knowing
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 […]
Continue reading…Who are you? (Part IV)
The social qualities integral to our ancestral hunter-gatherer old way (1) just happen to mirror the core “spiritual” qualities that the world’s religions promote. That’s no coincidence. Indeed, those innate qualities of harmony we now seek are the very ones we lost when we left the old way for the alluring material benefits and security […]
Continue reading…“Right state of peaceful mind”
While living in Thailand in the early 1960’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 […]
Continue reading…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 […]
Continue reading…Cultivating Character
I’ve found that some people in Taoist circles have passionate ideals about cultivating one’s character. Seen from a symptoms point of view, passion stems from the mother of need — fear. The visceral fear arising from feeling little control over life drives a need to do something… such as cultivate character. Chapter 54 has the […]
Continue reading…Necessity is the Mother
If you’re unfamiliar with the neuroscience behind the illusion of free will, YouTube: Sam Harris on “Free Will”. He does a good job of addressing the idea of free will, and points out enough compelling evidence that proves that free will is an illusion. Next, please YouTube: Sam Harris on His Debate with Daniel Dennett […]
Continue reading…Ancient Signs Of Modern Behavior
The gravest existential issue that ancient man’s thinking confronted was death. Once symbolic thought evolved, humanity stepped out of the spontaneous conscious experience other animals likely benefit from. Once we acquired an objective sense of past and future, we could worry about death and other virtual losses beyond a moment to-moment experience. For worrywarts, that […]
Continue reading…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 […]
Continue reading…Where does the fault lie?
“The fault lies not in the stars but in ourselves”. That bit of Shakespeare speaks to our modern paradigm. By modern, I mean the epoch beginning with the Renaissance (14th century) that followed the fall of Rome, i.e., the so-called Dark Ages. Note how these labels bias the view of cultural progress right away in […]
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