In stillness the power of thought is clear, well-ordered and intelligent. Likewise in stillness the power of decision is reasonable, true and certain. To help this it is possible to cultivate tranquillity of mind. The poet T.S. Eliot used evocative language for this. He said: At the still point of the turning world. and: at […]

To the non-scientist the scientific world may seem to be totally incomprehensible. But to many of the great scientists the quality of simplicity is all important. Einstein for example said: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. We should not confuse the word ‘simple’ with ‘simplistic’. There are many so-called experts […]

An example of the sustaining power of love comes in a book called ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’. The author, Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) was a prisoner in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for three years during World War II, and the book contains a description of that time. In the context of the theme of the […]

The founder of this School, Leon MacLaren (1910-1994), was asked at a meeting about the right use of the mind in studying the scriptures. The right use of the mind in relation to the scriptures, or indeed for that matter to anything else, is to fall quite still, attend to what is being spoken or […]

The aphorism, ‘As a man thinketh in his heart so is he’, not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts. As […]

Shakespeare’s sonnets are a remarkable collection of poems and their essential theme is that of love. This particular sonnet stresses the constancy of true love: It is not fickle or changing, but is constant and true

Is there one beauty shining in a million different forms or are there millions of different beauties? Where is that beauty now? Is it not everywhere, all around us? Plato taught that there is only one beauty, beauty absolute. Whenever we see or apprehend beauty it is this single absolute beauty that is being experienced […]

Everyone is free but thinks that they are bound. In fact all those things that bind them are the expression of their own ignorance. This is what everyone has to understand. Here is an example. A special trick is used to catch monkeys. A round earthen pot with a small mouth is buried in the […]