This brief retrospective came across my screen recently. It can be profoundly sobering to see how much life has changed over the past 100 years. Such rapid change is unprecedented in human history, or almost any history that comes to mind.
Continue reading…Tao Tips
Passing judgment is healthy if…
Okay, first we need to stipulate that passing judgment is an innate part of any social animal’s nature… and most especially human animals. I say “most especially” because we lug around many preconceptions that worm their way into our imagination.
Continue reading…Practice what you preach
The saying, “practice what you preach” makes for an appealing ideal, or for a good put down. Taking it deeper, the idea becomes a source of internal strife. We are capable of imagining ideal behaviors that are completely out of reach… even to the point of being humanly impossible. Yet, we dream away, expecting ourselves […]
Continue reading…Modus Operandi
Life following the agricultural revolution has been a period of exponential growth in technological change affecting every aspect of human existence. Youth compared to the elderly are much more inclined to be comfortable with such change, even embrace it. Rash actions excite younger folks. Considering this through the lens of chapter 16, “Not knowing the […]
Continue reading…A proper sense of awe
Tao Tips is a new category of post I thought I’d try out. For quite a while, I’ve sought to say what I had to say with fewer words, but my posts just don’t cooperate. Perhaps the name “Tao Tips” will help remind me to limit myself. After all… Those most adept have results, yet […]
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…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…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…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…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…