I sometimes wonder why rich people often keep upping the anti, buying increasingly more expensive things. It follows a progression I first noticed when I experienced my own wealth upgrade after arriving in Japan (see Peaches and Pleasure). It is a fact of life; we soon convert any upgrade in our standard-of-living into the new bottom-line in our standard-of-living. Never long content, we soon seek to upgrade again. Biologically speaking, the hunter gather in us reaches outward from the bottom line, driven by a kind of ‘grass is always greener’ instinct. Continue reading ‘The Wealthy Poor’
Tag Archive for 'Buddha'
The BBC aired an excellent six part series on India recently. The other night we watched part two, The story of India (part 2). The first half hour retells the life of Buddha. Incorporating present day video footage of India with the story makes this telling especially good. The end of the segment stood out to me. To quote:
Buddha (around the age of 80, 486bc) felt his time nearing the end, traveled North towards the land of his childhood. The Buddha reached a little town on the edge of the Ganges plane where he fell ill. Continue reading ‘“… Strive On Diligently”’
Which path leads where?
A few months ago a new member Dan asked me, “So, I’d like to ask, do you have any life advice for a man approaching 30″?
One problem with that question was too many things came to mind. So I turned the question over to my subconscious. Oddly, I find not thinking about tricky issues is the best way to resolve them. Of course “not thinking about” doesn’t mean disregarding. I suppose the ‘not thinking about’ phase helps the mind get through its blind spot.
Finally, up bubbled something worthy of the question. Overall, nothing feels more important to me than understanding. While stressing the importance of understanding seems obvious, it may not be as simple as it sounds. Continue reading ‘So, I’d like to ask…’
I was struck recently by a comment the Pope made on suffering (see: Pope Benedict stumped by Japanese girl’s question about suffering). Briefly, a young girl asked him, “Why do children have to be so sad?” Benedict admitted: “I also have the same questions: why is it this way? Why do you have to suffer so much while others live in ease?”
This exemplifies the shaky foundation of the Christian world view. How does a believer reconcile the deep disconnect between a God that favors us (Adam and Eve, Noah, Jesus dying for our sins, etc.) and the ruthless reality of nature. Not surprisingly, Christians can’t bridge this gap, and must always fall back on ‘faith’. I imagine some of the evangelic fever seen in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic path is symptomatic of this underlying reality (i.e., Subconsciously, they doth protest too much, methinks).
'He who conquers self...'
The details of Buddha’s Four Noble Truths vary somewhat depending on the source. I recently dug up the source for the version that I found most useful. Why useful? Mostly because it was the most sensible and succinct I’d seen.
Nevertheless, I had a minor problem with how the Third Noble Truth was stated, and long ago changed a word or two. Rereading my original source makes me want to revisit this and ponder why I revised in the first place. Here is the sequence of events:
The original says: “He who conquers self will be free from lust. He no longer craves and the flames of desire find no material to feed upon, thus they are extinguished.” Continue reading ‘He Who Conquers Self’
This short lecture, John Cleese on creativity, shows he may be a ‘defacto taoist’ or perhaps a ‘natural taoist’. Meaning, anyone who has this contrarian point of view is a ‘taoist’, although they may never have heard the word Taoist.
The Blind Spot
This idea of backing off in order to move forward, and the humorous way he talks about the “blind spot”, parallels core Taoist principles. Continue reading ‘John Cleese, A ‘Taoist’?’
While twisting myself in the odd yoga shapes the morning I thought, this is nuts! No normal animal on the planet would do this. In fact, no other animal can be found doing most of the things our species does. Working, resting, and engaging in the basic biological functions is all that we have in common with other species. And we even go out of our way to embellishing those aspects. Just consider the fancy bathrooms we have (photo below).
The common view is to see all this as being what makes us unique, special, superior, advanced… “higher beings” no less. Looking at this from a symptoms point of view helps me avoid such a “pat myself on the back” biases. Continue reading ‘The Nutty Things We Do’
There is more to fear than meets the eye. We often associate the symptoms of fear (the reactions fear initiates) as the fear itself. This can evokes mental images of fear as a screaming and fleeing experience.
As I see it, this is a reaction to feeling fear, not fear itself. The other most common reaction to feeling fear is the opposite of fleeing; it is attack and anger. Continue reading ‘Fear Is The Bottom Line’
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’
I’ve noticed over the years that there’s always something ‘wrong’, no matter how ‘right’ things seem at first. There is a seemingly endless supply of issues to fret over. After we resolve the pressing life and death issues, you’d think we could relax and appreciate that success. Alas, no sooner one problem is solved, we find another to fret over. Continue reading ‘The Worry Gene’
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