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Martin LeFevre - Meditations
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Martin LeFevre is a contemplative and philosopher.
His sui generis “Meditations” explore spiritual, philosophical and political questions relating to the polycrisis facing humanity.
lefevremartin77@gmail
Martin LeFevre - Meditations - Latest News [Page 22]
‘Polarization’ Isn’t The Problem
Friday, 2 September 2022, 10:28 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
What can responsible citizens do in a nation heading toward despotism? How much do systems of government, versus social and psychological issues in a given society at a given time, determine whether a nation falls prey to totalitarianism? At what ... More >>
The Present Crisis And The Transmutation Of Man
Wednesday, 31 August 2022, 1:34 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
We drove to the end of the gravel road into the canyon just beyond town, and parked near the locked gate a half-mile from the gorge. Walking in on the rocky path, we stopped frequently to take in the volcanic slabs of the gorge, and look at the fading ... More >>
Death And The Unknown
Friday, 26 August 2022, 11:24 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The known is false security, while the unknown is the source of mystery and bliss. Yet we cling to the known, and fear losing it. Why? Is it because we have no understanding and relationship with the ever-present actuality of death? I don’t mean death as ... More >>
Enlightenment Isn’t Personal
Wednesday, 24 August 2022, 1:48 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s noon and the temperature is already near 100 at the northeastern corner of California’s Central Valley. I carry a lawn chair the couple hundred meters from the car to the meditation place on the creek, wade in and place it in the shallow ... More >>
The Future Of Humanity?
Friday, 19 August 2022, 11:56 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
With America moribund and slouching toward dictatorship, and the international order collapsing, awakening human beings need to move to fill the vacuum at the global level, or all manner of authoritarianism will fill it at national levels. Most people ... More >>
Shaping The Human Mind Is Enslavement
Thursday, 11 August 2022, 11:27 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The land is bone dry, and cobwebs cover the bushes along the creek. California normally goes months without rain in the summer, but like many other places on earth now, a deep drought has set in. However a swallowtail butterfly flutters about for the ... More >>
Nagasaki And The Incorrigibility Of Man
Monday, 8 August 2022, 11:02 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
I knew a Marine that fought on Tarawa, which had the highest American casualty rate of any battle in World War II. Who saw dozens of women clutching their babies and children as they jumped from the cliffs of Saipan as US forces approached. And who ... More >>
Thinking Machines And Human Beings
Thursday, 4 August 2022, 12:00 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
What will become of humans when thinking machines outthink us at every turn? That's about to be the new human condition. As a reviewer of the book, "Seven Games" (checkers, chess, Go, backgammon, poker, Scrabble and bridge) quips: "Every ... More >>
Time Is Thought And Thought Is Time
Friday, 29 July 2022, 1:51 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A high, thin layer of clouds fills the western sky, blunting the warmth of the sun and giving the land a subtly somber cast. The little stream on the edge of town is full enough to create a cascade over a step of rocks as it wends it way through the ... More >>
Healing The Scars Of Psychological Memory
Tuesday, 26 July 2022, 3:08 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
‘Trauma’ is a word that seems to be on everyone’s lips lately. What are people referring to, and why is there so much of it? Can we heal ourselves of trauma? Colloquially, I think people are referring to the emotional damage from the accumulation of bad ... More >>
A Teachable Moment – For Joe Biden
Friday, 22 July 2022, 2:13 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
As readers of ‘Meditations’ know, I pretty much gave up on America and Americans years ago. But I still care about what happens in the nation of my nascency, especially in the context of the future of humanity. For the sake of humanity, and this country, ... More >>
Human Beings Can Meet This Moment
Thursday, 21 July 2022, 10:45 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
An inquiry with a friend generated remarkable insights into the question: Is this a moment of Olympian magnitude in human evolutionary history? The question is a much deeper version of a shallow and obtuse featured op-ed in the New York Times entitled, ... More >>
What Is Your Theory Of Human Nature?
Tuesday, 19 July 2022, 2:35 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A telling sentence by a conservative pundit jumped out at me: "They had no illusions about the depravity of human beings." Given what is happening in the world, that worldview seems to be confirmed. But is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? ... More >>
Pouring The Foundation Before The Collapse
Wednesday, 13 July 2022, 10:50 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Many people feel that the old world order has to completely collapse before things will truly change. While that may be so, few realize that the foundation for a true order has to be poured before the collapse occurs, or nothing will essentially change, ... More >>
There Is No Evolution Of Consciousness
Monday, 11 July 2022, 10:50 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s become a commonplace in the West to comfortingly believe that “everything is always evolving forwards even when it looks like things are moving backwards.” But each week that conceit becomes harder to sustain. For one thing it’s simply ... More >>
The Proprioception Of Thought
Wednesday, 6 July 2022, 11:25 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Proprioception -- sometimes called the ‘sixth sense’ -- refers to “the body’s ability to sense movement, action and location.” It’s accomplished by proprioceptors, specialized neurons located within muscles, tendons and joints. Can it apply to the ... More >>
Oh Canada, Stop Following America
Monday, 4 July 2022, 9:53 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Though I still feel young (most days anyway), I’m old enough to remember Pierre Trudeau. Not only remember, but respect him as one of the few true political leaders of the 20th century. My feeling about him was confirmed a few years ago when I attended ... More >>
‘Sentient’ AI, and What Differentiates Us As Human Beings
Monday, 27 June 2022, 10:10 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Have you heard the one about the Google engineer who was fired because he declared that the AI program he’d been working with, called LaMDA, has a soul? It’s darkly fitting that as more and more humans lose their souls, AI engineers are seriously ... More >>
Imagining ‘Umwelts’ Is Unnecessary
Wednesday, 22 June 2022, 10:24 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Rows of magnificent cumulus are piled up to the east. It’s an unusually cool afternoon before a protracted heat wave is due in California. I seize the opportunity and drive to Upper Park, parking near the last gate at the end of the gravel road. It’s less ... More >>
Indict The Bastard
Friday, 17 June 2022, 10:26 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Having predicted the election of George Bush (twice), Barack Obama, and most notably, Donald Trump, you would think I ‘d have voice in the United States. You’d be wrong. But since what passes for democracy in America hangs in the balance, I must ... More >>
