So I’m back at work, along with a large chunk of the office. It’s quite a change as last christmas I was part of the IT team for a manufacturing firm, now I’m in a large service company. The difference is pretty big, as manufacturing firms shut till January, but we provide 24×7 support. Several members of my family also have very little time off and are back at work.

I was thinking about the march to a 24×7 society, but also the speed things move at. What respite is there, where is the time for a little introspection?

I can’t shake the feeling that if people took the chance to stop and really think about things, they might not have chosen this path.

This’ll be the first time I’ve ever had a blog or anything like this at this time of year, so this is a new one on me. My Internet connection at home is down till the 2nd of Jan as well, so I have to do this from work.

I’d just like to wish everyone a great holiday season, I’ll be back in work on the 27th, so I’ll no doubt pick up again then.

I had a negative moment yesterday. It’s amazing how your emotions can rollercoaster during the bad times, I actually came close to jacking it all in and walking away from my job.

This morning I tried taking a lighter approach, deliberately having a joke with the users who’ve rung me and taking the piss a bit with some colleagues who’ve transferred callers to me. I feel much better.

It feels like I’m engaged in a Cargo Cult, like I’ve erected a little model of happiness on the seashore of my soul and it’s beginning to attract the real thing. It brings into focus something I was reminded during my recent venture into Buddhist meditation at the local New Kadampa Buddhist centre, your suffering is largely in your mind.

It makes sense, you suffer mentally because in effect, you agree that you should be suffering mentally and then proceed to do youself over.  You erect a little model of suffering in your mind and engage in your own bit of cargo cult.

Interesting thought, isn’t it?

So, this is Wordpress.

I’m impressed so far, much more so than with Blogger. com!

If you’re reading me for the first time, welcome! You can find my old blogger.com blog here.

This’ll be a work in progress, and I think this format offers me a LOT more flexibility than Blogger.

So, I’m Richard, the theme is eastern philosophy, spirituality, geekism and anything else that crosses my mind while I’m near a keyboard. Let’s get started!

I was thinking the other day about our habit of making things real that don’t exist. I think the technical name is Reification.

Amazing thing when you think about it, let me try to do something here, I’m going to try to argue that Britain does not in fact exist. Though this could go for any nation.

What is Britain? A patch of land, air and water? Some buildings and cities? I don’t think so. After all what is it about those things that makes them British? Put some under a microscope, analyse it, and you won’t find any molecules of Britishness there at all.

In my view, Britain is a set of ideas and concepts, yes there are passports, driving licenses, all sorts of things, but subject them to the analysis above, you’ll not find any Britishness. Without the idea, the concept of Britishness, they’re just so much paper and ink. Our minds are responsible for making it real.

We do this with our problems as well, I’ve caught myself doing it a lot recently, treating problems as a physical thing. I went to a Buddhist meditation session at a local Buddhist centre last weekend, the focus there was on just how much of what you think is important isn’t, it’s all in your mind and it’s just temporary.

I was amazed at how freer I felt when that finally sank in.

Well, it’s been a while since I posted. A lot has happened, those of you who’ve cast an eye over my updated profile will have guessed that my long term relationship is over and I’m trying to find my way on my own again. It’s a difficult time and I’m just taking things one day at a time.

Its been a huge change in my life and the ramifications of this are still being played out. I can’t help but feel that these things happen for a reason, and I’m focussing on what I’ve learned from the last three and a half years and just getting into being back in the Black Country.

I’ve been looking at things and I’ve realised that as things gradually settle, I have a chance to completely revisit my core beliefs/interests and explore new avenues of interest. The whole thing is tinged by sadness that I have nobody to share it with.