The Books
Slow-cooked Thoughts
Slow-cooked Thoughts has a clear central theme: what is a right relationship with the world around us, including all its denizens and their respective environments.
The many facets of this book survey this theme from the viewpoints of art, nature, healthcare, a 10th Century poem, a trade opportunity made possible by decolonisation, an overland trip, Buddhism, Taoism, conceiving space, making history, start and evolution of life, how we view other species and how they view us.
Sixty eight colour photographs taken by the author graphically illustrate some of these points.
The author also looks at how species, previously dominant on earth, altered the environment by their interaction with it, eventually making it uninhabitable for themselves. This paved the way for another species to become dominant. He indicates why a change of mindset is needed by humans, if they wish to continue enjoying the beauty and bounty of nature.
Tao-Tossed Thoughts
In my previous book, Slow-Cooked Thoughts, I related how human life has taken an exacting toll on the planet, that the way to reverse this is to behave unselfishly towards all life forms and to share the earth’s resources fairly with them, rather than taking the largest piece of the cake, leaving them only the crumbs.
Tao-Tossed Thoughts also briefly refers to how an eighteen-acre land I bought thirty-eight years ago, and has been managed by a village society for the last twenty-eight, becoming the first community managed conservation project in Sri Lanka.
Since then, there have been a series of devastating natural disasters, such as bush fires, floods, earthquakes etc., as we continue to despoil our naturally self-sustaining wealth.
In this book I delve into origins: of the universe; formation of planets; life on earth and its evolution echoing sometimes what was expounded clearly two thousand five hundred years ago.
Tao-Tossed Thoughts also includes a talk I gave, Lionel Wendt, Nucleus of the `43 Group, the first modern art movement in Sri Lank and a few photo essays, some of which shed light on these topics.