To better comprehend the Trump phenomenon, I need to examine it from a symptoms point of view (1). Simply judging circumstances at face value leaves out all the underlying causative forces at play, and this just perpetuates my ignorance. First, Trump is symptomatic of the deterioration of the cooperative politics essential for maintaining a stable […]
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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, all the sand flies and seagulls around me. Today I got to thinking how small and insignificant we are—they and me. Then I thought, they […]
Continue reading…Who are you? (Part III)
Recent posts, Who are you? and Who are you? (Part II), examine the losses of emotional security and comfort caused when our civilized way of life replaced our primal ancestral way. Common sense, personal experience, and timely mid 20th century ethnographic research verifies this. (See The Harmless People p.426) This post and the next cover […]
Continue reading…The Word Trap
We are innately attracted to any promised solution to our problem rather than examining our problem’s underlying causes. That is the optimal approach in the wild because problems there share wilderness simplicity, which makes solutions straightforward. Thus, it was natural for us to evolve the inclination to opt for the simplest view of a problem, […]
Continue reading…Science Proves Buddha Right!
Google [CBS News When low expectations achieve big results] for research that reveals how one’s expectations get in the way of happiness. This is not to say expectations aren’t useful or natural. Indeed, a kind of natural expectation, or sense of anticipation plays an integral role in survival. This impulse drives all living things to […]
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 find some people in Taoist circles have passionate ideals about cultivating character. Seen from a symptoms point of view, passion arises from fear—the mother of need. The visceral fear arising from feeling one has little control over life drives a need to do something… like cultivate character. Chapter 54 has the only reference relating […]
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 to prove that free will is an illusion. Next, please YouTube [Sam Harris on His Debate with Daniel Dennett […]
Continue reading…Of Mountains, Molehills and the Supernatural
I’ve noticed how we humans appear to have a nearly universal sense of the supernatural. Now, I know devotees of science and atheists might dispute that, at least as far as universal applies to them. They’ll claim they don’t believe in the supernatural. Fair enough, so let me rephrase this… The supernatural sense is essentially […]
Continue reading…Civilized Insanity
Cults akin to ISIS and Nazism help define true human insanity. Nonetheless, the tribal instinct driving such insanity is curiously both sane and universal. This ironic blend inhabits everyone to a degree. So, what drives the ISIS or Nazi fanatic to become so obsessed? How can we remedy this? First, calling acts of insanity evil […]
Continue reading…Ancient Signs Of Modern Behavior
The gravest existential issue that ancient man’s thoughts confronted was death. Humanity lost “Eden” when symbolic thought supplanted the spontaneous conscious experience that other animals benefit from. Once we acquired an objective sense of past and future, we could worry about death and other possible misfortunes awaiting us in the near and distant future. Simply […]
Continue reading…Alone with Thought
Two Science News reports touch on what is probably humanity’s most serious problem. As chapter 71 puts it, “Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.” Google [Hallinan Kidding Ourselves] for a rational anthropological view of self-deception. Also, google [People will take pain over being left alone with their thoughts] for […]
Continue reading…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 […]
Continue reading…Laws as Symptoms, not Solutions
Google [TED Is The Law Making Us Less Free] for how law affects society. Briefly, the speaker, Philip Howard, says, “There’s this fetish with rules that has kind of replaced morality. And it works both in a gotcha sort of way, and it works in an avoidance of responsibility sort of way.” In reality, I […]
Continue reading…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 familiar with the Zen(1) point of view will recognize Flow right off. Steven rephrases […]
Continue reading…Born Again Taoist
How many of us realize the role that instinct plays in our lives? Long ago, our ancestors dreamed up elitist myths that elevated our species from other living things. We are told, “Don’t be an animal” and that Mankind was created in God’s image. One way or another, every culture has a spiritual superiority story. […]
Continue reading…Free Willers Anonymous
Members of Alcoholics Anonymous and similar addiction management programs begin recovery by first acknowledging their addiction and powerlessness over it. Clearly recognizing a problem is an indispensable prerequisite for finding a solution. Such Right Comprehension is the first step on Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path. Until then, life is always a dog chasing its tail. Primal instinct […]
Continue reading…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. There’s no ‘take my word for it’ hoodwinking here. Nowadays, modern science is steadily helping us discern fact from myth. Still, personal experience must always be the final arbiter. Keep this in […]
Continue reading…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—something we do frequently. To see it this way, he must have had […]
Continue reading…Who says chickens are stupid?
Who says chickens are stupid? Ignorant 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 […]
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