consciousness

Cultivating Ego

Science News’s, Rats Feel Regret, Experiment Finds, reported that when a rat realizes it made a mistake, its body and brain show signs of regret (1). This finding is yet another nail in the coffin of human ‘exceptionalism’. Sure, we are different from rats, but so are butterflies and cats. Research like this truly challenges […]

Flow Triggers

The Rise of Superman: 17 Flow Triggers is an interesting review of essential ‘flow triggers’ as the author Steven Kotler calls them in his book The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance. Anyone comfortable with the Zen(1) point of view will recognize them right off. Steven rephrases them in a religiously […]

The Proof is in the Pudding

Your personal experience will be the pudding in this post, as you test out the research reported in this Science News article, The bright side of sadness. Buddha thought we needed only to rely on our personal experience to know the truth of life, including his Noble Truths. No ‘take my word for it’ hoodwinking […]

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 […]

Insatiably Curious at 70?

This book review on The Ravenous Brain(1) in Science News mentions my age group. The author, Daniel Bor, argues that consciousness is a “chronic mental hunger.” That certainly has been my experience. However, he also says, “During aging, the insatiable brain becomes less so. We are less ravenous for new jewels of wisdom, and our […]

The Truth vs. The Middle

In looking for the English word for Chinese dual character words (1) , Google stumbled me into this: On the dual characters of Chinese traditional thinking modes and difficulty of changing them. I pasted the Abstract below. It speaks for itself really; no need for more of my chatter. I didn’t try to figure out […]

Networks of Networks of….

The Science News report, When Networks Network, is so striking in its implications that you should read it first. Here is a link to a PDF: Networks of Networks. This research hints at humanity’s gradual cognitive evolution toward a small ‘t’ Taoist point of view. Research like this, along with quantum theory, nudges secular common […]

Seat of Consciousness

I recently received a kind email from someone who ended with this: Lastly, from reading Lau Tzu and Chuang Tzu, do you agree that it would seem that they would likely favor vegetarianism? I am becoming vegetarian myself, but it seems that eating clams and mussels might be possible, because they have no brain, and […]

Use Non-Responsibility

I translate lines 3 and 12 in Chapter 57 as Use non-responsibility when seeking all under heaven, and I am without responsibility and the people thrive themselves. I know that suggesting a virtue of non-responsibility flies in the face of common sense. Like free will, explicit or implied, being responsible is a virtue highly valued […]

Is Rock Conscious?

A while ago, I attempted to pin down a friend (1) of mine on the subject of consciousness. My view that a rock could be conscious didn’t go over too well. He said, “Words are sounds that gain meaning with use. Saying that a rock is conscious is like saying a rock is alive. That might work […]

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consciousness