CenterTao.org – Page 4 – taoism, taoist thought, buddha, yoga, tai chi, shakuhachi

Taoist secrets

Over the years, I’ve come across references to life secrets in general and occasionally Taoist secrets in particular. A few decades ago a woman inquired about our Sunday Taoist meetings, held weekly back then. I told her we mainly shared our reflections on the Tao Te Ching. She said she already had the Tao Te […]

Laws as Symptoms, not Solutions

Google [TED Is The Law Making Us Less Free] for how law affects society. Briefly, the speaker, Philip Howard, says, “There’s this fetish with rules that has kind of replaced morality. And it works both in a gotcha sort of way, and it works in an avoidance of responsibility sort of way.” In reality, I […]

Loss Aversion Management

Recent research reveals how we can’t help but shoot ourselves in the foot. When I look around, I see our aversion to loss influencing just about everything we do, albeit often in very subtle ways. The innate emotional aversion to loss, when reinforced by thought, traps us even more. I’m going to explore this issue […]

Mind Over Milkshake

I quit smoking a few decades ago and quickly gained 40 pounds. Not wishing to lug all that extra baggage around, I decided to eat less. Actually, I would have quit eating altogether if I could get away with it. The more I lost, the less I needed to eat to maintain whatever weight I […]

Flow Triggers

The Flow Genome Project researches Flow, which Steven Kotler describes as when performance sharply increases. Google [How to open up the next level of human performance], [How To Get Into The Flow State], and [The Science of Maximizing Human Potential]. Anyone familiar with the Zen(1) point of view will recognize Flow right off. Steven rephrases […]

Naturally Racist

The online matchmaking site Okcupid surveyed its members. Google [Okcupid Race and Attraction]. They looked at first-contact attempts and who was writing who back. They say it was immediately obvious that the sender’s race was a huge factor. That offers some proof to what has long been obvious to me: Homo sapiens are naturally racist. […]

BRAIN

President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) seeks to decipher how the brain’s circuitry produces thought and behavior. The Science News Brain Shot reports on this initiative. This is an excerpt. Ambitious goals: While the BRAIN Initiative’s objectives are hard to express in concrete terms, the project is full of visionary promise. […]

Managing Our Disorders

The DSM 5 — Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — now recognizes hoarding as a disorder. Google [CBS News Seeking help for hoarding] for a short report on this. Frankly, I‘d say we have more of a diagnostic disorder. In our quest to identify human problems as disorders, we are blind to the […]

Bono & Musk on Creativity

Fareed Zakaria GPS is an in-depth podcast with guests who know something of what they speak, often with opposing points of view, which helps pull the discussion deeper. Google [Fareed Zakaria Interviews with Bono and Musk] for his interviews with Bono (lead singer of U2) and Elon Musk (developing SpaceX) on what fuels their creativity. […]

The Harmless People

In the early 20th century, a few pioneers combed the back woods of rural Appalachia to document and record the last remnants of American roots music still unchanged by the cultural upheavals of the 20th century. This music later evolved into the folk, honki tonk, and country music of the 20th century. Similarly, Laurence Marshall […]

Born Again Taoist

How many of us realize the role that instinct plays in our lives? Long ago, our ancestors dreamed up elitist myths that elevated our species from other living things. We are told, “Don’t be an animal” and that Mankind was created in God’s image. One way or another, every culture has a spiritual superiority story. […]

Free Willers Anonymous

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous and similar addiction management programs begin recovery by first acknowledging their addiction and powerlessness over it. Clearly recognizing a problem is an indispensable prerequisite for finding a solution. Such Right Comprehension is the first step on Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path. Until then, life is always a dog chasing its tail. Primal instinct […]