Carl Abbott

Love

Soon after we met, my future to be wife said, “I love you”. That moment had all the ideal romantic overtones one could ask for… us out in the forest, a moonlit summer’s night. Being the bubble-busting bum I am, I replied with something like, “What do you mean by love? What’s love?” Frankly, the […]

Small ‘t’ Taoists

I got to thinking over yesterday’s Beyond Spooky (p.149) post. In particular, I was wondering what effect, if any; the capitalization of proper names has on Western thought. One thing I appreciate about Chinese characters is the lack of capitalization. The character 道 (dào or tao) means road, way, path; channel, course; way, path; doctrine, […]

Beyond Spooky

The November issue of Science News, Beyond Spooky, was dedicated to “quantum weirdness” (1). I love this side of physics. This “weirdness” may be how it is possible, despite nature’s bio-hoodwink (p.11), to sense more than just the tip-of-the-iceberg of reality. Biology requires living things to perceive reality in a way that promotes survival and […]

My Battle With Tobacco

Researcher say nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. Perhaps, but then I only know the nicotine side of this. My story has many twists and turns which come to an ironic end. If you’re in a hurry for the Taoist aspect, skim some and skip to the ending, The Long Journey’s End. I began smoking […]

John Cleese, a ‘Taoist’?

John Cleese has given some very witty talks on creativity in which he comes off as a de facto Taoist, or as I like to say, a small ‘t’ taoist. Well, I suppose anyone with contrarian views is potentially a de facto ‘t’aoist. To get the most from this post, google this short video [youtube […]

The Nutty Things We Do

While pulling myself into an odd yoga shape this morning, I thought, this is nuts! No normal animal on the planet would do this. In fact, no other animal does 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 […]

A Symptom’s Point Of View

A symptom’s point of view does more than anything I’ve found to carry out chapter 4’s counsel… Subdue its sharpness, separate its confusion, Soften its brightness, be the same as its dust. The symptom’s point of view is about managing how we judge the world. The innate way of judging the world is actually a […]

Fear Is The Bottom Line

There is much more to fear than meets the eye. We often associate the symptoms of fear (i.e., the outer reactions fear instigates) as the fear itself. These reactions span a range from ‘flight’ to ‘fight’, although screaming and fleeing are the images that usually come to mind. Actually, pure fear is profoundly more subtle […]

Change we can believe in?

Many people are disappointed with President Obama. This is a good example of how easily our expectations sow the seeds of our disappointments in life. Mature character boils down to how gracefully we can accept a reality that doesn’t match our expectations. Children get their hopes up for one outcome, and when life goes another […]

Science, Religion, Truth

It is striking how obvious, yet subtle, the relationship between science, religion, and truth is. This could be an example of chapter 71’s, 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. There are profound spiritual […]

Children Know What Adults Forget

What in particular do children know that adults forget? For some clues, google [Kids face up to disgust surprisingly late]. Consider this excerpt from Science News: Kids viewed images on a computer screen of adults displaying the six basic emotional expressions. The kids’ task was to assign faces to boxes at the bottom of the […]

The Spirit of Yoga

2019 Postscript: This is a copy of the 2010 PRINCIPLES update for the yoga book I wrote in 1979. At that time, I was focused on the problems that arise out of a belief in free will. In 2017, I finally realized the natural roots of this belief and most everything else that haunted me […]