Spiritual Questions- How to get my baby to stay asleep?Can’t it be unbearable if your eight month old baby repeatedly wakes up at night? You get tired and stressed and the relationship with your partner suffers. Unfortunately for the child, sleep problems that began in infancy can persist for many years. So it is important to teach the baby how to get to and stay asleep. Continue reading → […]
- Your brain is spamming you‘My feet look stupid’. You just had a thought. You had a message in your head. No big deal we get messages all the time. How do we survive all these message? Easy – by filtering. Another watch-able video from OffThe LeftEye. … Continue reading → […]
- How to get my baby to stay asleep?
Category Archives: Ethics
Are there really any impure thoughts?
Don’t we hope for clean air to breathe, unspoilt land for human habitation, water courses teeming with healthy nature, fairness in public discourse and decision-making showing respect and care, untarnished by greed, and unsullied by envy? Just as there is impurity around about us is there not also impurity in our individual thinking? Continue reading
Do I get my way too often?
Okay so you seldom shout at your teenage son to keep his bedroom tidy. In fact you don’t voice explosive anger, never mind verbal abuse or a threat of violence to get your own way. But perhaps without even realising it, do you sometimes use less obvious methods of manipulation?
Do your attempts at influencing others amount to trying to make them think, act, or feel the way you do? How do you assess the way you manage other people in your life? Do you get your own way too often? Continue reading
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Tagged arrogance, coercion, dishonesty, dominate, explosive anger, get my way too often, getting our own way, habits of communication, humble, humility, love of power, making up excuses, manipulation, nagging, power of love, Ray Silverman, respect, Rise above it, selfish, shout, Star Silverman, Swedenborg, threat of violence, verbal abuse
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Can I affect the financial crisis?
The financial crisis has resulted in loss of jobs and personal savings, and huge damage to business confidence. To get greater economic growth some want to encourage the profit motive and reduce regulation by government. But it is precisely the failures of international financial regulation that had led directly to the crisis. Here are some suggestions about what you can do to tackle the problem. Continue reading
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Tagged austerity measures, bank bailouts, banking ethics, Bear Stearns, business confidence, business standards, Christian Aid, David McNair, debt burden, debt relief, economic growth, economic inequality, economic justice, equity capital, ethical standards, financial crisis, financial regulation, global economy, High Pay Commission, Inland Revenue, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Lehman brothers, poverty, St Paul's Institute, stamp duty, tax avoidance, tax havens
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Is there really a hell of punishment?
If doing bad things is caused by environmental circumstances rather than individual moral choice, then surely an eternal punishment after death would be unjust? And if you balk at the idea of evil then you may dismiss the idea of hell. Continue reading
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Tagged academic pride, an eye for an eye, contempt, crime, fraud, good and evil, heaven, hell, infernal torment, life after death, love one's enemy, malicious, murder, near death experience, psychic visions, punishment, selfish, spirit communicators, Swedenborg, the spiritual world, theft, turn the other cheek, villains
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Could you sell your soul?
Historians have written about the rise of Nazi Germany and wondered how a civilized country could have become ruled by criminals trying to conquer Europe. How did well-intentioned educated people become so captivated by Hitler’s magnetism that they could accept … Continue reading
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Tagged Albert Speer, anti-Semitism, Aryan heroism, Auschwitz, contrition, crimes against humanity, denial, guilt, Hitler's personality, horrible wat crimes, humane and ethical considerations, Nazi Germany, Nurember Trial, personal decline, personal growth, quality relationships, remorse, scorched earth policy, self-deception, self-interest, Spandau prison
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Multiculturalism — good or bad?
Anders Behring Breivik murdered dozens of people in cold blood in Norway as a horrendous way of protesting about Islamic immigration. How should we respond? By reiterating democratic liberal values in favour of multiculturalism? Or seeing a warning sign about a society’s limits to tolerance of what is alien? Continue reading
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Tagged Breivik, Christianity, cultural tradition, Dalai Lama, enlightenment, ethical living, heavenly communities, Hinduism, human rights, immigration, Islam, Lutherism, mass murder, multiculturalism, Muslim, nationalism, Norway, oil wealth, racism, religions, social cohesion, social mix, society, spirit world, Swedenborg, Taliban, Taoism
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Too much sex on display?
Society as a whole tends to take polarised views of sexual permissiveness. Emotive language is used by those on both sides of the debate – one side being labelled as narrow-minded, prudish and moralistic and the other as being decadent, indecent, and exhibitionist.
Those with a more balanced perspective use more moderate language. They ask … Continue reading
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Tagged adult soft porn, Brian Kingslake, Buddhist precept, conjugial love, decadence, Epicureans, exhibitionist, indecency, infidelity, liberals, love, moderation, modesty, moralistic, Mothers Union, parents, permissiveness, provactive dress, prudish, purity of thought, seamier side, self-control, sex, sexual, sexual intercourse, sexual restraint, sexual union, sexualized, spiritual order
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Telling right from wrong
Morality has a bad press. It smacks of being judgemental and a blaming attitude. Discrimination is out and tolerance is in. Anything goes these days as long as it doesn’t cause harm. Many people do not think in terms of morality yet they feel that decisions should be made on the basis of the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Those, who deny there are any personal rights and wrongs, nevertheless, emphasize the ideals of love, holism, and self-improvement. And even criminals usually acknowledge their crime is wrong deserving punishment if they are caught. So the question remains just how does one know what really is right and wrong?
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Tagged aesthetic values, Buddha, Christ, code of practice, criminal law, custom, discrimination, economic ethics, enlightenment, ethical standards, evolutionary biology, golden rule, human soul, ideals, individual choice, moral judgment, political ideology, principles, reciprocity, social standards, spiritual philosophy, spiritual values, Swedenborg, tabloid press, tribalism
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Can gossip be a good thing?
Is it good to talk about the private lives of public figures? Like the sexual seductions of Dominique Straus-Khan, managing director of the IMF? This is someone who was heading for high political office. Or the widely reported affair of footballer Ryan Giggs with Big Brother star Imogen Thomas? What is more important — the human right to a private life or the media’s freedom of expression? Can talking about people we know be a good thing? Continue reading
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Tagged angelic attitude, discrimination, gossip, gossip is fun, hypocrisy, judgmental, prejudice, public exposure, public figures, right of privacy, role models, Ryan Giggs, sanctimonious society, self-examination, shame, Stauss-Khan, Swedenborg, tabloid press, the good in others
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Sluts or what?
‘Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised’ said policeman PC Michael Sanguinetti in Toronto, whilst advising students about safety on campus. In so saying he unleashed a storm of outrage. The marchers seem to be implying that sexual signals have no meaning in the world of human interaction. Continue reading
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Tagged conjugial, crime, feminists, Kenneth Clark, page three girls, rape, responsibility, sexual desire, sexual signals, sexualised culture, sluts, Swedenborg, temptation
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Responding to terrorists
Although details of the raid remain sketchy, one can’t help wondering if the US could have tried harder to capture bin Laden alive and put him on trial rather than carrying out a summary execution. We don’t know to what extent if any there was any danger to the attacking forces bursting in on bin Laden of him detonating a hidden explosive device. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Williams, said: “I think the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn’t look as if justice is seen to be done.” Few pundits have resisted the opportunity to ridicule him for this. Were they right to do this or was he right in what he said? Continue reading
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Tagged Al-Qa'eda, archbishop, bin Laden, condemnation, Dr Williams, rage aginst the West, retribution, rough justice, terrorists, war on evil, wounded pride
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Money: How much?
When one is hard up, buying a lottery ticket and thus dreaming of untold wealth has its attractions, even if in one’s heart of hearts one knows there is virtually no chance of winning. A bit of harmless fun. Or is having a pleasing fantasy any different from coming out all guns blazing to make money and lots of it? What are ethics of making money?
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Tagged bankers, envy, fantasy, heaven, indignation, lottery, meaning of life, money, Morocco, opulence, profit, recession, rich
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Big society
David Cameron’s ‘big society’ has caused a lot of comment. Unpaid jobs don’t pay the rent/mortgage or bring food on the table. In this day and age people are obliged to work long hours and have busy lives. An ethical perspective maintains that people should do things for others as well as for self.
But being useful is also a way of self-improvement. With less time to dwell on self we can find unsuspected energy from people around us. This method of spiritual growth involves focusing of what is needed and getting on and doing it.
Mercy killing: good or bad?
The question of euthanasia is a political one. Some religious people condemn euthanasia as wrong. However, many reach no final conclusion although seeing several relevant spiritual perspectives. Has one the right to live and thus the right to die. Should the individual choice of those who want assisted suicide be respected? Should one be allowed to die to escape intolerable pain and loss of independence? Is there any point in keeping someone alive past the point he or she can contribute to society? Continue reading