This and other experiences in Asia over the years gave me intimate insight into the lives of peasants. I was virtually one myself, at least financially speaking. Although I never worked long days in the rice fields, I had settled into what amounted to a peasant life style.

Fast forward about a decade to Sweden. There I settled into an area of Stockholm inhabited by the wealthiest Swedes (the King also lived in that area). I never settled into a Swedish life style though, my more peasant-like one being more comfortable. I couldn’t help notice and compare the lives of the upper class folks I came to know there, with the peasants I had lived among in Asia. One thing stood out like a sore thumb: these wealthy folks seemed no happier than poor Thai peasants. Odd to say, if anything, they even seemed a bit less so.

Looking back, I understand it better. Living creatures (including us) live out their days struggling against the inevitable (i.e., the entropic path in Buddha’s First Truth”…birth, growth, decay and death” ). The instinct to struggle (the survival instinct) is built into life’s DHA. In the case of peasants, the struggle instinct is fully engaged in the simple operation of basic survival. Not so for wealthier folk. On what does a rich person’s struggle instinct struggle? It certainly isn’t engaged in practical down-to-earth survival!

On the other side of this struggle instinct, in life’s equation, is the innate drive to seek ‘happiness’. I’ll call that the contentment instinct. Like the ‘fight or flight’ equation, each must find balance between struggle and contentment. On one hand we stir, move forward and work; on the other, we are still, return and rest. So far so good. When our struggle instinct engages itself in down-to-earth challenges, it is operating closer to the hunter gatherer circumstances of its evolution.

Wealth (i.e., more is better) promises us an escape from nitty-gritty challenges. Surly then we can live struggle-free, content in comfort and security. Actual success in achieving ‘more and more’ (we call it progress) has unintended consequences: What, pray tell, will one’s struggle instinct strive for then? Changing circumstances doesn’t delete DNA. The acquisition of wealth doesn’t neutralize the struggle instinct. Oops. Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant.

The striking thing I remember from Sweden was how wealthy folk worried about trivial things, like the selling of South African grapefruit in Sweden, while Thai peasants worry about practical challenges like the price of lard with which to cook. It appears that being spared from struggling on practical basics can easily lower overall contentment and happiness. Actual wealth delivers profoundly less than it promises. This more-is-better illusion is one of nature’s most potent hoodwinks. Instinct overrides reason, and we take the bait even though we think that we know that ‘money doesn’t bring happiness’⁽²⁾. As Christ said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God“. So, be aware and beware!

⁽¹⁾ I had planned to settle down in Thailand. When money ran really low I went off to Vietnam to work and save money. The plan was to return with a grubstake and upgrade the bakery. That plan changed, but that’s another story. Suffice to say, at that tender age I lacked the experience to know that plans are little more than visions based on past experience. Life, on the other hand, flows out moment to moment into what is called indistinct and shadowy.

⁽²⁾ Wealth is relative! If you are starving and you find food, you are profoundly wealthier, at least until your food runs out. The Thai peasants were wealthy relative to the many folks I saw in India, Ethiopia, Niger, for example. A truer definition of wealth is found in the Tao Te Ching’s, He who knows contentment is rich, or as Henry David Thoreau put it, “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone”. From this standpoint, Mother Theresa’s view that America was ‘poorer’ than India holds more water. Mind you, it is not that people in India don’t want to be rich; they do. And when they succeed, they will be as ‘poor’ as us.

By the way, among other things, wealth ‘frees’ me to struggle at writing down as coherently as possible what I see. By the same token, wealth ‘frees’ you to struggle to see if there is anything coherent, even useful, in what I say. The struggle continues and we’re happy.

Our money is family money… really. It is one big pot from which each takes as needed. This is radically different from the independent model upon which my parents raised me. I did chores for which I got a salary. I suppose the idea here is to prepare the me (their child) for the employer – employee relationship that would lie ahead.

That was not to be my model for raising my kids. Here, everyone in the family did / does ‘chores’, but not as some ‘job’, but rather as part of what needs doing as part of practical daily living. A shared life involves shared responsibility (which makes life feel more shared). Here, each takes on what they are most naturally capable of doing. ‘It happened to us naturally.’

Having nature as my model, along with experience, has taught me that turning over to kids as much responsibility as they can handle, regardless of their age, makes them feel more responsible, and thus, I reckon, makes life more meaningful. I know that was my parents aim; they just didn’t understand that their approach often hindered this. Having the opportunity to have responsibility is the most direct way to feel connected and participating with others.  Needless to say, this fosters core life satisfaction and mental health. Perhaps the failure of culture to offer this avenue to kids is what makes drugs an attractive escape.

Over the years I’ve noticed a common desire to not delegate responsibility, but rather maintain control. I guess this stems from an innate paternalistic and materialistic instincts to control the situation, i.e., ‘protect’ us from ourselves and the mistakes we might make. The fact is, however, the control and responsibility go together. Giving one more responsibility means giving them more control and the freedom to stumble.

This short video about a 78-year old blind man living with his 13 family members in India and how they share one bank account hints at something our culture abandoned in its obsessive pursuit of self reliance. Ironically, we seem to be even more inclined to not take individual responsibility, but instead point the finger and ’sue their pants off’. I’ve heard people refer to our country increasingly becoming a ‘nanny state’.

Of course to be fair, our country is not alone in that by any means. My point is that the virtue of  ‘independence’ is an illusion. We are a socially interdependent species, period. Pushing an essentially un-natural virtue of ‘independence’ onto a people will always backfire. As that old TV add use to say, its not nice to fool Mother Nature. Why do we do it? Somehow it ties in with modern society which is set up to meet the needs of a capitalist, consumer oriented, growth based civilization. All I can say is, this is something which is liable to rebound. I mean, global warming may be the least of our problems going forward. But no worries, Mother Nature will rebalance it in the long run.

Bathtub Tai Chi

I have found that multitasking is generally inefficient. My desire to do more and more (rather than less and less) deceives me into thinking I can actually accomplish more and more doing various tasks simultaneously. This make is almost impossible to  be as careful at the end as at the beginning, no matter what I am doing. Well, I finally have learned my lesson. I’m not sure it is learning that accounts for my increased wisdom in this matter. More likely it is because I’m older and have less energy to run around chasing after desires as in my youth.

Kyle's Family Friendly Version

However, I feel that there is one avenue of multitasking that really does pay off.  Maintaining good posture while doing things is multitasking in that you have to ‘keep centered’ all the while. The photo above shows another version of multitasking – drying off after a bath and training balance simultaneously⁽¹⁾. Balance becomes increasingly important as we age, and doing something to counter the deterioration of balance that creeps up on us over the years makes sense.

Sitting on the floor either erect, with a bit of a forward bend, or other ‘yoga like’ things counters some of the negative side of sedentary activity.  In the photo here I am flossing my teeth, reading Science News, and bending forward. Three activities done simultaneously and additive (neither interferes with the other, as far as I see).

Forward bending, flossing and studing

I expect the reason this kind of multitasking is additive is that the activities are duties, not desire driven pleasures or goals, except for my wish to do what is right for my body.  The wish to do what is ‘right’ must be the core definition of Buddha’s Fourth Truth:  “… whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty…” .

⁽¹⁾ The smiley face version of my was son Kyle’s creation. It is surprising how modest both my sons are. Perhaps it’s a reaction to how little concern I have for such things. To see a humorous take on this, see  their weekly video blog, The Abbott-y Blogcast.

My extended family

When is comes to human nutrition, it is a struggle separating the wheat from the chaff. Each era has its red hearing and blind alleys (or worse) of nutrition.  What was once thought good for health may be found bad; what was once thought bad for health may be found good. In the 70’s I got ‘nutrition religion’ and wanted to find out the ‘truth’. I spent many hours at Stockholm’s main library searching for all information I could find on nutrition, great apes and tangential issues, e.g., biology, history.⁽¹⁾

I soon discovered a wide divergence of opinion on nutrition. The science was ‘in progress’. For all I knew it might take science 1000 years to settle things. I couldn’t wait, so I decided to begin by finding out what  the other great apes ate. While humans and the other apes are vastly different in life style, they share pretty much the same biology. I figured that knowing what they ate would give me a sound base line upon which to study the matter.

The chart below is a summary of the content of some essential nutrients in three food groups. It shows which nutrients would be available if one were forced to get their daily 2000 calorie from only that food group. As you can see, consuming only 2000 calories of green vegetables gives you copious amounts of what you need without the fat that the other two groups provide. Moreover, the other two groups are void of vitamin C, an essential vitamin that our body can’t synthesis, and a paltry to none amount of vitamin A, another essential vitamin… and who knows what other subtly essential veggie nutrients yet to be discovered!

Not surprisingly, the chimpanzee diet is more similar to the ‘greens’ food group than the other two. In fact, Jane Goodall found that chimpanzees in the wild consume over 200 different plants.

. . . .

Vitamin D

Vitamin D remained hidden from me until I read research some years ago. I realize, of course this makes total sense – we evolved in a sunny environment, Africa. The people who move up north developed whiter skin to let more sunlight in to make more vitamin D. Now we do most of our living indoors, and there’s no sunshine there. Hence, supplements would be crucial. Even more so for darker skin folks living in northern climates. It turns out then that we need at least 10 x what was long thought to be the Daily requirement. Science gets there eventually, it just take time.

Omega 3

The lack of essential fats in our diet has been another recent discovery. Unlike most fat in our diet, these turn out to play a key role in the immune system (among other things). A major source for this was found to be fish. However, great apes don’t eat a lot of fish. In fact, none I’d guess. So where would animals like us get these essential oils? Interestingly, the most widespread source of these particular lipids (fatty acids) is green vegetables! There you go; just eat your several kilograms (about 10 pounds).

Well, that’s not practical as we know. It turns out, animals that eat green veggies have a higher proportion of omega-3 in their fat, and insects are the main green veggie predator out there. There you go; just eat your bugs.

Insects would have been a major food for our ancestors, just as they are for chimpanzees today. Alas, insects in our diet are not that practical either. A good alternative is to eat green veggies, walnuts, and ground flax seed. Tasty and also containing many other essential nutrients.

Faulty information and hype

Vitamin E is a good example of faulty, perhaps hyped, information. I have noticed over the years the buzz surrounding vitamin E. However, I found no natural source for ‘mega doses’ of vitamin E for our ancestors or other apes. Hmm… Come to find out, ‘mega dose’ vitamin E actually helps cancer grow. One problem with ‘mega dose’ vitamin E (or ‘mega dose’ anything, I’d bet) is that this creates an imbalance vis-à-vis other nutrients.

Balance is key

Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)

The same balance issue surrounding vitamin E is true of the amounts and types of fat we consume. The body manufactures omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) by converting the essential fatty acid, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) — found in veggies, flaxseeds, walnuts, etc. This ability is lessened if the diet is too high in omega-6 fatty acids from vegetable oils from corn, sunflower, soybean or safflower. And guess what? Modern diets are extremely over weight in the latter, omega-6 fatty acids. Oops.

⁽¹⁾ It is odd looking back on this now, pre Google. What an information wilderness that was. Without Google it was much harder to come by information. Ironically, the difficulty now is sifting through the tons of information to find what is relevant. Win some lose some. In this post, I’ve just given an overview of this situation – the big picture. Now, with the Google, you can chase down the particulars you need.

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.

The radically different path my sons seem to be on is not that surprising when considered from a symptoms point of view. The boys get a level of acceptance and intimacy from me and my wife that only a ‘taoist’ paradigm can give. (Note, my use of small ‘t’ ‘taoist’, not Taoist.) They never felt the need to rebel as teenagers; how can you rebel against a ‘taoist’ point of view; how can one push back against nothing? By not pushing self reliance on them, self reliance happened to them naturally. In other words, to paraphrase chapter 2: It is because we lay claim to no self reliance, that self reliance never deserts us.

True, we do have a family business which gives them something to sink their teeth into. Also, I gladly let them take on any level of responsibility they wish (something neither my parents, nor any I knew, seem willing to do; parents want to maintain control). Come to think of it, a sense of responsibility also conforms to the view that we often get just the opposite of what we push for. Or, to paraphrase chapter 22: He does not consider himself responsible, and so is illustrious (i.e., responsible).

Much of what parents do in raising their children is in reaction to, and symptomatic of,  their needs and fears. I find most people need to think they are in control (i.e., free will), and end up pushing that ’story’ onto their kids. Teenager then just end up rebelling against this projection of parental expectations. Our vain struggle for free will and choice is such a waste of time and energy. I find I waste much less, now that I understand that my actions (or inactions) are simply reactions – symptoms of deeper causes. Being aware of this moment – to – moment ‘karma’, I can not help but be more tentative, hesitant, and vacant like a valley.

So when will my sons find their “significant others”? Unlike me, I am guessing they will seek a mate in earnest only when they feel the real inner pull to have a family of their own. Hmm, I better keep taking good care of myself if I ever want to see grandchildren!

Background
Memories become dimmer as the years fly by. Many are even too misty to write down without filling in the voids with poetic license (fiction). Still, I’ve set out to fetch what memories remain before they fade any further. See: The Further One Goes for background on this ‘Times of Yore’ series.

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.

The moral here for me: I must counteract familiarity to see the world anew, and sometimes to even see the world as it may actually be. So pray tell, how can I counteract familiarity?

Trusting language (words and names) helps impart a sense of familiarity. The more I trust it, the more readily I think that one know. The upside: This makes me feel more secure with ‘reality’. The downside: This deaden my proper sense of awe.

I say, give me a sense of awe any day!  Mystery upon mystery – The gateway of the manifold secrets.

Keeping mindful of this tendency is invaluable. Conscientiously done, life turns out much better than otherwise I find. For me, chapter 14 speaks to this:

Hold fast to the way of antiquity
In order to keep in control the realm of today.
The ability to know the beginning of antiquity
Is called the thread running through the way.

So, what about the future. Shouldn’t we look ahead for potential opportunity or dangers which lie there? Actually, the real opportunities and dangers are found in the present. Being here in the moment is the best way to take advantage of opportunity and avoid danger. The future actually does take care of itself when I am fully engaging in the present. For me, chapter 64 speak to this perfectly:

It is easy to maintain a situation while it is still secure;
It is easy to deal with a situation before symptoms develop;
It is easy to break a thing when it is yet britle;
It is easy to dissolve a thing while it is yet minute.
Deal with a thing while it is still nothing;
Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in.

Looking out to the future actually robs from the present, and besides:

Foreknowledge is the flowery embellishment of the way, and the beginning of folly.

Speaking of foreknowledge, I tried my hand at foretelling it for awhile. In the 70’s I learned to read palms, cast horoscopes, do the I-ching, Tarot cards and a few other things. The most fascinating part of it was how people reacted to me telling them their past, present and future. Those that had faith from the start in what I was doing not only bought every word, but often amplified it. They believed!

Those who didn’t have faith from the start were less than convinced and neutral at best. It only went to show how our expectations play a huge role in how and what we see. Anything that seems to support our expectations reinforces them, and anything that doesn’t we usually discount heavily or ignore.

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.

Home schooling turned out well for my children. This was obviously not due to my command of the material. Sure, in some areas I have sufficiently knowledge, in others just minimal. Either way, I never really ‘taught’ them much of anything, at least overtly. The key to my ‘teaching’ success was simply not getting in their way! That allowed them to follow their curiosity. However, that doesn’t mean total laze fare. I was ‘right there’, but in a shadowy presence kind of way.

For example, Luke was learning computer programming, and whenever he ran into ‘insurmountable’ difficulty he would come to me. I know next to nothing factual on the subject; I would just be a sounding board, occasionally asking questions, or offering observations, based upon my overall life experience. It is amazing how well this approach actually works. The only true requirement was being patient and connected (i.e., generally curious and interested).

In fact, I reckon my sons have learned what they know more through what I didn’t say than anything I said. Does this have anything to do with the teaching that uses no words? I suppose, though even calling it that can become misleading.

Knowing when not to say something (teach) is most important, by far. That allows one to stumble as a child, which is how we all learn to walk and talk! Just imagine if your parents had hovered over you correcting every misstep as you learned to walk or to talk? Not fun! Not helpful! Not efficient! Doing it ‘wrong’ is essential part of finding how to do it ‘right’. Robbing them of that opportunity, while it might have felt helpful, I knew would actually hinder them.

I only set the overall tone of the environment, and refrained from micromanaging anything. This, allowed them to take on as much responsibility as they wished, no more and no less. This let them fulfill whatever innate potential they had. As our good book says, do not constrict their living space; do not press down on their means of livelihood. It is because you do not press down on them that they will not weary of the burden.

All things considered, I reckon that the social component accounts for 99% in teaching, while the teacher’s command of the material just 1%. This makes sense if you accept the proposition that one can only understand what one already knows intuitively. Granted, that is an impossible pill to swallow in a culture, like ours, that sees students as empty vessels into which knowledge can somehow be poured. Rather than pour knowledge in, the trick is to have conducive social circumstances which draw on a student’s thirst and intuitive knowing. Objective understanding and know-how come in due course naturally.

Finally let’s go back to the question of thirst, and whether a person truly wants to learn, or is thirsty for something else. They say it is better to teach a man to fish than give him a fish. But, what if he rather be given a fish than be taught? The former, being given a fish, is perhaps far more common, 99% to 1% more common in fact. Giving and receiving fish is a far more socially achievable relationship than giving and receiving a teaching. Furthermore, our deepest need (thirst), bar none, is for social connection, not for knowledge per se. Yet knowledge is held in the highest esteem; knowledge is power! All that is needed to bypass this kink in the way is sufficient cultural hoodwinking to make receiving of fish appear like receiving of teaching. Yep, a lot of hoodwinking goes on in human social interactions.

Back in the late 70’s I began teaching yoga. I soon noticed how many of my students began to see me as their guru. I was trying to teach them the yoga equivalent of teach a man to fish. Most weren’t thirsty for that; they wanted the yoga equivalent of being given a fish, and seeing me a their guru was one way to get that. I’m not saying this was intentional on their part. Far from it; it was simply innate social (tribal) dynamics. Personally, I couldn’t oblige them, and couldn’t help but do what I could to discourage it. Alas, I wasn’t thirsty for that type of teacher/student relationship⁽¹⁾. I suppose I am drawn to neither ‘a leader or a follower be’; ‘neither a hood-winker or hood-winkee be’. Perhaps…

I alone am foolish and uncouth.
I alone am different from others
And value being fed by the mother.

⁽¹⁾ That changed some with my own family and kids though. As a father, I naturally fell into the role of leader and teacher, albeit in a shadowy presence kind of way. I imagine that civilization is just too ‘mega’ for me to feel connected. A small hunter gather group around 20,000 b.c. would have been more my speed.

Background
Memories become dimmer as the years fly by. Many are even too misty to write down without filling in the voids with poetic license (fiction). Still, I’ve set out to fetch what memories remain before they fade any further. See: The Further One Goes for background on this ‘Times of Yore’ series.

A magazine's back cover c.1945

Today is my 67^th year here on earth.  The picture is a magazine’s back cover of me, at a lake in Arizona, in my birthday suit⁽¹⁾. From then until today, fate has been fortunate; I should have bitten the dust quite a few times by now. (I wrote about the first time in the blog Suicide Just Doesn’t Work.) As to my health, wealth and family, I couldn’t ask for more. Indeed, there are so many things to be happy for on this birthday, and every day. Don’t worry though, I’ll find a problem somewhere it that. Hmm, let me see…

Most striking too me is how easily we notice and dwell on what is ‘wrong’.  I’d say the cup’s half empty gene is more dominant than the cup’s half full gene. This is one of the more poignant, if not tragic, sides of life, in my view. Of course, Nature can’t abide any other way – we need to see the cup half empty more than the reverse to keep busy at the task of survival. We are but servants of survival.

Being told to smile?

I’ve found the most effective counter measure to this trap is knowing nothing! I guess this corresponds to the  Japanese proverbial ‘three monkeys‘  (三猿) — “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.  Although, for me knowing Nothing suggests far more.  In my early years I fought ignorance by pursuing knowledge. The road to happiness, I felt, lied in knowing and doing things, the more the better. How else could I keep the half empty cup from draining away entirely.

Through experience I’ve gradually found the opposite to be so. More specifically, thinking that I know will always lead to difficulty. On the other hand, to know yet to think that I do not know is best. In practical terms that means being as hesitant and tentative about certitudes as possible. Patiently keep judgments fuzzy. Does my actively thinking that I don’t know arise out of a deeper knowing that I really don’t know? It is odd; it is ironic.

In papa's arms

It also gives meaning to the view, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know.  Knowing I don’t know is knowing something. Yet saying (or writing) that I don’t know implies I don’t even know that much. It is all a bit confusing. Little wonder we say, to use words but rarely is to be natural. I think it is time for a margarita, with an extra shot of tequila for good measure.

⁽¹⁾ I don’t know what magazine this is from. As my parents were photographers, my brother and I did a lot of ‘modeling’ throughout childhood. The only difficulty I remember  about those years was being asked to “smile for the camera”. It always felt odd and forced. Years ago I did zazen in Japan. Afterwards, they took a group picture, and not a soul smiled for it. Now that’s my kind of photo shoot!

Here is another photo at that lake, and the text on the photo from the magazine:

Let Your Child Go Native

Such moments are rare but when it is possible, let your child come close to nature.

My, what a big head you have

Within a reasonable distance from most people’s homes there is a meadow, or a spot like this where, under supervision, children can open the pores of body and spirit to sun and air.

We can’t know just what it means to a child to feel that he’s on his own, even though you are nearby — and most of all, to feel that the world is his, and he is part of the world. He can’t know, but our common sense tells us it must be good.

Give your child his chance this summer if you can!

Background
Memories become dimmer as the years fly by. Many are even too misty to write down without filling in the voids with poetic license (fiction). Still, I’ve set out to fetch what memories remain before they fade any further. See: The Further One Goes for background on this ‘Times of Yore’ series.

'Dead men's words'

What is the difference between understand and know? Chapter 70 alludes to it perhaps when it states, ‘My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice‘. Our cleverness at understanding is not matched by a comparable ability to know. The first, understanding, is theoretical. The later, knowing, is visceral. For example:

What do people and dogs have in common? They know what they know, and act accordingly. Dogs smell good food and eat; we smell good food and eat. Dogs see something they want and chase after it; we see something we want and chase after it. Dogs see something fearful and avoid it; we see something fearful and avoid it. This is visceral knowing, a teaching that uses no words.

The difference between dog and people is that dogs don’t understand. Only people understand which, absent deeper knowing, often leads to unfortunate consequences, e.g., Irag, Wall Street , obesity, etc. In a curious way, words and names permit understanding and this enables us to think that we know. You could even say that understanding is a form of ‘pseudo knowing’.

Or to put it another way:  We can only truly understand what we already know. If such knowing is absent, the understanding is only ‘pseudo understanding’. If that sounds radical and crazy, apply this observation to your own examples and ponder carefully. Chuang Tzu’s wheelwright story (below) illustrates this nicely. Here now are a few personal examples of differences I’ve noticed between the understanding and knowing:

Wall Street

In 1980’s I studied the stock market until I understood it, theoretically at least. I didn’t actually buy and sell stocks. Now, 30 years later came the opportunity to put understanding to work. I understood the importance of ‘buy low sell high’, patience, diversification, being bold when others were fearful (and visa versa). Most of these come under the heading ‘in action it is timeliness that matters‘. So, six months ago I began to act. Not surprisingly, it has taken being involved over these months to begin to actually know what I previously only understood. Also, not surprising, are the inevitable bruises and scares I incur as I descend down into the belly of knowing.

Gardening

While living in Japan I studied agricultural books. My ex-wife and I were planning to settle down on a 100 acres or so, either back here in the USA or in Australia. Divorce spared us that experience. I say spared because I’ve spent the last 30+ years gardening a few thousand square feet, not 4,000,000 (i.e., 40,000 sq.ft. = 1 acre).

By now I’ve forgotten much of that agricultural knowledge I understood. And yet I know much more what I’m doing. The understanding was word based; the knowing is experience based. Actually, I reckon that it would be impossible to write down what I know. There is a wonderful little story, ” Duke Huan and the wheelwright” by Chuang Tzu, which speaks to this essential difference between understanding (knowledge) and knowing.

Duke Huan and the wheelwright (excerpted from Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings)

Duke Huan was in his hall reading a book. The wheelwright P’ien, who was in the yard below chiseling a wheel, laid down his mallet and chisel, stepped up into the hall, and said to Duke Huan, “This book Your Grace is reading-may I venture to ask whose words are in it?”

“The words of the sages,” said the duke.

“Are the sages still alive?”

“Dead long ago,” said the duke.

“In that case, what you are reading there is nothing but the chaff and dregs of the men of old!”

“Since when does a wheelwright have permission to comment on the books I read?” said Duke Huan. “If you have some explanation, well and good. If not it’s your life!”

Wheelwright P’ien said, “I look at it from the point of view of my own work. When I chisel a wheel, if the blows of the mallet are too gentle, the chisel slides and won’t take hold. But if they’re too hard, it bites in and won’t budge. Not too gentle, not too hard-you can get it in your hand and feel it in your mind. You can’t put it into words, and yet there’s a knack to it somehow. I can’t teach it to my son, and he can’t learn it from me. So I’ve gone along for seventy years and at my age I’m still chiseling wheels. When the men of old died, they took with them the things that couldn’t be handed down. So what you are reading there must be nothing but the chaff and dregs of the men of old.”