Designing this website

Website design has been greatly simplified since I designed my first website in 2002, using Dreamweaver, which was one of the first WYSIWYG editors. I am impressed with the capabilities of WordPress and I recommend it for those wanting to start their own websites. The image of the ocean that I have used in the header has many associations for me. It is from my own photo collection from the north coast of Kauai. There is a wild beauty in this image of the ocean that reminds me of romantic paintings of nature by artists like Caspar David Friedrich. Any philosopher that takes nondualism seriously must integrate nature into his or her ideas and worldview. Conversely, any ascetic turning away from nature and the world is inherently dualistic. We are said to have our beginnings in the sea, and the sea is also used in many metaphors of unity of our self and God (although I believe that our individuality remains). Finally, just as there are dangers navigating in rough seas, so there are risks to philosophical self-enquiry. I hope that my writings have identified some of the shoals and reefs that we may encounter, and that even if what Karl Jaspers referred to as philosophical shipwreck is necessary if we are to overcome our previously limited ideas, we may have the hope of ultimate transcendence. Here is another image from nature in Kauai that I have used on the cover of one of my books: a rainbow eucalyptus tree displaying a prism of colour that reminds me of the prism of our many modes of consciousness that arise from the unity of our selfhood.