Dear Friends and New Visitors,

An apology, first, to all the regular visitors for taking so long to update my site: I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to get back here. I’ve been working on so many projects in the last year that a lot of things have been buried at the bottom of the In-tray – the website being one of them.

I’m just about to enter the last phase of work on the new novel, the sequel the Shantaram. That should take me about 5 months of intensive writing and editing, 7 days a week, and should allow me to have the new book in the hands of publishers by mid-year. So, with that last long climb through the dark side of the mountain ahead of me, I’m taking this time out now to let you know what’s going on, and to hurl a few new entries into the site.

NEW STUFF

1) A New Essay

Some time ago, I was approached to provide input as a consultant to a new project that was in the early stages of development. This happens quite a lot: I work as a “philosopher gun for hire” giving my philosophical analysis and advice to any person, company or nation that’s trying to help us all move toward the New Paradigm of peaceful cooperation and conservation. In the case in question, the project was called “The Elders”.

The artist, Peter Gabriel, working with Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Richard Branson, and others had observed that if we do, indeed, live in a Global Village, we’ve lost contact with the council of village elders who might provide us with guidance proceeding from their experiential wisdom. They set out to establish a council of elders whose high moral authority, vast collective experience, and distance from active politics would qualify them to share a guiding wisdom with the world.

When I was invited to participate in the foundational workshops to establish the project, simply called The Elders, the natural focus for my philosophical inclination was in the area of definitions, and the kind of constitutional document that could provide a clear understanding of what The Elders actually stand for – and against, for that matter.

I suggested that a conference of world thinkers should be convened, and over the course of three days, the key aspects of an Elders moral philosophy should be thrown back and forth in free and open discussions. The conference was held in Windsor, and after synthesizing the input from all of the delegates and all of the sessions I set myself to the task of providing a set of key definitions, and the first draft of a constitutional document.

The set of definitions and the draft constitution appear on the website in the Philosophy Section of the site, then in the sub-section Essays & Comments, and then in a new entry headed The Elders.

2) A New Poem

I’ve included a new poem in the Poetry Section of the site. As with all of the poems in this series, it proceeds from my experience of the Sufi poetry and music. I know that the Sufi romantic tradition isn’t everyone’s cup of soma, but there are a lot of readers out there who’ve written to me saying that they like the poetry on the site, and the poem that appears in Shantaram, which is from the same series. I hope that those readers like the new poem, which is called The Forever Sea.

The poems that appear on this site, and other new unpublished poems, will appear in a collected edition some time in 2012.

3) New Philosophy Seminar

There’s a new seminar in this section, which sums up the philosopher’s tools already in the toolkit, and adds a couple of new ones.

Soon, when the toolkit is complete, we’ll start to work our way through the philosophical model, Resolution Theory, which I’ve developed through 35 years of study and experience.

4) New Q&A

Many readers have written to ask me for a response to two of the cataclysmic changes that have occurred in recent months: the Global Financial Collapse, and the freedom struggles in the Middle East.

In this update I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about the freedom struggles, and in the next update I’ll tackle the GFC. You can find the Q&A in the Essays & Comments Section, after clicking on the Philosophy Section.

5) New People Link

There’s a new friend to introduce in the People Links Section. I think you’ll find him to be an inspirational figure who can reignite hope and the determination never to lose heart for the struggle to help the defenceless and the marginalized in our communities.

Until next time, I send you my love and happy wishes, Greg.