UPDATE 2023: The instinct of fear is an emergent property of entropy, and the universal driving force that motivates all living things, from virus on up, to survive. Obviously, fear influences our every thought and action. This is also the driving force behind all the harmful actions of humanity. Artificial intelligence is devoid of this […]
Continue reading…Observations
A Wealth of Happiness
Chapter 33 says, Being content is wealth. When you think about it, it is easy to see how happiness is wealth. Using Correlations (p.565), let’s consider how love corresponds to wealth and happiness. Love has two sides; the “false” or yang side is a grasping, expecting, needy experience. The “true” or yin side is a […]
Continue reading…Natural Happiness
‘To like what I do rather than do what I like’ is a straightforward path to happiness. This motto helps prevent my expectations from dictating my life’s direction. No doubt, scripture (Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Biblical, etc.) first got me considering life this way, and life experience has since verified its truth (1). The previous post, […]
Continue reading…Is Happiness In Your Choices?
Google [Iyengar on The Art of Choosing] for a TED talk that challenges our naive belief in free choice (p.587). Sheena Iyengar makes a solid research-based case for two erroneous assumptions we repeatedly make. One is that we make our own choices, and the other, that more options make for better choices. She also makes […]
Continue reading…Profound Connections Enlighten
Chapter 56 offers what could be another description of sleep… Knowing doesn’t speak; speaking doesn’t know. Subdue its sharpness, untie its tangles, Soften its brightness, be the same as dust, This is called profound sameness. Profound sameness is a continually enlightening point of view. Thus, any research that explores this, even tangentially, warrants review. First, […]
Continue reading…Is Gen Y Unhappy?
I read an interesting article that pointed out much of the same causes for unhappiness that I see, so I accepted it without question at first. Yet soon it began to nag me. Something didn’t exactly mesh… there was more too it. If interested, google [Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy] and see how it […]
Continue reading…Remember the Disease
Occasionally I feel a little forlorn since I’m making the same essential points repeatedly. Then I remember the necessity of constant vigilant review. This is akin to attempting to maintain balance under wobbly physical circumstances. Surely, psycho-emotional circumstances are no less demanding, balance-wise. Whew! Hope rebounds as I remember the secret of living balance… The […]
Continue reading…The Pendulum Swings
The Syrian war illustrates our intrinsic tendency to swing from one extreme to the opposite. In wondering why, chapter 64 came to mind, Its peace easily manages… and so on. D.C. Lau translates this view more clearly, e.g., It is easy to maintain a situation while it is still secure. Interestingly, the adage, “a stitch […]
Continue reading…A Rose By Any Other Name
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a familiar quote from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet argues that the name of a thing does not matter, only what a thing is. The sticking point here is over, “It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is”, as […]
Continue reading…Just like Us, Just like Them
Have you noticed how much we compare ourselves to other animals to see what extent they are like us? That’s all quite normal, of course. All animals judge other animals to some extent, although I should say size up, gauge, or perceive, rather than judge. Passing judgment is closely tied to thinking and we’re the […]
Continue reading…Who says chickens are stupid?
Who says chickens are stupid? Ignorant people, I assume. While this research reported in Science News isn’t about chickens per se, it probably would apply to chickens. I mean how much smarter is a pigeon going to be than a chicken? (Google [Pigeons match monkeys in abstract counting skills].) How much true difference is there […]
Continue reading…Seeking Out Untruth
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…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…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…