Reflections on Peace, Philosophy, and Life
I am listening to an album I played over and over when it came out in 1969: It’s a Beautiful Day. David LaFlamme’s wonderful voice and sublime violin playing still move me. Two songs in particular, White Bird and Time Is, have stayed with me all these years.
Back then, I was searching for meaning. Listening again now, I realise that these songs were expressing something I felt deeply, even if I could not have put it into words. Perhaps that is why I remember them so well.
“White bird, in a golden cage.”
- Details
- Category: David's Blog
Good against evil. The hero against the villain. So many of our stories are built around this struggle. We recognise the sides, invest our hopes in one of them and wait for the outcome.
Perhaps these stories hold our attention because they give an outward form to a conflict we know within ourselves.
The story of the two wolves expresses this simply. Within us are two wolves: one represents kindness, compassion and generosity; the other hatred, greed and cruelty. They struggle with each other. Which one wins? The one we feed.
- Details
- Category: David's Blog
“Humanity’s greatest danger may not be change, but our habit of waiting until change becomes unavoidable.”
There is something remarkably comforting about doing nothing. We can convince ourselves that by remaining silent, avoiding confrontation or simply carrying on with our lives, we bear no responsibility for what happens around us. After all, we haven't actually done anything wrong, have we?
But when we witness injustice and remain silent, when we recognise dishonesty and excuse it, or when we see suffering and decide that it is somebody else's problem, are we genuinely innocent observers? Or have we become, however unintentionally, part of the conditions that allow these things to continue?
- Details
- Category: David's Blog
I have written four books exploring reality, awareness, change, responsibility, and the way we live with one another.
Each book is available in both English and German.
You can browse the editions here:
Books in English Bücher auf Deutsch
The books are:
Reality Is a Thought / Realität ist ein Gedanke
Human Beings Being Human / Menschen, die menschlich werden
The Book of Changes / Das Buch vom Wandel
Appeasement Then and Now / Beschwichtigung damals und heute
- Details
- Category: David's Blog
In the Mahabharata, there is a remarkable episode in which Yudhishthira finds his brothers lying apparently dead beside a lake. Before he may drink from the water, a mysterious being — the Yaksha — requires him to answer a series of questions. One of them is: “What is the greatest wonder?” Yudhishthira answers, in essence: “Every day people see others die, yet those who remain live as though they themselves were immortal. What could be more astonishing?”
It is difficult to imagine a more accurate description of the human condition. We know that we are going to die, not vaguely or theoretically, but with absolute certainty. Death is the one unavoidable fact that ultimately determines the shape of every human life. Our time is limited. Every possession, achievement, disappointment, grievance and ambition exists within that limit. Every relationship will end, and everything we accumulate will eventually belong to somebody else.
- Details
- Category: David's Blog
