This website aims to introduce some practices and ways to consider oneself and the world that are not widely known and to put them into a more familiar background context to make them understandable.
side menu
There are underlying principles to simplify understanding and decision-making and practices to experiment with.
The principles are put briefly into context rather than explained in detail. They are distilled rather than elaborated because explanations, however useful, can get in the way of one’s own understanding. Similarly although suggestions help a newcomer find their bearings there are not many here
Each page is self-contained but needs the others for its full meaning. Some pages may take a while to get through and some might need reading a few times.
top menu
The suggestions and exercises on the top menu use a variety of senses and ways of thinking so there is a chance of finding something useful. It usually takes a few visits to wade through the explanatory chatter and experiment to find what works.
Some might work immediately. Others could take months or years to perfect.
The first step is to notice what is in the way. There are strategies for dealing with all sorts of obstacles like pain, stress, drugs, preoccupations or cultural conditioning.
Old habits, hurts and conditioning can colour perception so much that opportunities are invisible and destructive situations attractive.
Change is not always easy. It can be difficult to let go of things like illness, injury or bad mood if they provide some satisfaction or social leverage, regardless of the damage they are doing. And this can be almost impossible to spot in the busyness of everyday life.
We know how to deal with our old familiar world no matter how unsatisfying it is and we accommodate even its most miserable features and maybe even find pleasure in them. Easy ways out of misery can be invisible or inconceivable and new ideas and activities can seem strange or silly.
It is usual to continue down well trodden paths until a disruption or catastrophe focuses attention. But here is a chance to get in beforehand while things are going well. This is much easier than at times of stress.
New possibilities become visible when we have a breakthrough. One exercise or idea can initiate new ways to see and question that carry over into day to day life. We see, hear, smell, taste and feel more vividly when our body, mind and feelings are clear of stress and preoccupations. We are more intelligent and alive.
There are no expensive rituals, pills, potions or magic formulas. Here is an opportunity to step off the merry-go-round of other peoples’ ideas and expand on ones own experience and understanding to become ones own expert. Gurus and theories have to be chosen and interpreted so there is no escaping having to take the initiative anyway.
The secret of success is to do it.