BRLSI invited philosopher and writer Julian Baggini to deliver a talk on Tuesday 1 September 2026, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm BST. Drawing on his recent book Tao, Zen & a Cup of Coffee, his talk explores how ideas from Taoism and Zen can illuminate everyday life through attentive engagement with the ordinary. Ahead of the event, Professor Baggini kindly answered five questions for the BRLSI website.

1. What first led you to think that something as ordinary as making a cup of coffee could illuminate a philosophy of life?

When I was researching How the World Thinks, my history of global philosophy, I came across a 1906 book called The Book of Tea, by Okakura Kakuzō. It explained the Japanese blend of Tao and Zen for a Western audience. I thought it was brilliant but had aged. So I had the idea to rewrite it using contemporary coffee culture rather than traditional Japanese tea culture. Coffee worked well but you could almost talk about anything, since a core idea is that there is a kind of holographic structure to reality, meaning everything in the whole can be found in any part.

2. What gap do you think Coffeeism fills that both organised religion and contemporary secular thinking often leave unanswered?

Organised religion is, for me, too world denying, looking for meaning in the transcendent rather than in the immanent. Much secular thinking, however, has a certain sterility and lacks something important in the religious sensibility: a kind of humble reverence for the natural world. It also lacks ritual. Coffeeism (which is just Okakura’s Teaism) for me combines what is valuable in the religious orientation to life with a rational, materialist worldview. It gives us a set of attitudes to life, mortality and transience that I find incredibly insightful.

3. Many people approach Taoism and Zen hoping for calm or self-improvement. Does that expectation risk missing something more demanding at the heart of these traditions?

I don’t think calm is the right goal. A certain degree of equanimity should result from an honest, realistic acceptance of the human condition. But that means accepting the bitter and the sweet, the pain as well as the happiness. And sometimes we cannot and should not remain calm. Tranquility requires closing your heart and eyes to the troubling aspects of reality.

Self-improvement is a good goal, but that should be an ethical project. It is not about becoming fitter, stronger, happier. We should always strive to be better people.

4. Modern life prizes productivity and constant activity. What do Tao and Zen suggest about living well in a culture that often leaves little room for stillness?

I’m not sure stillness is the right word. What they both promote is attentiveness. You can also call this mindfulness, but by this I don’t mean a formal kind of meditation but a way of being one tries to follow in as much of life as possible. Because attention is always important, it matters as much we make or drink coffee as it does when we’re, say, walking in the mountains or listening to music. It’s about attending the rich textures of daily life. Attention can also be part of very un-still activity. I don’t joke when I say playing tennis is my form of meditation. It’s all about maintaining focus, not being distracted by intrusive thoughts, concerns about the scoreline or frustration with errors.

5. What practical habit or change in perspective would you most hope BRLSI audiences take away from your talk?

I don’t think you can listen to one talk and change your life. My hope is that the talk will encourage people to explore the ideas in the book more carefully, which of course means reading the whole thing! I think wisdom always starts with acceptance, but you need to be clear about what it is you’re accepting and what you should not accept at all. I think Okakura provides a model of how we can and should not just accept but embrace our limited, short and sometimes painful lives, taking joy where we can find it without grasping.

To book – please go to the event page here.