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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 37]
Meditations: Breakthroughs in Human Consciousness
Wednesday, 4 May 2005, 12:54 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The line between proto-humans, humans, and human beings is a nebulous one, but I see three stages in our random evolutionary path to a mature species. Three very different orders of consciousness characterize these stages. We're somewhere in the ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: A Persistent Meditative State
Thursday, 28 April 2005, 11:32 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Two mallards, a multi-colored male and a rather plain brown female (except for a dazzling blue chevron on her wings) drifted downstream. They were completely at home and at one with each other, communicating through subtle movements where to go and ... More >>
Meditations (Spirituality): The Last Pope?
Friday, 22 April 2005, 1:31 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
So now we (the ‘we’ in this case is most problematic) have a new pope whose diffident exterior masks a doctrinaire interior. The Catholic Church could have embraced worldwide ecumenism. Instead it is, in Pope Benedict XVI, reasserting its medieval claim to ... More >>
Meditations: Think Globally and Act Globally
Thursday, 21 April 2005, 11:50 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
One of the side effects of globalization is a reaction that is really a flip side to it: localism. Many well-intentioned people, in the North and South, take an attitude of ‘local solutions to local problems.’ However the entire strategy of emphasizing ... More >>
Martin LeFevre Meditations: An Inquiry into Evil
Friday, 15 April 2005, 12:03 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
I finally finished Romeo Dallaire’s book, “Shake Hands with the Devil,” about the Rwandan genocide. Often I could only read a few pages at a time. The horror of it, and the relentless spiritual and philosophical questions it implicitly raises, have ... More >>
Meditations: Why Think in Terms of Nations?
Thursday, 24 March 2005, 12:22 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
What will happen if the Bush Doctrine bears its logical fruit and there is a nuclear war? Not by terrorists, but through old-fashioned state vs. state conflict escalating out of control. Is there any way to prepare for such a catastrophe? More >>
Martin LeFevre: A Stark Contrast
Wednesday, 16 March 2005, 2:41 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The verdant slopes beyond the gorge are adorned with thousands of brilliant orange poppies and deep blue lupines. The swollen creek is over a hundred meters directly below. It wends its way around dark volcanic rocks that look as if they just hardened ... More >>
Authentic Dialogue is the Music of Meaning
Wednesday, 9 March 2005, 12:43 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Dialogue is a word that has been rendered almost meaningless by having so many meanings to so many people. Politicians have appropriated the word and nearly destroyed its usefulness. But there is a deeper meaning to dialogue, having to do with shared exploration ... More >>
Is Group Meditation an Oxymoron?
Friday, 4 March 2005, 12:22 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
I have never understood the concept and practice of group meditation. The term has always sounded like an oxymoron to me. To my mind, awakening meditation is an inherently solitary art. Sometimes I take sittings in the backyard, but the freeway is less ... More >>
Can The UN Save Humanity From Hell?
Monday, 28 February 2005, 6:24 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
In another attempt to halt the hellish situation in the Sudan, Kofi Annan recently said, "While the United Nations may not be able to take humanity to heaven, it must act to save humanity from hell." More >>
Meditations (Politics): Meeting the Curve
Tuesday, 15 February 2005, 3:46 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The cornerstone of the short-lived and quickly crumbling post-Cold War order is the myth of ''the sole remaining superpower.'' It is an exceedingly false and dangerous premise that began with the fall of the Soviet Union. More >>
Meditations (Spirituality): Emergent Zone
Friday, 11 February 2005, 11:21 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Lent used to mean penance, fasting, and rituals galore. Compelled to go to Mass most days before school and on Sunday as a child, the 40 days of Lent were when you really got the full dose. More >>
Meditations: A New Theory of Human Nature, Pt. 3
Wednesday, 9 February 2005, 1:48 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A reader writes to say that he finds the new theory of human nature I have proposed in this column very optimistic, though he has questions. I’m not so sanguine myself, but I do feel that the worse things get, the more the worst and best in human beings ... More >>
Meditations (Politics): Freedom and Entanglement
Friday, 4 February 2005, 3:56 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The pictures of joyous Iraqis voting in their first election after American forces deposed the tyrant Saddam Hussein were heartwarming and heart wrenching. How painfully they contrast with the Conduit-in-Chief’s State of the Union address, built on the ... More >>
Meditations: Self-Knowing and Consciousness
Monday, 31 January 2005, 12:03 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
For the first time in two weeks, the morning breaks without fog, and the sun softly shines through a ceiling of high thin clouds. The winter’s day in California’s Central Valley grows increasingly clear. I seize the afternoon and drive to Upper Park. More >>
Meditations: A New Theory of Human Nature, Pt. 2
Friday, 28 January 2005, 1:52 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Meditations (Politics) - From Martin LeFevre in California A New Theory of Human Nature, Pt. 2 More >>
Meditations: A New Theory of Human Nature
Monday, 24 January 2005, 11:27 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
As absurd as it must appear in much of the rest of the world, the ''theory of evolution'' is a big controversy in America these days. Like the flat-earthers of the Middle Ages, who couldn’t stand the thought that the sun and stars did not revolve around ... More >>
Meditations (Politics): A Question of Faith
Thursday, 20 January 2005, 11:22 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Jesus said, ''Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.'' What then, will a warmonger like George W. Bush be called? More >>
Is It All Random?
Monday, 10 January 2005, 12:40 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A first cousin I was close to growing up, who has been grappling (to put it mildly) with cancer during the last year, said in a visit over the holidays that he still feels that events in life are essentially random. For the two of us, and for an untold ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: There Are No Countries Anymore
Saturday, 1 January 2005, 12:58 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The end of the year is the only time of the year when reflection is encouraged and expected. However, reflection and resolution are to New Year’s like going to church on Sunday is to religiosity—empty rituals holding less and less meaning in a world ... More >>
