Institute of Reflection

The virtual Agora for Occidental Meditation – A Tool for Clearer Thinking, Emotional Balance and a Rounded Perspective
What is Reflection?

Poet’s Corner

Some ideas one can’t cut with a knife or put on a weighing machine; they are allusive and illusive but NOT illusional. They can speak more eloquently than in mere prose about the wonders of the world and its amazing secrets that are being teased out by science.

Poetry thrives in a shadowy, allusive world in which feelings that can be un-pinnable in precise language come into a reality all their own. It may seem to have little to do with the world of facts and experimentation that is science.    If all that there is can be explained by what we see and/or what we can prove, what need is there for poetry?

The discoveries of science are all very well but a question on which to reflect is ‘what is their significance?’  How to express it in a language that language itself may not seem designed ideally to express?

The world we live in now is unprecedented in its scope for an all-encompassing sweep of new thinking.  This may have seemed the case to each succeeding generation in the past but surely todays’ march of technology and ideas that are au courant justify thinking that our times need new poetic expression.  Phenomena have come to light that seem so strange and even contrary to the dictates of common sense and ordinary perception that in some ways they call for expression in poetry.  How should scientific discoveries, and the mysteries that infuse our existence affect our perspective on life and all it implies?  Poetry as a means of expression is well adapted to try as far as possible to capture the mysteries that lie at the heart of our new perceptions of the world.

There are two ‘Corners’ in this section.  The first deals with the wonderful worlds that have been revealed by Science and how this may impact on our reflections about our lives. The poetic oeuvre of Wendy Shutler in ‘Here we go round the Multiverse’ and of Hemal Jayasuriya home in on the thought-provoking world which has been lit up by science.  The second ‘Corner’ shows poets reflecting about the human plane of existence. Jonathan Bradley in ‘City Sonnets‘ wanders round the city and finds much therein to induce reflection.  ‘Meditation Poems‘ of Dr Joy Philippou MBE throws into relief some of the perplexities that can fall thick and fast on someone who reflects on the meaning of our new-fangled world and like Lord Mereworth in ‘Sparkling Fountain’ and Lawrence Holofcener in ‘Day of Change’ and the spiritual teacher, Leonard Jacobsen, are absorbed in the spiritual complexities of our New Age.

Poets who are fascinated by the impact of the latest scientific findings on their perspective on the World

Hemel Jayasuriya

Hemel Jayasuriya

Poetry thrives in a shadowy, allusive world in which feelings that can be un-pinnable in precise language come into a reality all their own. It may seem to have little to do with the world of facts and experimentation that is science.    If all that there is can be explained by what we see and/or what we can prove, what need is there for poetry?
Wendy Shutler

Wendy Shutler

Wendy Shutler in ‘Here we go round the Multiverse’ puts into superb poetry many of the preoccupations of this website about the amazing world as it has been revealed by science. The common sense that she wraps around it in poetic form if anything renders it more stunning.

Poets whose ideas of reflection are consistent with the aims of this Institute

Jonathan Bradley

Jonathan Bradley

Jonathan Bradley, a Renaissance Man with a career that spans finance and Academia, versifies his individual take on city life and points up the advantages of reflection as in ‘Escape from a pre-computer office‘.
Oranmore

Oranmore

Lord Oranmore is struck in wonderment at many of the perplexing questions about the world and mankind’s place in it that can be felt by those of a reflective disposition. These uncertainties and other concerns of this institute receive a rapt distillation into words in ‘Sparkling Fountain’.
Larry Holofcener

Larry Holofcener

Larry Holofcener was a gifted polymath, a famous sculptor and a playwright. The thrust of his thinking touches on many of the aspects of life to those who are given to reflection. He lays stress on the importance of learning, of thinking about what is going on in the world, mankind’s drives and urges, the beauties and bounties of nature and the ‘un-seeing way in which we live our lives. A sense of the extraordinary strangeness of life pervades his work. What a strange creature is man; what a strange world we inhabit!
Joy Philippou MBE

Joy Philippou MBE

Dr Joy Philippou MBE in ‘Meditation Poems’ brings zest and a love of life to a modern way of quiet reflection, resolving what might seem this paradox in a way that is uniquely hers.
Leonard Jacobson

Leonard Jacobson

Leonard Jacobson is a spiritual teacher, mystic and gifted healer, who is deeply committed to helping others break through to the joyous experience of living in the NOW.
Poet’s Corner in Westminster

Poet’s Corner in Westminster

Many poems penned over the ages have the idea of Reflection uppermost. These often go hand in hand with solitary reflecting in an arcadian setting. There is a vogue of poetry that tries to come to terms with the latest scientific theories Anthologies invariably celebrate the taste of those who choose the poems. Here are a few favourites of this institute, aside from those poets who have their own section.

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