I had a little bakery on the Thai Cambodian border in the early 60’s. It was little more than a shack, but enough for me and my Thai ‘wife’(1) (along with her mother, brother, sister). Most of the customers were Thai peasants who would stop by for some sponge cake on their return from the town market. Being partial to sponge cake, business never grew; I ate up most of the profits. After rising early to bake the days offerings, I’d sit at the front of the shop and swat at flies while awaiting customers. Continue reading ‘Poor Thais And Rich Swedes’
John Wheeler, was a visionary physicist and teacher who helped invent the theory of nuclear fission, gave black holes their name and argued about the nature of reality with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. He must also have been a ‘closet Taoist’. He had this to say about language and time:
“We have learned how to use our words. It’s a fantastic thing – we humans are so easily trapped in our own words. The word time, for instance. We run into puzzles about the concept of time and then we say, ‘Oh what a terrible thing’. We don’t realize we’re the source of the puzzle because we invented the word.” Continue reading ‘Time’s Arrow’
A recent chapter of the week opened up a curious dilemma. According to that chapter, when the way prevails in the empire, fleet-footed horses are relegated to ploughing the fields; when the way does not prevail in the empire, war-horses breed on the border. But, on the other side we have: The way is broad, reaching left as well as right, and of course, The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way. Here is one way to reconcile these seemingly conflicting views. Continue reading ‘Desire and Contentment’
In recent years I’ve realized there is more to meets the eye when it comes to learning, understanding, and knowing. Perhaps, these three cannot be fathomed, and so they are confused and looked upon as one. I’ve attempted to put in plain words the differences I see, but words fall short. A few days ago I fell into another discussion with Luke (older son) and my wife when I blurted out “people don’t learn anything.” My word, in writing that down just now, I don’t even agree with myself! (I confess, I often blurt stuff out, which in the wake produces grist for my mind’s mill. ) Continue reading ‘Learning What You Know’
Chimp mother climbs a tree for food while carrying her dead infant.
There are a couple of articles in recent issues of Science News, Chimps may be aware of others’ deaths and Neanderthal genome yields evidence of interbreeding with humans, that challenge the universal myths of human uniqueness. Our uniqueness is expressed overtly as in the Christian ‘created in God’s image’, or simply implied by an attempt to nail down ‘origins’(1).
I suppose the Tao Te Ching’s disclaimers let us off that hook somewhat, e.g., ‘the way that can be spoken of is not the constant way‘… and ‘… one who speaks does not know‘, and finally, ‘… are you capable of not knowing anything?‘ Hmm? Continue reading ‘We’re Not So Different After All’
Grandma, 82, reading the paper
The use of chairs in the West is ubiquitous. One of the most important life style changes I ever made was giving up my use of the chair fifty years ago. Chairs (and sit down toilets) are good examples of my motto, ‘short term pleasure attracts long term pain; short term pain attracts long term pleasure‘. The physical ease a chair provides gradually robs the body of an important part of its natural capability. Over time that bring long term pain. This is easy to see, for example, by comparing older Western people with older Japan people. Continue reading ‘Chairs: One of Our Big Mistakes’
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