Simon Kidd > Simon's Quotes

“All philosophies are mental fabrications.”
― Nagarjuna Erik Hoogcarspel

“The question of Meher Baba’s background context has to date been neglected. The devotional movement associated with his name has never shown any interest in antecedents. Former biographers have exhibited an ignorance of philosophical links pertaining to the subject’s ethnic and ideational heritage. These omissions require correction, not least because of the instructive nature of the links discernible.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meher Baba, an Iranian Liberal

“In Meher Baba, the investigator has the opportunity to view at close range the Iranian spirit divested of Zoroastrian and Islamic dogma and ritualism. He is as much 'Mazdakite' and Zurvanite as he is sufi; he is both ishraqi and irfani (gnostic) in affiliated perspective, and yet at the same time elusive of ready-made labels which require a deeper understanding than customarily awarded them.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meher Baba, an Iranian Liberal

“For those who are pedantic about classifications, it is perhaps best to describe Meher Baba as a neo-Kaivani, just as the Kaivanis can be termed neo-ishraqi in their departure from Islamic idioms. The gnostic dynamic does not stand still in its intercultural avenues of expression, and indeed, if it does so in a mono-cultural guise, it is likely to be no longer a dynamic but merely petrified conditioning. The easiest thing for anybody to do is to repeat secondhand material; the consequence is generally unenlightened dogmatism, not to mention distortion.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meher Baba, an Iranian Liberal

“... finer tendencies of the psyche are eroded by crude stimuli, crude verbiage, and crude behaviour.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meaning in Anthropos

“There are currently many gurus and 'psychotherapists' getting rich at the expense of uncritical followings and clients who are becoming increasingly illiterate. Illiteracy is very much in the interests of the 'New Age' bandwagon, and also convenient to the commercial publishers who so regularly dish up the sordid offerings of commercial writers.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meaning in Anthropos

“There are currently very few writers in either East or West who demonstrate much understanding of mystical ranges, and hence the values here are largely in abeyance. The typical 'Western Mysticism,' of the modern variety, is an excuse for narcissism and banality. Its vaunted therapy is sometimes classified, appropriately enough, as Neo-Reichian. It is arguably suitable fare for an increasingly illiterate audience who are narrowing down their alternatives to one only: ignorance of real values.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meaning in Anthropos

“Many people who want a worthwhile alternative to current societal attitudes will have to become much more literate in order to be able to gain a critical sense that distinguishes viable values from crippling ones. Few people read Plotinus and other temperate writers of the past, and so it is little wonder that philosophy is not understood, and that mysticism has become a con game. Most professed seekers of 'values' fall victim to the sentiments of 'New Age' psychotherapy and Western Occultism. With Aleister Crowley an advanced yogi and Wilhelm Reich a visionary genius, it is anybody's guess what further Western monstrosities will be created in illiterate climates.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meaning in Anthropos

“Anthropography is my contribution to the vacuum created in education by specialist academe and the 'New Age' commercial machine.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, Meaning in Anthropos

“There are no significant shortcuts to intellectual competence. Domain-specific knowledge and long practice are essential to consolidating a skill in long-term memory. Neither computers nor general critical-thinking techniques can circumvent those arduous requirements.”
― E.D. Hirsch, Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories

“systematic approach to knowledge building is more productive than an arbitrary skills approach with unspecified topics.31”
― E.D. Hirsch, Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories

“I do not believe that all Eastern traditions reputed to have an esoteric value actually contain such value, since it is very often only nominal values that are represented. The esoteric is, far more often than not, a highly extroverted exercise in advertisement, gimmicks, and reliance upon hoary associations yoked to simplistic or erroneous belief ... What constitutes a traditional esoteric psychology is likely to remain a subject for disagreement amongst various parties, but one might venture to suggest that it would be invisible and unobtrusive by comparison with less esoteric manifestations of great secrets and prerogatives.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, The Resurection of Philosophy

“A common fate of Eastern traditional disciplines is currently their execrable employment by Western gurus and pop-psychologists. Whether it is antique Chinese wisdom, Buddhist lore, Yoga, Sufism, or whatever, the alert critic should take most of it with the proverbial pinch of salt, while not denying a basis in more authentic practice for the more viable ingredients of such traditional psychology.”
― Kevin R.D. Shepherd, The Resurection of Philosophy