Observations

The Science News report, Public tantrums defeat monkey moms too, offers research that further narrows the gap between humans and other primates. (Also google [Mama monkeys give in to tantrums…when others are watching].) Apparently, rhesus macaque mothers act like human mothers when it comes to nursing their babies. When other monkeys are nearby a mother […]

Wealth is fundamentally an availability of abundant survival resources. Hillsides full of tall green grass are a deer’s wealth. More grassy hills can support more deer. More deer eat more grass until overgrazing causes deer to starve. The deer population drops, grass rebounds, deer population rebounds, grass dwindles… and so on. This is the perpetual […]

Like a looking glass, Correlations are a tool for seeing yourself — your own mind. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.) As such, they should appeal to anyone seeking deeper underlying causes. Of course, you’ll eventually reach The gateway of the manifold secrets as chapter 1 puts it. Therefore, the Correlation’s process may only […]

The Science News report, Imagination Medicine, covers research on how the placebo effect functions in the brain. (Also, google [More Than Just a Sugar Pill].) It confirms my sense that religion also works by way of the placebo effect. Consider this excerpt from the report for example… It all boils down to expectation. If you […]

Centertao member Cuc made a good attempt at Correlations despite some inconsistencies. For this process to succeed, two things are essential: (1) Find the antonym for each word you are pondering. (2) Align all the similar meaning words — ‘pseudo synonyms’ I call them — down one column with their antonyms down the opposite column. […]

Can you say what you think, or even think what you know? Honestly, I have found it impossible to say, write, or think about what I intuitively know. What I end up with is a hodgepodge summary of the waves of intuition that ebb and flow through my mind. There are too many caveats to […]

“Yes” said the little four year old girl when asked if she believed in angels. “Why?” asked the reporter. “I don’t know”, she said. The ABC news segment went on to say how 68% of America believes in angels. For background, google [Are Angels Real? Live Science]. Why do people not only believe in angels, […]

The Piraha people, a tribe in the Amazon, gives insight into how innate a Taoist approach to life may actually be, and that the human mind has just become a little sidetracked of late. Of late, meaning the last 10,000 years or so. For an overview, google [Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language […]

Some people have accused me of being a sage. Granted, I am a lao tzu (i.e., 老子 – father, old man), but a sage? While this may feel flattering at first, further pondering shatters that. Besides, it actually takes a real sage to know a real sage. What we see ‘out there’ is simply a reflection […]

How do we know what we know is true? The answer hinges on desire. We tend to see what we desire to see; therefore, much depends on the extent of our desires. The more we desire, the less we know. Unless all we wish to know, are only our desires. This doesn’t happen naturally though. […]

Google: [Can Neuroscience Inform the Free Will Debate] for an overview of science and free will. This excerpt from Science News’, The Decider […Informing the debate over the reality of free will] also touches on key points: “Perhaps,” write neuroscientists Alireza Soltani and Xiao-Jing Wang, “we are entering a new period of consilience between the science […]