CenterTao.org – Page 21 – taoism, taoist thought, buddha, yoga, tai chi, shakuhachi

Peeking Through the Covers

The Tao Te Ching is a manual that helps us peek through biology’s covers to reveal the deeper whats and whys of reality as best it can with words. Chapter 70 acknowledges the difficulty of this… My words are very easy to understand… yet no one in the world can understand. As ancient as it […]

Innately Ethical

Chapter 38’s A man of the highest virtue does not keep to virtue and that is why he has virtue served as a model for raising my sons. Yet, given their Taoist upbringing, it is odd to see how rigidly law abiding they are at times. For example, we headed down the street to order […]

Can You Believe What You See?

The Science News report, What do you see? Emotion may help the visual system jump the gun to predict what the brain will see supports what I’ve suspected for years. Namely, our needs and fears (1) generally dictate what we see (2), even though our mind may believe otherwise. Our perception of reality is essentially […]

Suicide Just Doesn’t Work

I was one troubled teenager for a time. I’d go off to the mountains for some peace and solitude. I wasn’t very concerned with my safety; life didn’t seem to offer much advantage over death. One year I climbed Finger Rock without ropes. Going up was easy; going down was terrifying. Was this a latent […]

A Hypochondriac’s Miracle Cure

Hypochondriacs are anxious about their health. They make ‘illness mountains’ out of ‘wellness molehills’. However, we all make mountains out of molehills for issues in life that bother us personally . We are all somewhat obsessed about something, and so the hypochondriac’s cure really applies to us all. Obsessions, both trivial and ominous, overtake the […]

An Essential Taoist Secret

Our perception of difference begins at the cellular level: neurons flip flop between on (+) and off (—). The billions of neural connections in our complex nervous system make for countless ‘not quite on’, yet ‘not quite off’ indeterminacy. This feels somewhat like chapter 14’s, The image that is without substance. This is called indistinct […]

Just How Big Is The Gap?

In discussing human affairs, an old friend said, “We as a species are so very complex and vulnerable we’re easily led by whoever we listen to”. I countered with, “We are a profoundly social species which accounts for how easily we can be led. Human behavior reflects innate emotion…” He countered that with, “I have […]

The Theory of God

We can prove something exists by evidence of its existence. Similarly, we can’t prove something doesn’t exist through a lack of evidence. So, what evidence exists supporting the existence of God? That depends upon what you believe qualifies as evidence I imagine. Oddly, for a believer, belief itself appears to qualify as evidence. This kind […]

Who is Right?

The current uproar over health care reform is fascinating to ponder. Who is right; who is wrong? First, doesn’t that depend on one’s definition of right? If we are referring to Right from a Buddha’s Eight Fold Path (p.604) viewpoint, then those who rant on either side are certainly not Right. The ranting we see […]

You Are Who You Are By Default

A recent report (google [Saey You Are Who You Are by Default]) gives some insight on the nature of who we are, particularly here, at the end of the report: Once people reach adulthood, activity in the network is fairly consistent from person to person, with some slight differences between the sexes and in older […]

Cave Man Shakuhachi?

Google [Stone Age flutes found in Germany] for a report on people living in Europe 35,000 years ago who made this flute out of a vulture bone. It’s shown here from three different angles with a magnified portion of the flute providing a closer look at two of the flute’s finger holes. As far as […]

Into the Jungle?

While working in Australia in the early 60’s, I met folks who intrigued me with their stories of traveling over land through India and Southeast Asia. Instead of returning to USA as planned, I decided to travel to Europe overland through Asia. Lack of funds meant hitchhiking a lot, and this felt weird considering I’d […]