Humphrys in Search of God

“John Humphrys as you’ve never heard him before – talking with religious leaders about his unfulfilled desire to believe in God.” – Radio 4, 31 October 2006

A great set of interviews with religious leaders from ‘the big three’ in the UK. Asking how is faith possible in a world of suffering. Whether there a place for religion in an age dominated by science.

Voted Best New Programme in the 2006 VLV Awards for Excellence in Broadcasting, Humphrys’ guests are the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams; Professor Tariq Ramadan, Muslim academic and author; and Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi.

Thank you BBC for making these available on the listen again service. Not only can we listen to the interviews as broadcast but also listen to extended versions of the interviews.

Listen

Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams

• Programme as broadcast on 31 October 2006 (29m)
  
• Extended interview part 1 (54m)
  
• Extended interview part 2 (37m)
  

Professor Tariq Ramadan

• Programme as broadcast on Tuesday 7th November (29m)
  
• Extended interview (48m)
  

Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi

• Programme as broadcast on Tuesday 14th November (29m)
  
• Extended interview (1h 08m)
  

I LOVE THE BBC

Filed under: Atheism, Christianity, God, Islam, Judaism, Skepticism, UL, suffering

NO! – Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

“Listen carefully. Any real lama will be completely unconcerned with your problems in this life. Any real lama will only be concerned with your death and where you take rebirth.”

Telling it like it is. Hard to swallow perhaps but bye bye Boomeritis!

Another version of the hugely popular teaching by Tsem Rinpoche on the poem of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s “How to Know No”.

Filed under: Guru, Lama, Rebirth, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, Tsongkhapa, UL, Video, dharma , dharma, Guru, Lama, Rebirth, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, Tsongkhapa, Video

both Dawkins and Dharma

“There are two ways of looking at the world. Through faith and superstition, or through the rigors of logic, observation and evidence, through reason”

Either/Or

Dear Mr Dawkins.

I love you, really I do. But please try to see that there are not just Either/Or ways of looking at the world.

What about Both/And?

Filed under: Dawkins, Integral, Science, Skepticism, Two Truths, UL, UR, Video, both/and, dharma, emptiness, form

The BrainVoyager

http://brainvoyager.com/BrainTutor.html

Wowsa… this looks awesome.

My ‘project’ this year is “Understanding my Mind“.

I’ve taken two guys, both considered by peers to be ‘at the top of their game’ when it comes to the mind.

Dan Dennett and Geshe Kelsang… both dealing with consciousness, but Geshe Kelsang helping shift some states and stages in the UL and Dennett rounding it off in the Right-Hand quadrants.

More to follow… but some people were starting to look here and I wanted to help clear up just what “Both/And” is all about.

Mission statement soon I promise!

Anyway… this month I’m delving into the BRAIN as well as the mind… and software and sites like this really are the bleeding edge right now.

More to come… but expect a piece on the difference between Brain and Mind, whether is really is as simple as a Hardware/Software, whether traditional dharma explanations might be falling for the age old Cartesian cock-up and whether… really we should be thinking of a Mindbrain ecosystem – rather than a split, a dualism or a material/spiritual divide.

This is “Both/And” so expect some fence sitting and a real attempt at some post-differentiated integration.

Filed under: Brain, Dennett, Mind, UL, UR, Understanding the Mind, dharma