knowing

Flow Triggers

The Flow Genome Project researches ‘Flow’, which Steven Kotler describes as when performance sharply increases. Google: How to open up the next level of human performance, How To Get Into The Flow State, and The Science of Maximizing Human Potential. Anyone comfortable with the Zen(1) point of view will recognize ‘Flow’ right off. Steven rephrases […]

BRAIN

President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) seeks to decipher how the brain’s circuitry produces thought and behavior. Recent Science News’ reports looked into this initiative. This excerpt is from Brain Shot. Ambitious goals: While the BRAIN Initiative’s objectives are hard to express in concrete terms, the project is full of visionary […]

Natural Happiness

My motto for the secret to happiness, generally speaking, is to like what I do rather than do what I like. This is sure easier said than done. Nevertheless, recalling this motto daily helps prevent my expectations from dictating my life willy-nilly. No doubt, scripture (Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Biblical, etc.) first got me seeing life […]

You are Immortal!

Yes, you are immortal… we’re all immortal! Certainly, that bold claim demands proof. The proof I have will stand up to your scrutiny only if you concur with Buddha’s account of what ‘you’, ‘I’, and ‘we’ actually are. However, if you don’t accept Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, at least in principle, this post may not […]

Who says chickens are stupid?

Who says chickens are stupid? Stupid people, I assume. While this research reported in Science News isn’t about chickens per se, it probably would apply to chickens. I mean how much smarter is a pigeon going to be than a chicken? (Google: Pigeons match monkeys in abstract counting skills.) How much true difference is there […]

Earn It to Learn It

Knowing, in the Taoist sense of the word, is not knowledge, per se. As chapter 15 puts it, Of old, the adept student was minutely subtle, open and deep beyond knowledge. As chapter 56 notes, Knowing doesn’t speak; speaking doesn’t know. Times are different now. Our modern electrified pace of life is continuously updating every […]

Buddha’s Work

I review Buddha’s Four Noble Truths during my yoga headstand every morning. Today, the fourth truth stood out, although not in a profound way, more in a “well, duh” kind of way. First, though, here is the fourth truth: The Fourth Noble Truth is the Middle Path that leads to the cessation of suffering. There […]

Insatiably Curious at 70?

In the book , The Ravenous Brain(1), the author Daniel Bor refers to my age group. He argues that consciousness is a “chronic mental hunger.” That certainly has been my experience. He also says, “During aging, the insatiable brain becomes less so. We are less ravenous for new jewels of wisdom, and our entire existence, […]

The Why Of It

Probing into ‘the why of it’ can feel like jumping into a bottomless well of mystery. Certainly, this qualifies as the epitome of quixotic quests. Not content to stop there, I need to share what I stumble across by posting my observations. I know these are palatable to only a very few people. The irony […]

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 […]

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