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What does ‘mysticism’ imply? Sensitive souls may think of a mysterious Power beyond the corporeal that defies ...
The furthest reaches of the mysteries surrounding some of the deep questions of life may be beyond our ken to answer at present but science is peeling back some of the outlying shrouds.
Considers the need for the governance of the UK to evolve
We live here within the waking dream, sometimes forming very close emotional bonds with some others. When one of ...
When does individuality (sense of separate beingness) start and do we ever lose the oneness we were prior to ...
Does one ruminate and allow space for intuition to pop up to the surface of our mind and/or is one disposed to cudgel the brains in a more intellectual way to make sense of ideas and facts that come to one? Inspiration can be a subject of thinking enquiry.
Socrates thought he could accomplish this worthwhile goal. It is a cornerstone of our way of thinking. To reverse the message in dated phraseology of Dante’s The Divine Comedy: ‘Prepare to meet thy salvation all ye who enter here!’ The carving for The Thinker by Rodin is no longer associated with The Gates of Hell of Dante’s original concept and today is a symbol of philosophy and knowledge.
Little of what follows is as easy as it might seem.
Reflection is a mental or cerebral state of mind. Mental ...
It is said that divorce and moving home can be among the greatest traumas to be faced, assuming you are in a civilised and healthy general environment. So, what should you do; what should you think; how should you face up to your divorce, assuming that it is now inevitable?
In the 1970s a popular card that was often perched on office manager’s desks read: ‘LOOK ALIVE! YOU CAN BE REPLACED BY A MACHINE!’ It may have been ahead of its time.
Our bodies impinge on our minds, but how? Does the mental realm dominate our physical world or vice versa, and how?
One of the conundrums that nowadays particularly intrigues the reflecting world in that of consciousness. We all have it but what is it and what if anything is particular to the human race in possessing it? Is it likely that we alone have the key to understanding what is going on - - or perhaps the key is illusory?
Though there is no general mobilisation, NATO and its allies are at war with the Russian Federation. China is ...
Both as individuals and as societies, we are what we have thought. We should think again. What works or does not work for societies of today and for you and me?
The spending bill is actually the creation of a national debt so massive that it has the means to destabilize a ...
If you wish to reflect on the Mystic Dimension in life you are spoiled for choice and, as applies throughout this ...
In secular terms Doubting Thomas may be more justified in his doubts than in scripture. Treat with caution many ideas of the new way of looking at the World.
Floatation therapy is a powerful method for rest, recovery and health maintenance. It can re-train your body into better sleep patterns, reduce the effects of deep-set stress and improve longevity.
ATTITUDES OF MIND and FEELING
THAT CAN BE ENHANCED BY OCCIDENTAL MEDITATION
TRAITS, ACTUATING PRINCIPLES, ...
Jenny Moon, a Teaching Fellow and Associate Professor at Bournemouth University, has written much on reflective ...
The Art of Self-Scrutiny
The act of self-reflection is a ‘spiritual act’ by taking time out to connect the ...
We can think about why we think what we think and think how best we can think. The best means to the best ends begins in the best thoughts. Watch the observer – you – and give ‘him’ the best advice you can. The process points up the purpose. It is as true for reflection itself as for anything else.
The theoretical approach of reflection as a cyclical model was further developed by Graham Gibbs (1998). This model is based on a six-stage approach, leading from a description of the experience through to conclusions and considerations for future events. While most of the core principles are similar to Kolb’s, Gibbs’ model is broken down further to encourage the teacher to reflect on their own thoughts and feelings.
Reflection is an Activity that does not own up to the name. It is aligned with a horizontal True North of ourselves. It is a cylinder too often uninspected under the bonnet in the engine that drives people forward into life’s choices. It is time in our speeded-up world that it has a more recognised niche in our communal psyche. Reflection impacts positively on us and on our societies. We are what we have thought. We should think again.
Please accept condolences from someone who has undergone the loss of someone dear to them.
How do you feel and what should you be feeling? What justifiable comfort can you seek? Where can it be found? What ideas now are the best ones to lodge in your thoughts? Can you feel in any way better by approaching your bereavement in the best way tailored to your own unique situation?
MEDICINE
Lourdes
Who in the West sits up at the name of Ms Youyou Tu?
Malaria is a ...
Some Meditation sects in the East kick-start sessions with a bout of belly-laughing to ginger participants into a happy mood and generally imbue their thinking with a sense of proportion.
Why should ‘one size fit all’? What are you thinking when you reflect? Can your own thoughts be prescribed for you by anyone else? Are they the same as thoughts that anyone else may have in a similar context or are they more personal to you? This is a subjective voyage. One individual’s ideas during one sitting are here. Do you think in the same way?
I shall be ambitious to have it said of me that I brought philosophy out of the closets and libraries, schools ...
THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL STAGE
Questions below are simply a few suggested subjects for debate
Truth ...
The theory behind the Institute of Reflection is expounded in this essay.
A new religion or creed or faith, as yet to be named, that is widely discussed and believed is coming into being.
THE ENGLISH LEGAL SYSTEM
Much of what is below is commonly accepted; little enough substantively speaking is ...
David Kolb proposed that if people become better at using all stages of a learning cycle, notably including reflecting on experience, they will become better life-long learners, and be more successful.
His concept is among many that advocates 'trial and error' (extending to reflection, conceptualization and experimentation) through direct personal experience
Mark Twain once said: Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Who in the West sits up at the name of Ms Youyou Tu?
Malaria is a killer epidemic with records in ...
The purpose of evolution at any time is to make life on earth more conscious.
Barry Long, The Origins of Man ...
Why should a virtual Agora for Occidental Meditation be useful?
An oriental lady on being told about the subtitle ...
Thinkers about our societies and our belief systems wield power over the future. Not for them the cut and thrust ...
The unseen world! Is it any wonder that so many people ‘see’ it in different ways? Is it not passing strange that ‘so many’ people see it? If there is nothing to be seen, how come? Is it a collective delusion?
Amalgamate these articles: International Relations, Law, Reflections can help us understand the cosmos
Title: ...
Non-duality, frequently rendered from the Sanskrit terms Advaita (“not-two”) or Advaya (“not-two” or “unique”), is a key principle in numerous philosophical and spiritual traditions worldwide. It maintains that ultimate reality constitutes an indivisible and unified whole, suggesting that distinctions such as self and other, subject and object, and Creator and creation are conceptual constructs or illusions.
It is a strongly held view of many people that there is no such thing as an Afterlife: all we have is here in earth and when we die, it is curtains on any existence we can have. To someone postulating this, and it is usually with confidence, the question can be put: ‘How do you know?’ It is unlikely to elicit from the sceptically minded anything resembling a proof.
This section considers specific experiments and theses that point up aspects of how belief-systems should be ...
ACTION STARTS WITH THOUGHT. Do you start to ‘act’ – in this sense – in the right mental space? Do you learn ‘on the job’ of life? Are there viable short cuts? Is yours an approach to take into account as many as possible useful factors? School yourself to reach your best way of taking decisions.
Complete Assemblies for Secondary Schools
ISBN 034042954 2; First Published 1988
Introduction
Here is ...
A modern, secular, Western approach to reflection for thinking better and living more intentionally.
Reflection is a particular and a useful state of mind but we tend to overlook it through its familiarity. We present a montage of figurines showing subjects in a ruminative state of Reflection.
Eastern Meditation has it's handbooks, it's rituals, it's methods, its's mantras. So too there is advice galore ...
Don’t you want to be more rounded, successful and clever. Of course you do! Everything in this institute tends in ...
This virtual institute is about how the facility and ability, reflection, that each of us has to greater or lesser ...
There is a different but allied sense of the word "reflection". If you look in the mirror you will see a reflection of yourself. Here are the thoughts on this topic of Tessa Rawcliffe.
Linda Lawrence-Wilkes and Dr Lyn Ashmore, teachers of professional development in higher education, collaborated to publish their research on Reflective Practice for learning, 'The Reflective Practitioner in Professional Education'.
She was four years old when she told her parents: "I died giving birth. I left three children and a husband in ...
The belief in reincarnation is common in eastern religions, but many early Christians also believed in ...
Astral Travel is thought by many to be in the realm of the Mystical if not the downright fanciful. That is not ...
Patrice Van Aersel has made a detailed study of near-death or after-‘death’ experiences interviewing hundreds of people who have undergone them.
Brian Mayne has written lucidly of his spiritual journey. His life style is testimony to the efficacy of his ...
Bacon is discussing ‘a part of man’s total presence and energy which is on a finer or higher level than the merely ...
Dennis Bardens was the least likely ghost chaser. He was a man with his wits about him, plugged right into the ...
ISBN 1 85958 518 3
First published in 1965 by The Zeus Press, London, England, then in 1997 by Senate an imprint of Random House. Review below by J. Glass.
Morphic Resonance arguably forms part for some people of a new orthodoxy in their faith. Ideas and character are transmitted via vibrations and pictures in a way may be largely independent of genetics.
"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and ...
Dr Lynda Shaw is a cognitive neuroscientist whose book Your Brain is Boss draws on scientific research to show how ...
The ‘magic’ of the world may lose its magic as we understand more about it but it can be magical if imaginatively portrayed.
The United Nations should be given teeth.
What is your favourite popular tune? Mine is an old classic, Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of ...
Reflective Practice is an ancient concept. There are references to the power of reflective learning in the ...
Reflection as an academic subject has been considered by many famous philosophers throughout history. Here's some of the best known historical contributors to the field.
This link is to a paper on the modification of DNA through remote Intention. It concludes that it is possible to ...
How Reflection can help widen your horizonYou are an observer, whatever else you are. If you encourage the ...
For millennia humans have solved extraordinary problems as well as taken advantage of great opportunities through ...
What possible deductions in philosophical or spiritual terms can be made from recent scientific findings about ‘Supersolids’ and ‘Entanglement’?
It will not be “you” who chooses the next lifetime but your spirit; its location is not likely to be their top ...
In a world that prizes speed and constant motion, the pause is often overlooked.
Yet it is in stillness that ...
There are plans for an Abrahamic Family House, a centre comprising a synagogue, a church and a mosque, that are ...
Questions below are simply a few suggested subjects for debate
Truth is buoyant – it will surface at some point ...
Come on in...
One idea in Western-style Meditation is to become more grounded in oneself as opposed to trying to transport oneself out of one’s skin up to a Great Beyond. The Institute’s main sanctuary is Eastern in style but it is for each individual to come up with personal ideas of a place conducive to allowing his or her personality to emerge.
The theory behind the Institute of Reflection is expounded in this essay.
I’m an ordinary bloke. So why do I think there might just be something in the ‘unseen world’ that might be ...
The first time we do it, we may not get very far. If we make a habit of doing it slowly, by degrees, then a feel ...
There are many paths to enlightenment and many meanings of that word. You wish to Reflect? Stand tall on your right to do so! It is an allowable, rewarding way to spend time. You do not need to Meditate in the way that is a trend unless it speaks to you. There are teachers and traditions from the West to draw upon.
By J. Glass
Preamble
Leaving aside such hoary pensées as that of Descartes’, ‘I think therefore I am’, how much ...
Reflection is meditation shorn of the baggage. This article gives a brief overview of what it is, how to do it, and how it can help.
An extremely brief Summary
"Hi there Eve, fancy a tipple? So what d'ya think the institute is all ...
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