It is striking how we humans relentlessly search for truth, and when we think we have it, how tenacious we hang on to our version of it. Politics and religion have always been fertile fields for this obsession. Not surprisingly, these are two sides of one tribal coin. Indeed, not long ago, they were one […]
Continue reading…Earn It to Learn It
Knowing, in the Taoist sense of the word, is not knowledge, per se. As chapter 15 puts it, Of old, the adept student was minutely subtle, open and deep beyond knowledge. As chapter 56 notes, Knowing doesn’t speak; speaking doesn’t know. Times are different now. Our modern electrified pace of life is continuously updating every […]
Continue reading…Counterbalancing I.Q.
The onion could be a metaphor for one’s lifetime. Each of us peel away layer after layer as daily experiences gradually turn into a lifetime. This maturing process helps to counterbalance any extreme characteristics we were born with. With each decade that passes, we see deeper and become more humble compared to our formative years. […]
Continue reading…Mind Run Away; Run Away Mind
Chinese characters occasionally say a lot symbolically in the arrangement of their parts. These parts are simpler characters composed of a few strokes (lines). These simpler characters are put together to form the thousands of characters in the Chinese language. The meaning of the component parts of words can be revealing. For example, decades ago […]
Continue reading…“The rich suffer in comfort”
Half asleep, I heard an East Indian on my clock radio say, “Everyone suffers, the poor suffer without comfort, the rich suffer with comfort”. I thought that would be a good kick-off for a post so I tried to find that in NPR’s online archive, but found nothing. Did I dream this with the Indian […]
Continue reading…Self-Predation
Moral values arise from an arbitrary line we draw between what is socially acceptable and what is not. I imagine any die-hard moralist might well find this an immoral view. However, historical experience shows the moral line moves profoundly over time and geography. Morality draws its line somewhere along the food chain between the user […]
Continue reading…Finding Your Original Self
When do we give life our all? Often, we give this 100% only when other people are watching and possibly judging us. Indeed, this is one key function of teachers and coaches; they watch and evaluate us. This tendency to “live” for others (1) is our innate social nature, while our true character only reveals […]
Continue reading…Feeding the Worry Gene
Have you noticed how there is always something wrong? No matter how ideal circumstances are, something will go awry shortly. All this may be obvious, I suppose. What is less obvious is how the perception and experience of good fortune and misfortune are complimentary. As chapter 58 puts it, Misfortune, yet of good fortune its […]
Continue reading…Hold the Knowable
In my previous, Good Enough Is (p.356), I suggested that we have an innate need to pursue an important goal… something to hold in mind, to hunger after, and fill our mind space. I also put forward the view that this was an emergent property (p.121) of the basic hunter-gather instinct that drives life to […]
Continue reading…Good Enough Is!
Good enough is good enough, and naturally so. As chapter 46 notes, Therefore, in being contented with one’s lot, enough is usually enough indeed. Besides, isn’t this how nature plays out… step by step? Surely, this is the sentiment expressed in chapter 64, A thousand mile journey begins below the feet. This is how reality […]
Continue reading…Ponder Between the Lines
First, google this short video, [ABC’s George Stephanopoulos interviewing NBA star Dennis Rodman] about Rodman’s visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. As you can see, George and Dennis exemplify two profoundly different ways of seeing the world. Each is representing an extreme, which helps highlight polar archetypes… yin vs. yang, as it were. […]
Continue reading…Soaking in Inspiration
I began taking a morning hot bath every morning to get my arthritic joints in the mood for morning yoga(1). It works, but I found an unexpected bonus. The bath brings about nearly unavoidable insights. Indeed, sometimes I deliberately Squeeze exchange, shut the gates, as chapter 52 puts it, in the hope of cognitive stillness. […]
Continue reading…A Tao of Parenting
Breeding, and the parenting that follows, are the most significant things we do in life; without this, none of us would be here. Most would agree that the best gift you can give children is raising them as balanced and wisely as possible. This has become more daunting in civilization’s post Agricultural Revolution environment. Gone […]
Continue reading…Buddha’s Work
I review Buddha’s Four Noble Truths (p.604) during my yoga headstand every morning. Today, the fourth truth stood out, although not in a profound way, more in a “Well, duh” kind of way. First, though, here is the fourth truth: The Fourth Noble Truth is the Middle Path that leads to the cessation of suffering. […]
Continue reading…Insatiably Curious at 70?
In the book, The Ravenous Brain(1), the author Daniel Bor refers to my age group. He argues that consciousness is a “chronic mental hunger.” That has certainly been my experience. He also says, “During aging, the insatiable brain becomes less so. We are less ravenous for new jewels of wisdom, and our entire existence, examined […]
Continue reading…Breathe Into It
It helps me to regard language as the smoke that arises out of emotion’s fire. You could say words are the cognitive reflections of human emotions. As such, they’re more fantasy than reality. For example, you can understand a volcano with words metaphorically, symbolically, abstractly, but you cannot truly know it through words. You can […]
Continue reading…Tao of Government
Why does government function the way it does? One thing that often stands out is how the authorities in bureaucracies, both leaders and subordinates, easily over-react in silly irrational ways. From a symptom’s point of view, I immediately notice fear as the operative force behind this. To be sure, this applies to most, if not […]
Continue reading…Will-to-Live, Free or Otherwise
The drive to survive is shared by all living things from viruses on up. In some, if not all, forms of life, this plays out as a fear vs. need mediated survival instinct. Certainly, the survival instinct is a fundamental emotional drive in any animal I think of as having emotion. Naturally, there are those […]
Continue reading…Begin New Years with a smile
For once, a post you don’t need to read!
Continue reading…The Why Of It
Probing into the why of it feels like jumping into a bottomless well of mystery. This is certainly the epitome of quixotic quests. However, there is the survival reward of seeing life as close to its actuality as humanly possible. Exploring the why of it promises a glimpse into nature’s secrets. This is one of […]
Continue reading…