ego

We All Know We Don’t Know

I enjoy doing yoga on the beach because I can easily pause to look seaward and skyward to soak in eternity, or glance closer in to bond’ with my friends, the sand flies and the seagulls around me. Today I got to thinking how small and insignificant we are — they and me. Then I […]

Alleviating the Hoarding Disorder

Google [Seeking Help For Hoarding] for a brief yet telling report on hoarding. Here is a brief excerpt: At some point I got a lot of stuff,” said Joanne Garland. “I kept too much paper. I kept too many books. I kept too many clothes.” Too much of everything! Garland’s Greenfield, Mass., home is packed […]

Cultivating Ego

Google [Rats Experience Feelings of Regret] for research discovering that when a rat realizes it made a mistake, its body and brain show signs of regret (1). Research like this challenges the beliefs of human exceptionalism we’ve been cultivating to support our “illusion of self”— humanity’s collective ego, so to speak. Sure, we are different […]

Alone with Thought

Two Science News reports touch on a core human problem. The problem is, as chapter 71 puts it, “Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.” Google [Hallinan Kidding Ourselves] for an anthropological, rational view of self-deception. Also, google [People will take pain over being left alone with their thoughts] for […]

Loving Your Eco-System

I assume that all of us, in our deepest moments of contemplation, wonder just who we are. Of course, we have our given name, our gender, our ideals, our likes and dislikes, which create and maintain our “illusion of self”, as Buddha pointed out in his 2nd Noble Truth. How tenacious we cleave to those […]

Religion… an Opiate?

Karl Marx famously said, “Religion is the opium of the people”. He went on to identify “religious distress” as the symptom of a social “condition which needs illusions”.(1) Blaming cultural conditions for the dysfunction he saw is putting the cart before the horse. Doing this is as common as it is mistaken. Among other things, […]

You are Immortal!

Preface: Undoubtedly, our brain’s mind inherently needs a story for its thoughts to play out. The following “immortality” story is worth considering as it may offer what chapter 16 hints as, The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself. Note, the ‘dao’ of immortality comes at a cost and thus offers no happy home […]

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