tao
Who are you? (Part II)
I tried to point out in Who are you? (part I) how civilization plays a major role in ‘educating’ its citizens who they are and who they should be. This contrasts sharply with the natural intuitive way our ancestors previously acquired a secure sense of self. Religious stories have been central to every civilization’s agenda. […]
Continue reading…Fear & Need Born in Nothing
Fear and need are the underlying principle for most of my observations. I know this rationale often raises more questions than it answers, so more clarification is in order. Not that I haven’t tried before… see Fear is the Bottom Line and One who speaks does not know? Well, third time’s the charm, right? On […]
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. ‘Modern’ began with the Renaissance that followed the so-called Dark Ages. Note how these labels bias the view of cultural progress right away in favor of the modern. I see such progress as a two-step forward, […]
Continue reading…The Pendulum Swings
The Syrian situation highlights our curious inability to avoid swinging from one extreme to the opposite. In wondering why, chapter 64 offers some insight. Its peace easily manages, Its presence easily plans, Its fragility easily melts, Its timeliness easily scatters, Acts without existing, Governs without disorder. The common adage, “a stitch in time saves nine” […]
Continue reading…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. Times are different now. Our modern electrified pace of life is continuously updating every facet of human knowledge. However, this is not the case […]
Continue reading…Gone Fishin’, Back Soon
The ‘fish’ are still biting and I’m reeling them in, I’m just not posting them. Posting my fishy observations requires so much cleaning up to make them fit for reading. Finishing the last chapter of my translation of the Tao Te Ching — Tao Te Ching, Word for Word — was the catalyst I needed […]
Continue reading…The best tao? (road, way, principle, speak, think)
Waking up following a pleasant afternoon siesta, I found myself reflecting on the best ‘way’ to approach life. By ‘way’ I mean ‘tao’, and tao (道 dào) translates to road, way, path; channel, course; way, path; doctrine, principle; talk, speak; think, suppose. Why do we have a seemingly endless debate over the best way to […]
Continue reading…Of What Is The Taoist Model Symptomatic?
I was soaking in the hot bath this morning and recalling member Dave’s reply to Butterflies have wings; we have minds came to mind. A hot bath never fails to loosen up thinking, I find. Anyway, Dave said, “Our models in our minds are staler than we know.” He also quoted George Box, one of […]
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