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Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Scoop Contributor
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 27]
Coming From Different Cultures
Monday, 13 October 2008, 11:27 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The Maidu People, who occupied the mountains and foothills in this area before they were nearly exterminated by whites flooding into California, called Lassen Peak Kohm Yah-mah-nee. Ishi, “the last wild Indian in America,” belonged to the Maidu. ... More >>
Economy of Consciousness
Sunday, 5 October 2008, 9:08 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s a strange experience to be in a wilderness in the afternoon, where the bear scat is nearly as big as coke cans, and then be back in the land of McDonalds and McPeople by dark. But there’s nothing more illuminating of the society one lives ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: Inner Alchemy
Wednesday, 1 October 2008, 11:31 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
These are the last days of the long hot summer in California’s Great Central Valley. Usually, even here at the less populated northern end, the skies are smoggy. But to my surprise, the foothills are startlingly clear today in the brilliant, slanting ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: The Meltdown of America
Monday, 29 September 2008, 11:37 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Is there any doubt left that genuine leadership in meeting the hydra-headed human crisis is absent in the American political system? If so, Friday night’s debate between McCain and Obama completely removed it. More >>
Positive Thinking is Negative Acting
Friday, 26 September 2008, 11:41 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A local reader wrote to say that she felt my last column , and my writing generally, was quite “dark.” She stated that “our minds will be dark when we think darkly,” and went on to echo one of the most pernicious philosophies America has ever dished ... More >>
Hitting the Wall on ‘The Street’
Wednesday, 24 September 2008, 11:35 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
As I try, like everyone else, to gain some understanding of the US financial meltdown, my thoughts turn to my nephew Brett. He’s about to leave college after interning on Wall Street, having well positioned himself to begin a career on ‘The Street.’ More >>
Martin LeFevre: The Origins of Love and Evil
Friday, 19 September 2008, 2:05 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The mountain reservoir is already low. Ten or fifteen meters of steep hillside lie exposed, and the light brown soil is pockmarked with stumps from trees cut over fifty years ago. More >>
Seven Years After 9.11: Lessons Unlearned
Friday, 12 September 2008, 5:51 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Some months before the Oklahoma City bombing, in the yet to be designated ‘homeland’ of America, I visited my native state of Michigan. It was late fall, the wind and rain had stripped the leaves from the trees, and the deer hunters/militia members ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: How Obama Can Win
Wednesday, 10 September 2008, 11:42 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Since defeating the Clintons earlier this summer, Barack Obama has dropped Martin Luther King’s poetic and compelling phrase, “the fierce urgency of now.” Lately Obama often speaks prosaically of the imperative of “fundamental change.” That ... More >>
McCain or Obama: What the Stakes Really Are
Wednesday, 3 September 2008, 10:41 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
After the Russian invasion of Georgia, the media in America lathered praise all over John McCain about how right he had been regarding Russia. But before the arguably insane McCain has the laurel of sagacity placed on his cancerous head, let’s consider ... More >>
The Observer and Krishnamurti’s Teaching
Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 10:18 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
When I was 17 I had a shattering, life-altering insight into the illusion of the separate observer. A few years later, I came upon the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, for whom the nonexistent division between “the observer and the observed” was ... More >>
They Work For The Devil And Call Him Jesus
Thursday, 21 August 2008, 1:22 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Pause and reflect for a moment on this astounding fact: a suicide bomber in a flatbed truck blew up the United Nations headquarters in Iraq and killed Kofi Annan’s special representative, perhaps the most respected and loved man in the UN community. More >>
Martin LeFevre: Making a Friend of Death
Sunday, 17 August 2008, 4:40 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s early enough to avoid the enervating edge of the day’s heat. After a workout on the track, I stop at the park to cool off in the creek Lying on my back in the stream, the gentle current caresses and relaxes my muscles. More >>
Martin LeFevre: Epistemological and Logical?
Tuesday, 12 August 2008, 1:46 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
One of the most annoying things to philosophers is the habit well-educated people have of plugging everything they hear into the preexisting knowledge structure they’ve built. More >>
Martin LeFevre: A Patriarchal Matriarchy
Friday, 8 August 2008, 1:39 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Our paths literally converged in the parkland. She was a young mother, walking alone, and our colloquial conversation somehow quickly turned to the relationship between the sexes. “Women have become men, and men have become women,” she blurted out. More >>
Martin LeFevre: Human Evolution
Monday, 4 August 2008, 12:08 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The physicist Richard Feynman, who famously dunked a little O-ring in ice water and broke it to demonstrate why the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up in 1986, was fond of saying, “Don’t fool yourself; and you are the easiest person to fool.” More >>
The Answer Is Within the Individual
Tuesday, 29 July 2008, 12:28 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A friend wrote with a question that goes right to the heart of the human crisis: “In the negation of thought when we experience the still place within us, isn't this when the fragmentation [of humankind] has the potential to cease?” More >>
Martin LeFevre: Why Is Man Separate from Nature?
Sunday, 27 July 2008, 7:05 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
As I see it, human consciousness is an unexplained contradiction in the infinitely dynamic order of the universe. Consciousness is not ‘evolving,’ and things are going from bad to worse. Is there an understanding of the relationship between humankind ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: The Next Step Is a Great Leap
Monday, 14 July 2008, 11:51 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
You don’t have to be a prophet to know a global train wreck is imminent. You just have to put an ear to the rail to hear the train is coming, and look down the tracks and see that the line has run out. Is there no other choice but to stand here and ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: Hellish Fires Threaten Paradise
Friday, 4 July 2008, 2:03 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A pall of thick gray smoke continues to hang over northern California. Hundreds of wildfires are burning in this region, and nearly half a million acres have burned. The air quality is as bad as it’s ever been, and the fire season is just getting ... More >>
