The Unknown Philosopher

One Monday evening in 2008, I had the privilege of meeting The Tulku Lama Lobsang at a Lecture he held in the Quinta do Pombal , Algarve, Portugal.  I was expecting him to be clad in orange and to my surprise he wore black.  Everybody stood as he entered, everybody that is except for me. I just didn't seem to have time, I had been in the middle of something, it was a bit weird actually, I wasn't really sure if I should have or not.  The King and I came to mind.   He sat and started to talk about Tibetan Medicine, which is his speciality, along with Lu Jong. A Tibetan Yoga/Tai Chi kind of activity which is practiced at the centre.  He said that all of us have un-manifested illness within us and at some point of our lives it manifests itself, other times it lays dormant just to manifest in another life. "Men (and women) must get ill", he stated. Sickness is part of life. If we are not sick now, then don't worry, one day we will be. (So if we are well, we are ...

My friends often call me a pessimist, but the truth is I am always expecting the unexpected.  We can never be sure what tomorrow has in store for us because in a moment things can change in our lives. I am always very attentive to this 'philosophy', and rarely like to plan things in advance. And very often when I do, something always comes up...  If I say to somebody 'I will see you tomorrow' how do I know I will? I quite often say 'god willing'. This is not a way of copping out, or putting the blame on someone else; but rather a way of accepting that some things are beyond our control, and they are.  I often think about the Maddie case in the Algarve. How many times did the McCann's interrogate themselves as to why, on that night, did they leave their children alone?  When something happens to us we often think of the alternatives and how things might have been if we'd have done things differently. Just that one moment that changed everything. So what a...

Hoje sempre fui a feira e conseguir ganhar 32 €, é o melhor que consegui até agora. Será que a minha sorte está a mudar. Para a proxima vez vou levar a guitarra, pode ser que seja discoberta e me torne uma grande estrela... A feira é realizada perto do Estádio novo, Parque das Cidades, Faro/Loulé ( foi construido para o Euro 2000 e não sei quantos, o tempo passa depressa!) no primeiro e terceiro Domingo do mês, todos os meses. Está a ficar gira.

Espero iniciar um grupo de discussão no Museu de São Brás de Alportel, sobre Deus, filosofia e mais. Estava indecisa, em que língua é que devia fazer, mas já decidi que vou fazer em Português. Os Portugueses , pelo menos, os que conheço são profundos. Um amigo, Hugo está sempre a profundar as coisas, farta-se de ler, e não é uma pessoa com grande educação, é motivado só nesse sentido. Temos sempre conversas interessantes . Ele emprestou -me o livro do José Rodrigues dos Santos, Fórmula de Deus. Tenho que o ler e ainda tenho outro para ler também que uma amiga me emprestou , The God Delusion por Richard Dawkins . Amanhã vou fazer uma feira de Ladra (se Deus Quiser) e tenho que me levantar cedo, talvez vou aproveitar a feira para ler o livro!

Before I went to see the Lama I looked for some information about Buddhism. Strangely enough it doesn't seem to be a 'static' religion, what I mean is that it seems to change according to different 'sects' with varying beliefs. The basic idea is, as "Earl" put it (My Name is Earl) 'Do good things and good things happen'. This certainly is a good philosophy. It has been long proved that being positive can produce excellent results; Dale Carnegie’s best selling book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” stressed that being positive was a definite winner. People like positive people. If you are negative, people will cross over the other side of the road to avoid you! They believe that we have the power to change our lives. Another golden rule is not to harm any living thing, whether animal, mineral or vegetable. (I had a list I can’t seem to find now!) Meditation is also a must. I still have questions though. The Lama said that w...

I was sitting in the car waiting for the children to come out of school when a thought occured to me. I was thinking about evolution. I don't really believe that we came from apes. I recon things may have evolved gradually, but not in the sense that Darwin taught. But then suddenly I had another thought. According to evolution we should reach perfection eventually, right? This planet seems a little far from perfect. Mentally the planet has not evolved. Wars have come and gone ever since the beginning of time, and continue. In effect mankind is still an infant, somehow trapped in this constant circle. I suddenly had the notion that evolution, acording to the laws of survival of the fittest etc, could eventualy bring forth the perfect being. right? It would probably be hermaphradite, to assure constant reproduction, It would also be strong and clever, it would have to be to survive. Would it then be correct to assume that God himself was the first ever being to evolve ? Could he hav...

I had rather a busy week, I don't know where the time goes. It all has to do with perception I suppose. The more busy we are the quicker time seems to pass. On the other hand, if you are held up at traffic lights and are late for an important meeting, two minutes can seem like a life time! Perception. I actually don't like waiting for anything, whether it be in queues or doctor's surgeries, but what I have learned is if you occupy youself some way or another, time inevitably, does seem to pass by quicker. There are other times we don't seem to have enough hours in the day. Time is a concept only really know to humans, in the traditional sense that is. I mean dogs never seem to be worrying about it! There was a white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, but that was just fiction (wans't it?) He was late for an important date. Time alters as we get further away from our planet. At the end of space, maybe it ceases to exist altogether. Somehow becomes timeless. My son descri...