correlations

Who are you?

Civilization simultaneously asks and answers the question, “Who am I”? The cultural story we hear from infancy drums into us who we are and who we should be. Essentially, this is a form of natural brainwashing — natural in that the brainwashers are themselves brainwashed. Because the story is essentially arbitrary, we spend our lives […]

The Word Trap

We are innately attracted to promises of solutions to problems, not to examining the underlying problems. In the wild, that is the healthiest approach because problems there share wilderness simplicity, and the solutions are straightforward. Thus, it was natural for us to evolve the inclination to opt for the simplest view of most any problem, […]

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 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 kind of […]

Naturally Racist

The online matchmaking site Okcupid ran a survey of its members. Google [Okcupid Race and Attraction]. When they first started looking 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 […]

Free Willers Anonymous

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous and similar addiction programs begin their process of recovery by first admitting their addiction and powerlessness over it. That starts clearing away the blind spot that up until then made life very problematic. This first step parallels Buddha’s first step of his Eight-Fold Path—Right Comprehension. Primal instinct drives them all Wouldn’t […]

The Proof is in the Pudding

Buddha felt that we needed to rely on our personal experience to verify his Four Noble Truths, and presumably any other alleged truth. No ‘take my word for it’ hoodwinking here. Now, the advanced capabilities of modern science really help us separate fact from myth. Still, personal experience must always be the final arbiter. Keep […]

A Wealth of Happiness

Chapter 33 says, Being content is wealth. When you think about it, it is easy to see how happiness is wealth. Using Correlations (p.565), let’s consider how love corresponds to wealth and happiness. Love has two sides; the false or yang side is a grasping, expecting, needy experience. The true or yin side is a […]

I Look, But Do I See?

In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”. This is profoundly true, although I expect often misinterpreted. For […]

Counterbalancing I.Q.

The onion is a good metaphor for one’s lifetime. Each of us peel away layer after layer as daily experiences gradually turn into a lifetime. This maturing process helps to counterbalance any extreme characteristics we were born with. With each decade that passes, we see deeper and become more humble compared to our formative years. […]

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correlations