Have you noticed how something always seems to be wrong no matter how right things appear initially? There is an apparently endless supply of issues to fret over. After we resolve our pressing life and death issues, you’d think we could relax and appreciate that victory. Alas, no sooner is one problem solved than we […]
Continue reading…bio-hoodwink
How the Hoodwink Hooks
Chapter 65 begins with, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. Initially, I thought of old referred to people, e.g., parents, politicians, preachers, gurus. On the other hand, these people are often?… usually?… always?… hoodwinked by their own set […]
Continue reading…Keeping Birthday Happy
Today is my 67th year here on earth. The picture is a magazine’s back cover of me in my birthday suit at a lake in Arizona (1). From then until today, fate has been fortunate, for I should have died quite a few times by now. As to my health, wealth, and family, I couldn’t […]
Continue reading…The best tao? (road, way, principle, speak, think)
Waking up following a pleasant afternoon’s nap, I found myself reflecting on the best way to approach life. By “way” I mean tao, and tao (道 dào) translates to road, way, principle; speak; think. Why do we have endless debates over the way to approach life, what to do and how to do it? This […]
Continue reading…Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink
A dipole is a term in physics that refers to a pair of separated electric charges or magnetic poles, of equal magnitude but of opposite polarity, i.e., negative (–) vs. positive (+) or N. vs. S. Life has adopted this natural dynamic to perceive its surroundings in a way that promotes survival in a competitive […]
Continue reading…Is Enlightenment Something or ???
Enlightenment is an interesting illusion. Just as chapter 2’s Something and Nothing produce each other, so do ignorance and enlightenment. The question is, what does enlightenment Correlate to, Something or Nothing? (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.) If enlightenment is Something, it correlates to obvious, bright, light, life, full, sudden, special, etc. If enlightenment […]
Continue reading…It’s Like Magic!
I am always amazed at how magical magic is. The slight of hand a good magician employs is remarkable. How does he do it? Distraction they say, but it is hard to believe that I can be so easily hoodwinked. Nevertheless, I am. The untrained observer’s eye will follow where the magician’s hand leads it, […]
Continue reading…Peeking in on Nature’s Hoodwink
We are born with a bio-illusion — a bio-hoodwink(1) — that goes like this: Through hunting, “I” gathers fillers to satiate (fill) the hole. Primal emotions of need (e.g., desire, wish) and fear (e.g., insecurity, anxiety) drive this illusion forward. This illusion originates in the survival instinct to find food to fill the empty belly. […]
Continue reading…Biology’s Blinders: WYSIWYG
I am constantly in awe by how easily our biology hoodwinks us into believing that human perception depicts reality. We evolved to sense the world ‘out there’ in a way that served survival. There is no reason to assume this coincides with sensing how ‘the world out there’ truly is any more than a bat’s […]
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