Carl Abbott

I began taking yoga seriously in the early 70’s after seeing an old man on the street shuffling along with a walker. The image was visceral and complete, and I never forgot it. That was going to be me, unless I took steps to alter that future. Whatever I did from that point forward in […]

Ancestral humans didn’t need practices like yoga. Their daily life was “yoga” — squatting, climbing, carrying, reaching. Every joint moved through its full range continuously because survival demanded it. Muscle was maintained the same way, not by discipline but by the simple fact that living required its use. Civilization has systematically dismantled both. The chair, […]

This is a back and forth conversation with AI to see what AI really knows. Can it think outside the box? The answer to the first question I asked it is telling. It couldn’t, and simply gave me a normal and predictable answer. Then the conversation wandered off to unexpected and interesting areas. I felt […]

A Moment of This-ness In 1964 I was living in Bangkok, riding to work each day on the bus. I was twenty-two. Word came that my eighteen-year-old younger brother had died. What I felt, more than anything, was an unrelenting profound curiosity. I felt the utter black-and-white starkness of life on one side and an […]

Introduction: A Paradox at the Heart of Buddhism Buddhism presents us with an apparent contradiction. In the Second Noble Truth, Buddha tells us that “the illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things.” Yet in the Third Truth, he says that by “conquering self, the flames of desire will be extinguished.” […]

Entropy → Fear → Need → Action → Life Meaning → “Happiness” (→ = gives rise to, begets, causes) This chain of causation is offered not as scientific proof but as a pointer, something to test against your own experience. As Buddha insisted: take nothing on faith. Verify it yourself, or discard it. Two Separate […]