As a child, I marveled at how everything seemed to work so well. The infrastructure and logistics to run society blew my mind, although I didn’t know that was the word for it. How the authorities dealt with all the sewage and garbage my hometown produced baffled me. I am still in awe that civilization […]
Continue reading…Why?
Some say “love” is their favorite word. Others say “God” is. I’ve also had favorite words over the years, but “why” beats them all. So I ask myself, why continue posting these observations? It’s certainly not for money or fame. I actually prefer anonymity. In fact, years ago when my yoga students showed hints of […]
Continue reading…Gone Fishin’, Back Soon
The fish are still biting and I’m reeling them in, I’m just not posting them. Posting my fishy observations requires so much cleaning up to make them suitable for consumption. Finishing the last chapter of my translation of the Tao Te Ching — Tao Te Ching, Word for Word — was the catalyst I needed […]
Continue reading…Check One Off the Bucket List
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) This is chapter 81, the last chapter of the Tao Te Ching. My journey on this Taoist path began almost 50 years ago in Vietnam, as did my learning to read and write Chinese. Over the years, I have translated parts of chapters that puzzled me. This revealed […]
Continue reading…Opiate of the Masses
Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the masses. Nonsense I say. The true opiate of the masses is prosperity, not religion. The United States has experienced decades of unprecedented prosperity. Indeed, most people have lived their whole lives accustomed to what is actually a historically rare era of unusual affluence. Now, the 2008 […]
Continue reading…The Wealthy Poor
Why do many wealthy people often keep upping the ante, buying increasingly more expensive things? This may follow a progression I first noticed when I experienced my own slight wealth upgrade in Japan (see Peaches and Pleasure, p.32). We innately appear to convert any upgrade in our standard-of-living into a new bottom line in our […]
Continue reading…Dreaming the Way
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Last night I dreamt I was explaining the ‘way’ to a group of people. I was talking to someone and other people overhearing us actively started listening and asking questions. My smooth and coherent delivery felt unusually satisfying. That’s no wonder, given the way that can be spoken […]
Continue reading…Sobering up!
Up until my early forties, I was drunk on thought bolstered with the certainty of belief. Fortunately, I found a way to detoxify myself, although this is still a work in progress. Recovering alcoholics continue to confess, “I’m an alcoholic”, even as they strive to stay continuously on the straight and narrow day after day. […]
Continue reading…Oh My Aching Bones
I have always been a more-is-better personality. I see that trait in most others so I figure I am normal. However, I have always pushed more to the limit, often to the breaking point. I suppose in this regard I am a bit abnormal. As I became a ‘lao tzu’ (i.e., 老子 = old person, […]
Continue reading…The Utility of Knowing What You Don’t Know
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) What an odd thing to say. Yet, I don’t know how else to say it, so here is an example: For about ten years now, son Luke and I have been fleshing out a fundamentally simpler, easier way to learn to play music by ear (especially the string […]
Continue reading…Naturally Unnatural, Naturally!
Occasionally I hear people opine on what is or isn’t natural human behavior. Doesn’t this depend on what part of the elephant (See Biology’s Blinders, p.2) one currently perceives? Elephant parables aside, I see this issue as emerging layers of reality’s onion. (See Tao as Emergent Property, p.121.) Let me sort this out… Like all […]
Continue reading…Naked Thought
Styles of thinking and clothing have a lot in common. We are born with mind simple and body naked. We soon dress our body in clothes and our mind in thoughts. Wishing to return to our original self physically, we can just go naked. Wishing to return to our original self mentally is another matter. […]
Continue reading…Success Thru Failure
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Most of us eventually realize that all success must inevitably pass through a failure stage. From our first years of stumbling before walking, of mumbling before talking, and on through life we gradually learn (perhaps intuitive and subconscious) that if we would take from a thing, we must […]
Continue reading…I, Amoeba
I am always reassured when I see a strong correlation between ostensibly low mundane life forms and myself. It shows Mother Nature is no fool; she simplifies her work by using time-tested tools at every level of life — and non-life as well. I suppose the reassurance I feel arises from seeing examples of my […]
Continue reading…Why Man is King
Up until now, civilization has put Man at the top, and Woman at the bottom of civilization’s hierarchical structure. I once thought civilization simply incorporated a great ape trait wherein an alpha-male dominates the group. That may still be one reason, but I also see universal forces in either setting up or breaking down this […]
Continue reading…Ethics as an Emergent Property
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Ethics is a curious cultural creature. What is ethical for one group may well be immoral for another. Certainly there are some ethical rules which span most groups, at least on the surface. ‘Thou shall not kill’ is almost universal, except for the many exceptions, e.g., it’s all […]
Continue reading…Loss is Gain; Gain is Loss
This title, “Loss is Gain; Gain is Loss”, may sound a bit ridiculous because we are biologically set up to respond positively to gain and negatively to loss. Chapter 58’s, It is on disaster that good fortune perches; It is beneath good fortune that disaster crouches attempts to show how entangled gain and loss are. […]
Continue reading…“… Strive On Diligently”
The BBC aired an excellent six part series on India. The other night we watched Part 2. (Google [BBC 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 effective. The end of the segment stood out […]
Continue reading…Is Pain the Constant?
(First Pass: “Chapter of the Week” 2011) Pleasure and pain (like life and death) are a fascinating duo. In this relationship, I imagine that pain is the head of the household. That’s not to say pain is ‘the constant‘; that would be going too far, of course. Nevertheless pain, like water, may come close to […]
Continue reading…Ants Are Us
Watching this video on ants (google [CBS News Small wonders: What ants can teach us]) left me feeling that we’re simply ants with big brains and hands with opposable thumbs. This definitely agrees with chapter 56’s This is known as mysterious sameness! Just imagine what ants could do if they had hands and big brains. […]
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