The Contemplative Life
I am about to leave on a one-month meditation retreat. Here is why....
The Puzzle of Liberty
In this letter, I want to make the case for libertarian principles and introduce you to a problem I have been thinking about; *how do we get everyone to cooperate without coercion?*...
The Dawn of Life
Hello everyone, As usual, I hope you are all well. I want you to contemplate all the factors that your wellness depends on. Many of you will think instinctively to your loved ones; your friends and your family. You may also be thinking of the material things needed to sustain...
A Culture of Conversation
Hello everyone, It feels good to write to you each week like this. I sincerely hope you have been finding benefit in what I have to say. The reason I write these every week is because I have something to say, I have ideas that I believe will benefit others...
The Fountain of Youth
Hello everyone, I hope you are all well, and that you will continue to be well for decades to come. In today’s letter, I will be telling you all about the quest to ensure this happens, that is; the science behind what we have done to address the problem...
The Self-Liberating Mind
Hello everyone What does it mean to be doing well? There are two answers resonate with me here. One is when you feel like you are making steady progress on accomplishing your goals, and the other is when you are entirely carefree. The latter of the two tens to be...
The Spirit of Science
Hello everyone, I hope you are in high spirits. Wait, what does “high spirits” mean again? Does it imply that you are filled with vigour? I take that back; my concern is that you are feeling well not necessarily that you are overflowing with energy. I hope you have been...
Precious Jewels
Hello everyone, Is everything going well for you? I sure hope it is, and that you are all not taking it for granted. As expected, the United States is doing among the worst in the world regarding the pandemic. They are now experiencing hundreds of deaths per day. Amid everything...
Emptiness and the Real Blue Sky
Hello everyone, I sincerely hope you are as well as the laws of nature allow. Today's letter will be a little different. More casual. I want to share with you two stories, that I believe will shed light on some concepts in Buddhist philosophy. These are both stories I have...
The Bigger Picture
Hello everyone, The world seems to be falling apart. At the risk of sounding completely delusional I must ask — is it really? It was not long ago that the world's gaze was on bushfires ravaging Australia, and without time to recover the coronavirus has run rampant across the globe. We...
Creativity and the Cosmos
Hello everyone, I hope you are well — and that reading this letter will make a humble contribution to this. For those of you in parts of the US affected by the recent unrest, please look after yourselves — my thoughts are with you. Also, please do not forget that underneath all...
On Cynicism
Hello everyone, I trust you are all well. At the very least, you are well enough to have the leisure of reading this letter. It is a good start — contemplate for a moment how many people are living right now that do not have this luxury? I want to cut...
Happiness and Problem Solving Revisited
Hello everyone, I hope you are well and that you will continue to be so. It appears that the number of cases worldwide of COVID-19 are still increasing. It seems as if the curve is yet to flatten — at least globally. Many individual countries appear to be doing well. In...
Taking Children Seriously II
Taking Children Seriously (TCS) is simply the philosophy that it is both possible and desirable to raise a child without coercion. That's it....
Taking Children Seriously
Hello everyone, I hope you have all been doing as well as the laws of nature allow. I certainly have been. I have been helping test a user interface called Material Shell, very slowly trying to teach myself Japanese and reading through the short stories of Ted Chiang. It is...
The Virtue of Bodhicitta
Hello everyone, I want to start this letter with some good news. One month ago I wrote up a letter A Case for Giving, encouraging all of you to read Peter Singer's The Life You Can Save (which you can get for free) and donating to the not-for-profit named after...
David Whyte and the Man with No Head
In this piece I discuss to novel pointers to the intimacy of the present moment: Douglas Harding's teachings into headlessness and the poety of David Whyte....
The Beginning of it All
In this piece I take a trip to the beginning of the universe and ask the question; how do we know this? Why do we believe it all started with a bang?...
Determinism, Randomness and Free Will
In this piece I write up my thoughts on the useful concepts of determinism and randomness, and how they impact on our conventional sense of free will....
A Case for Giving
Hello everyone, I hope you have all been well — our lives are growing shorter by the minute, it would be a shame to waste them suffering or perpetuating suffering. Many of you are now in self-isolation, lock-down or quarantine and might still be adjusting to the situation. If you are...