Rory B. Mackay's Blog, page 8
September 6, 2013
Tao Te Ching 31: The highest value
- 31 -
Weapons are the tools of violence;
all decent men avoid them.
Followers of the Tao never use them.
~
Peace is the wise man’s highest value.
If peace is his true objective
how can he rejoice in the victory of war?
A man who rejoices in the killing of others
shall never prevail in the world.
~
With the slaughter of multitudes,
we have grief and sorrow.
Every victory is a funeral;
when you win a war,
you celebrate by mourning.
~
Commentary
This uncompromising verse has a simple (and timely) message: peace...
September 3, 2013
Why you have to dare to be true to You
So, I’ve found it’s hard getting back into the blogging habit after a long-ish break. It doesn’t help that things have been choppy the past month and my mind has been a little fuzzy and unfocussed. But now it’s time to write, and write like my life depended on it! I’m resuming work on my second novel (which, confusingly, was actually written first but which needs a complete rewrite) and I have a couple of other nonfiction books I’m working on. Part of the key to writing is, yes, waiting for i...
August 28, 2013
Hello! I’m still alive
It’s been a month long hiatus instead of two weeks. August was a crazy month, more challenging than I’d have liked, but I’m getting a handle on things and normal service will resume shortly. I still have almost fifty Tao Te Ching posts to share! So those will be coming up pretty soon, along with some new topics and whatever I feel moved to write about. In time I’m going to reorient my focus to primarily the ancient wisdom of vedanta, which is, to echo the words of Arthur Schopenhauer “the con...
August 1, 2013
Little blog holiday…
Hey guys, I’m gonna be away for the next couple of weeks, so all will be quiet on the blogging front. I will get back to things soon, and am also looking forward to catching up with everyone then, as I’ve fallen quite far behind with my blog reading (and pretty much everything else!) lately. Speak soon,
Rory 
July 30, 2013
Book Review: “Sex: Not as a separate subject” by Rohan Healy
The new book by prolific blogger, author and musician Rohan Healy is all about sex. “SEX, Not as a separate subject: A guide to great sex with great people” is basically an encylopedia of everything sexual, touching upon just about every facet of this astonishingly vast subject. One of the things I love about Rohan’s blog and his books is the easy-to-read, conversational style of his writing. When I read Rohan’s work, it feels like sitting down with a friend, having a cup of coffee and all ki...
July 29, 2013
Religion and Its War on Sex
Religion and sex historically have a difficult relationship. In the West, the predominant religions have cultivated a very negative attitude toward this most basic of bodily impulses, warning us about the ‘sins of the flesh’ and preaching sex to be something quite shameful, something that should only really be done for the purpose of having offspring — and even this is a fairly grudging exception. Pre-marital sex, masturbation and gay sex are all forbidden as heinous sins. Not much reason is...
July 28, 2013
The 4 most important things I ever learned about relationships
“Never frown, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.” Anon
Before I take a short blog hiatus, this is the first in a short series of relationships and sex, inspired by the release of Rohan Healy’s new sex book. I don’t claim to be a relationship expert, but here are some things — pretty important things I think! — that I’ve learned along life’s journey.
1. Relationships are not here to make you happy.
This is at the root of the problem, a gross misperception that’s deep-r...
July 24, 2013
War is Not Human Nature
Reblogged from Burning Uranus:
Times of India, Science – July 21, 2013
A new study of tribal societies finds warfare is not an innate concept but a recent phenomenon invented by ‘civilised’ societies…
Is it natural for humans to make war? Is organised violence between rival political groups an inevitable outcome of the human condition ? Some scholars believe the answer is yes, but new research suggests not.
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward – a film everyone really needs to watch!
It was nearly two years ago that I watched a documentary titled ‘Zeitgeist: Moving Forward’. The third in a series of films by Peter Joseph, it confirmed a lot of what I already knew to be true, but also managed to change my outlook on life in a big way. It actually gave me a lot of hope for the future. The first half of the film is a fascinating and captivating exploration of human nature before moving onto human pathology and exploring in detail just howdamaged and damaging our modern consu...
How a Resource Based Economy Will Work
Click to enlarge. It’s fascinating, although may need more explanation. Stay tuned for that 
