learning

A Word to the Wise?

This saying is a nice ideal, but flawed I’m afraid to say. I’ve always been fond of D.C. Lau’s “Circumstances bring them to maturity“. It is true, even if that is not exactly what the Chinese character’s say in that chapter. Just what is it about ‘circumstances’ that bring us to maturity, and presumably deeper […]

Loss is Gain; Gain is Loss

The reason this title, “Loss is Gain; Gain is Loss”, may sound ridiculous is that we are biologically set up to respond positively to gain and negatively to loss. The Tao Te Ching echoes this view in chapter 58, It is on disaster that good fortune perches; It is beneath good fortune that disaster crouches. […]

Feeling Animal-ness

We know we are animals biologically speaking. Yet do we really feel we are? I suspect we know this mostly as an abstract scientific detail. Catching the flu for the ‘first time’ in my life may offer an example of how thought can separate us from feeling our animal-ness fully. Claiming that I caught the […]

You Know

More than once, I’ve voiced the view that we tend to put the cart before the horse when it comes to learning, understanding, and knowing. Over the last few years, I’ve become relatively convinced that we only truly understand and learn what we already know intuitively. My suspicions began during our home schooling days as […]

So, I’d like to ask…

A few months ago, a Centertao member asked me if I had any life advice for a man approaching 30. Immediately, too much came to my mind for that question! All I could do was turn the question over to my subconscious. Mysteriously, I find not thinking about tricky issues is the best way to […]

Learning What You Know

In recent years, I’ve realized there is more to meet the eye when it comes to learning, understanding, and knowing. Perhaps, as chapter 14 says, These three cannot be fathomed, and so they are confused and looked upon as one. A few days ago, I was having a discussion with my wife and our son […]

Teachers and Students

Teachers and students are interdependent. You can’t have one without the other. Society lauds the teachers, especially when labeled as ‘professors’, ‘gurus’, or ‘senseis’. In reality, students are the most important part of the equation. After all, teachers can lead students to water, but only the student’s thirst determines whether he’ll drink. As chapter 41 […]

Innately Ethical

Chapter 38’s A man of the highest virtue does not keep to virtue and that is why he has virtue served as a model for raising my sons. This worked really well. Yet, given this ‘Taoist’ upbringing, it is odd to see how rigidly law abiding they are at times. For example, we headed down […]

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