or you can vow to change your behaviour so that such a disaster will never befall you.

Putin, Ukraine and the West: Behind the Mask

Watching clips of the unfolding events in Ukraine takes me back to 1991 and the First Gulf War. I worked at a local printing company as a young backroom assistant to the paper buyer. Every day seemed to revolve around discussion of the war. Sales reps would come in excited about the latest gossipy update they had heard from a ‘reliable source.’ The big boss would thunder through the office triumphally proclaiming massive orders of printed stationery from the RAF (war generates a lot of paperwork, who knew?) And every morning my immediate boss would stagger in bleary eyed after another all-nighter of CNN’s live coverage from Kuwait. I found it all a bit tedious, and quickly concluded that men not only love war, but seek it. Fast forward three decades and very little seems to have changed.

Beyond The Great Reset

The problem with conspiracy theories is that even when they are right, they are often also wrong. For example, one of the fatal flaws among modern conspiracy theorists is to attribute destructive activity exclusively to non-human lizards who masquerade as people. The trouble is that this ignores the very real evil done by ordinary, tax-paying, supermarket shopping people.

The New Fear

During last summer I went for a walk, to the village I grew up in. Walking across the fields I came first to the primary school that I attended aged 4-11. My memory had been of school buildings leading onto a tarmac playground, flowing into a double length grass playing field, edged on three sides by open farmland where cows grazed.

woke, soul strong, Mind and Emotions, coronaRichard Abbot27 March 2021The Hermitage Development CentrefearComment

Sameness and Uniqueness

There is no one else quite like you.

This becomes clear if you examine yourself in the mirror for five seconds. There is no one else on the planet who has the same eyes, skin, hair, teeth or fingerprints as you.

woke, age of aquariusRichard Abbot11 January 2021The Hermitage Development Centrecommunism, god, spiritualityComment

I Do Not Want to Know

Noticing is not thinking, and nor is it research. It is what we should do while we are thinking or researching. It is a skill that everyone can develop, and it begins in the most ordinary way. What was the colour of the scarf worn by the person who last walked past you? Which person, you would say, if you weren’t noticing...

wokeRichard Abbot5 November 2020The Hermitage Development Centrenoticing, diversityComment

Are you Wise or Woke?

Every period of history produces wise people. But only this century, this decade, the last few years, has produced people who are woke. By now everyone must have heard this word, used to describe those who have achieved a state of enlightenment and knowledge which enables them to magically see oppression, inequality, and injustice in ways that previous generations were blind to.

Thoughts:

HOW DO THE MYSTIC ARTS INTERSECT WITH THE MATERIAL WORLD?