Ian Gawler, director of The Gawler Foundation
“What happened to the other shoe?”
GOOD . . .
INTIMACY Feeling emotionally safe and deeply loved by my wife Ruth. To share our love of beauty and to be open and honest with each other is a treat. What a blast!
HOME-GROWN There is so much that is good about having your own vegie garden. Learn the laws of botany and how it works and you can build a beautiful garden. Learn the laws of the mind, which are strikingly similar, learn how the mind works, and you can build a beautiful life.
MENTAL DISCIPLINE Meditation reliably gives the capacity to recognise true beauty. It is within you.
BAD . . .
SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS This is really
tough — being judgmental is bad but calling it bad is being judgmental. This conundrum
either leads to a headache or the need to work out what discrimination is.
BIRTHDAY PARTIES This is where the lives of young people are celebrated
with junk food. What is going on here? Since when was something that is bad
for you a treat? This is either rampant stupidity or the triumph of multinational
marketing forces.
THE OTHER SHOE What do you do with it? The favourite question I am asked by
those brave enough to address my oneleggedness. Not what happened to the missing leg; what happened to the other shoe? Actually, I have my left shoes hand made as I dislike waste and do not know anyone who only has a rather wide, size 91/2 right foot.
UGLY . . .
MODERN ART Much of which is thinly veiled psychotherapy — a valuabletherapeutic tool and really quite wonderful if you can get paid for it. And if paid for, it must make the artist feel a good deal better. Quite rapidly I expect. So quite valuable; but often not a pretty picture.
Ian Gawler is holding a series of lectures and workshops in Perth: Medicine of the Mind lecture, June 18; Meditation Day, June 20; and Health, Healing & Wellbeing workshop, June 21. www.cancersupportwa.org.au
Filed under: Media Coverage
