There are a lot of people out (mostly students now, I think) protesting against spending cuts in education. This state, California, as well as the country as a whole, is massively in debt. However, all that I hear are frantic cries for: no more spending cuts and no more new taxes. Now, just how is that suppose to work?
On top of this, when California had a massive budgetary surplus, the people spent it left and right, saving none for an economic downturn. Should I laugh or cry? My kids as toddlers had a better sense of frugality than many adults these days. I can only guess that this is due to the habits ‘taught’ in an extremely affluent culture like ours. It was different in the old pre-capitalist days of famine and serious want. Back then, people were motivated to save surpluses. Continue reading ‘Why Not Protest To Raise Taxes?’
First, consider this quote from “Slime Mold as Master Engineer” on research reported in Science News:
“The slime mold has no central brain or indeed any awareness of the overall problem it is trying to solve, but manages to produce a structure with similar properties to the real rail network…” [This behavior] “is really difficult to capture by words,”
This exemplifies the impetus to maintain self integrity I discussed in my last post on Extinguishing Self. I see this impetus as extending throughout creation; it is the driving force to be, do, and succeed, and results in feats of engineering in humans and slime molds alike. Continue reading ‘Self Integrity, Slime, and Karma’
One of the main themes in Buddhism is the ‘extinguishing of self’ through ‘enlightenment’… or is it the other way around? They seem to go hand in hand; are they are the same thing? I find that asking such basic questions on word meaning beforehand helps me when pondering life. So, I must ask, “What is self in the first place?” The idea here is that understanding a problem more deeply can help solve it.
Eligible bachelors
There is a curious thing I notice in the life of my two sons. They are not chasing girls like I was at their age. They aren’t gay either, so what gives? I look back on my youthful lust and see a disconnected lad looking for companionship that my ‘independent’ upbringing (plus innate nature, I suppose) never provided. All I ever really wanted was intimacy and acceptance. And the only path to that deeper sense of connection was through a boy-girl relationship. That was true of my wife and most everyone I know (especially in Western cultures). Ironically, our culture’s love of ‘independence and self reliance’ actually leave its people with just the opposite, deep down anyway. Continue reading ‘Significant Others’
Leaving Meiji park after yoga
After settling down in Tokyo, I began going the humungous Meiji park to do yoga in the morning before work. While standing on my head and watching people walking off in the distance, I noticed something very odd. The people had an obvious bob in their gate as they walked. Initially I wondered if they were walking that way on purpose for I’d never seen such a sight before. Then I realized I’d never actually watched people walking while doing the headstand.
All it took for me to see our human way of walking as it actually occurs was a 180 degree (upside down) change of perspective. These days it is difficult for me to notice this ‘bob’ in people, when I do yoga down at the beach. The novelty wore off; I guess familiarity breeds blindness.
Continue reading ‘Headstands and Apes’
It seems my mind is always tempted to look toward ‘tomorrow’, whether ‘tomorrow’ is five minutes from now or five week from now. I reckon it is the hunter gather instinct that is driving this, for I see it occurring in everyone I know. We are always jumping out ahead of the moment. Why? Because we can. The mind’s space is larger than most mundane moments can stimulate. It seeks greener pastures, i.e., the hunter gather drive to look for that tasty tidbit the certainly must lie ahead. Continue reading ‘The Future Takes Care Of Itself’
Of the two, students are obviously the most important consideration. After all, teachers can lead students to water, but thirst determines whether students drink. Thirst is the weak link. As chapter 41 puts it, When the best student hears about the way, he practices it assiduously; when the average student hears about the way, it seems to him one moment there and gone the next… and so on.
Never-the-less, cultures place great importance on the teacher, so what makes for a good teacher? Usually the answer centers on how capable the teacher is, and their command of the material. However, after home schooling my kids, I discovered the more important, yet under-recognized, side of teaching lay deeper. Continue reading ‘Teachers and Students’
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