Sentimentality is a disease. Orage said that it is “an escape of emotional gas but not through the centre for which it was intended” (Gurdjieff’s Emissary, 455). That is, the […]
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Month: August 2017
St Isaac (23 August)
The feast of St Isaac of Monteluco (died c. 550) is celebrated on 23 August. He is often confused with St Isaac of Nineveh (died c. 700). Both are also […]
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Amis and “A Different Christianity”
I recently came across a reference to Robin Amis’ book A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought, published in 1995 by the State University of New York Press. […]
Read moreBeguilement in Nicephorus
In his treatise on sobriety, Nicephorus the Solitary says that the method which he will teach has the happy effect of “leading him who practises it, without labour or sweat, […]
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Nicephorus on Renouncing the World and its Illusions
Kadloubovsky and Palmer open their selection, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart (1951) with a text by Nicephorus the Solitary known as “On Sobriety,” or, to provide […]
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The Feast of the Shoonoyo (Assumption)
In the Maronite tradition, which is a Syriac tradition, we celebrate on 15 August each year, what in that language is called 3eedo shoonoyo. This is known in English as […]
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From Ouspensky to the Philokalia
The Philokalia is really a miniature library. The manuscripts which comprise it were originally written in Greek. Although the texts are mostly far older, the present-day collection was compiled by […]
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An Appreciation of Lennon’s “Walls and Bridges”
Many years have passed since I first heard it, and only now have I come to grips with the Walls and Bridges album. For no other Lennon record has it […]
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The Sexualisation of Culture
I shall be updating this piece from time to time. However, it will be a useful resource as this tragic sexualisation of culture continues. It is not that sexuality has […]
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And so you have something to go on with!
This is from the meeting of Thursday 12 June 1986. I present it in two parts. Although the second part followed directly from the first, what I found of value […]
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