A MP3 version if this talk is here. Today, many people feel Dante’s Paradiso is irrelevant. It’s not. It is the place of true perception and delightful knowledge, and the goal of the Divine Comedy. The question is how to follow Dante’s lead and become aware of this domain of reality that is here, now… Continue reading How To Know Paradise and Know It Now – new Dante talk
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Know Thyself – Rupert Spira and Mark Vernon in conversation
An MP3 podcast of the conversation is here. What is the direct path of Advaita Vedanta and why is it significant for so many now? How is it found across traditions, including within Christianity? Why might it matter to us today, collectively as well as individually? What are its links to psychotherapy, individuality, freedom, God?… Continue reading Know Thyself – Rupert Spira and Mark Vernon in conversation
Book Launch and Celebration of Dante 700, event recording
MP3 version here. For further details about Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey – https://www.markvernon.com/books/dantes-divine-comedy-book For further details about the Dante Society of London – https://dantesocietylondon.com/index.html 2:34 Welcome 3:23 Dante’s first 700 years 6:08 Dante Society of London 9:14 Invoking Dante today 10:33 Introducing my new book 18:08 Reading in Italian and… Continue reading Book Launch and Celebration of Dante 700, event recording
Dante’s Divine Comedy – book published!
Angelico Press has announced the release of Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey. Dante Alighieri was early in recognizing that our age has a problem. His hometown, Florence, was at the epicenter of the move from the medieval world to the modern. He realized that awareness of divine reality was shifting, and… Continue reading Dante’s Divine Comedy – book published!
Against Moral Christianity
My Philosophy column in the new Idler, September-October 2021. There is an old tradition of writing against figures or groups you disagree with. “Against” is the operative word. Augustine wrote “Contra Faustum”, which was a riposte to the Manichaean, Faustus. Thomas Aquinas wrote “Contra Gentiles”, which was a defence of Christianity against Judaism and Islam,… Continue reading Against Moral Christianity
Did Dante really go to paradise?
An MP3 version of this talk and others is online here. In this 700th anniversary year, the truth of the Divine Comedy is a key issue. Modern critics may explain its spiritual veracity by putting its impact down to social construction and performativity. But Dante knew about literature as much as he knew about divine… Continue reading Did Dante really go to paradise?
What the West can learn from the East – conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
A MP3 version of the conversation is online here. Meditation, yoga, vegetarianism. Eastern practices have become a feature of western life. But what do we learn from them? This episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, with Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon, is prompted by a sense that the western way of life is being challenged, if… Continue reading What the West can learn from the East – conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
Nondualism, Divine Life and Now – on Looking East in Winter by Rowan Williams
A MP3 version of the talk can be found here. Rowan Williams has written another hugely significant book, one ripe with meaning for now. In this talk, I unpack its themes of non-dualism and Trinitarian life, eros and kenosis, politics and justice, seeing truthfully and destroying the world. 0:39 Addressing the Anthropocene 1:28 The need… Continue reading Nondualism, Divine Life and Now – on Looking East in Winter by Rowan Williams
Not OK, computer
My July-Aug 2021 philosophy column at The Idler. The ubiquity of computers is a worry. On the one hand there are those actively pursuing a future in which humanity lives at the beck and call of an ultra-advanced artificial intelligence, called the Singularity. It is championed not only by private companies like Google but government… Continue reading Not OK, computer
The fractal consciousness of Dantes’ Divine Comedy
I’ve a piece on Dante just published at Aeon. Dante Alighieri was early in recognising that our age has a problem. He was the first writer to use the word moderno, in Italian, and the difficulty he spotted with the modern mind is its limited capacity to relate to the whole of reality, particularly the… Continue reading The fractal consciousness of Dantes’ Divine Comedy