bio-hoodwink

“Right state of peaceful mind”

While living in Thailand in the early 60’s, I bought a book on Buddha put out by the Buddhist Society of Ceylon, as I recall. Recently I wanted to find a copy. I finally found a translation by Paul Carus, The Gospel of Buddha Paperback, that matched my version of Buddha’s four noble truths word-for-word […]

Laws as Symptoms, not Solutions

This short NPR/TED talk, Is The Law Making Us Less Free, is a sobering account of yet another way we shoot ourselves in the foot. As the speaker, Philip Howard, says, “More laws now mean more chaos. What we have is a combination of anarchy and public paralysis. There’s this fetish with rules that has […]

Mind Over Milkshake

A few decades ago I stopped smoking, and soon gained about 40 pounds. Not wishing to lug all that extra baggage around, I decided to back off eating. Actually, I would have quit eating if I thought I could get away with it. The more I lost, the less I needed to eat to maintain […]

The Pendulum Swings

The Syrian situation highlights our curious inability to avoid swinging from one extreme to the opposite. In wondering why, chapter 64 offers some insight. Its peace easily manages, Its presence easily plans, Its fragility easily melts, Its timeliness easily scatters, Acts without existing, Governs without disorder. The common adage, “a stitch in time saves nine” […]

Just like Us, Just like Them

Have you noticed how much we tend to compare ourselves to other animals and see to 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. Judging is intimately tied to thinking and […]

Who says chickens are stupid?

Who says chickens are stupid? Stupid people, I expect. While this research, Pigeons rival primates in number task, 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? More importantly is how scant the difference really […]

Guilt, Shame and the Name Game

I used the experience of guilt and shame for an example in my recent post, I am foolish of human mind also? I feel our habit of naming emotional experiences deserves its own post, so here goes, beginning with a personal example… Up until thirty years ago, I had never experienced depression… or so I […]

Imagining a Better Way

Human imagination is both a precious survival asset and the source of lingering anxieties. Ironically, imagination also promises us ways to quell these anxieties. I say promises because fulfillment can’t truly be possible. This peculiar dynamic reminds me of the Möbius like geometry of Escher’s Waterfall. We can imagine a better something so we tend […]

Be Careful What You Wish

Be careful what you wish for”, followed by “it might just come true” is an ironic maxim concerning the perils of wishing without grasping unintended consequences. First, we need to stipulate that wishing for something is relatively synonymous with desiring, expecting, hoping, praying, and craving for something. Next, is there a fundamental source for all […]

Jack of All Trades, Master of None?

Is there any real difference between a generalist ‘jack of all trades’ and an accomplished master? After all, isn’t a ‘jack of all trades’ simply a master generalist? I’ve been doing several activities for many years now: yoga (50 years), tai chi (40 years), shakuhachi sui Zen (35 years), gardening (30 years) — plus, I […]

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