Below is a press release given by Colin Mallard‘s partner, Val.
The Work of Colin Mallard will benefit refugees
It is almost 6 months since our local philosopher and writer Colin Mallard died.
Mallard has had a booth at Kitty Coleman Gardens Arts and Bloom Festival for as long as anyone can remember. He showed and sold his photographs and books and was happy to discuss any aspect of his philosophy.
This tradition will be carried on during the long weekend of May 21- 23rd in the same barn at the back of the gardens. Colin cared passionately about injustice and drew attention to it through his books. We would like to continue his work by donating profits from the sale of his books and photographs to the refugee crisis.
Mallard had a consuming interest in the nature of peace and who or what we are as human beings. This led him to a deep study of Taoism, and Zen and, latterly, the Advaita Masters, Ramesh Balsekar and Dr. Jean Klein.
When he was diagnosed with a cancer caused by asbestos he was given only a short time to live. He was very ill at times but always lived with life rather than death, with the knowledge that the present moment is all that exists.
He continued to share his understanding and also dedicated his last months to writing a sequel to his award winning book, Stillpoint, a novel of war, peace, politics and Palestine.
The new book Going to Gaza: Ten days that changed the world posed the question, what else can we do? Over seventy years of continuous war suggest we haven’t found a solution. What if we tried something else, something really different, something never tried before?
Mallard’s book describes what happened when truth takes precedence over belief, when softness overcomes the hard and gentleness the inflexible.
“If there is no awareness of what took place and what continues to this day, how can there be any real understanding?” Colin asked. “With deep understanding, shifts in behavior spontaneously take place and peace becomes a possibility.”
“Beliefs are not facts” he pointed out, “We may believe we can fly but gravity doesn’t care what we believe.”
