From Son of Moses

Most of us who read or post on this blogsite are members of the School. We love the School and the people in it. We love the Teaching also. And yet we perhaps feel there is something amiss, something lacking. It seems to me that it is this feeling of dissatisfaction (which I hear more and more throughout the School) that through Kevin’s good offices, has called this blog into being.

Maybe we feel that it is the way the organization is run, or that certain unhelpful habits and assumptions have, after all these years, got fossilized into the system, as it were, or (as I feel myself) that there is something extra needed that isn’t being supplied.

Occasionally on this site there is talk of purging the School of the Gurdjieff/Ouspensky legacy. Personally, however, I feel there is plenty we can yet learn from that tradition.

Anyway, it is good to have a forum through which to express ourselves, as long as this is done constructively and without negativity or nitpicking. It is also good to be able to talk across the generations (You might be shocked to hear that I have been in the School for almost 45 years. On the other hand, you may think that the nature of my contributions make my age rather obvious).

So much for the intro. I have asked the Webmaster if I might initiate a new, but subsidiary function for this site. This was in fact one of the main functions of the original blogsites (back in those early pioneer days, almost a decade ago), namely giving fellow enthusiasts links to other sites recommended for some reason or other.

I thought I would inform you of some of the URLs that I have found, and still find, interesting and helpful.

It won’t surprise you to learn that when I was brought up in the School there was a strong assumption that we were the only ones with the truth and that we had nothing to learn from anyone else. Recognise it? This, of course, is one source of the School’s reputation for arrogance and self-congratulation, and it has made sure that we have been left out of the vital debates that have been going on around the world concerning the future of humanity at this very crucial time in its history.

I believe that it is long past the time that the School, or at least those of us who care, should join what has been called ‘the Great Conversation’, first of all listening humbly and attentively to what the best people of all nations are saying.

Interestingly enough, most of the following websites, apart from having no connection with the School, have no Advaitic pretensions either. Nonetheless, I have learnt much from them and I recommend them to you.

They are given in no particular order, but, in relation to our recent debates, the first one is the Prince of Wales speaking not very long ago of this age as the Kaliyuga, although he did not use this word, I think he calls it ‘the last times’.

Sacred Web.

One Cosmos. A rarity, a right-wing Advaitin!

Peggy Noonan. A very talented writer with intelligence and heart

First Things. An intelligent Christian magazine with a good archive:

Pathwork. This is a most wonderful spiritual system which for me supplies (as mentioned earlier) most of what is left out in our work in the School:

Wittingshire. A lovely, intelligent and cultured Christian site

Rod Dreher. his interesting Crunchy Conservative site, a man of worthy interests:

Uncommon Descent. A very good Intelligent Design site

Civitas. This one, like many, reveals my rightwing bias. I am, after all, of the old S/school

Gideon Strauss. A Neo-Calvinist of refreshingly wide interests. His two daughters’ blogs are almost as good, an impressive example of what home-schooling and a good Christian upbringing can do.

Arts & Letters Daily. Current articles, lots of good connections

Political Theory Daily Review. Tons of current articles, you have to comb out the left-wing nonsense though

These, then, are some of my favourites, some of them rather politically incorrect, really. Perhaps you can balance the picture with some of your own favourites.