understanding

“Right state of peaceful mind”

While living in Thailand in the early 60’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 […]

Amazon mother

This video, From Amazon To Garden State, perfectly exemplifies observations I’ve made on civilization over the last few decades. To be clear, I’m not pro or anti civilization; I simply wish to comprehend its full impact on humanity. Despite the obvious downsides of civilization, we’re never going to turn back the clock. I wouldn’t want […]

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, I see passion overall as arising from the mother of need — fear. In this case, they fear lack of control over life, which drives their desire to control life… to cultivate character. […]

Civilized Insanity

Cults like ISIS and Nazis define true human insanity for me. However, the tribal instinct driving this is universal. It pops up in all of us to various degrees. What drives the fanatic ISIS or Nazi to go over the edge? And what is the best way to deal with this? What determines the degree?

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, […]

BRAIN

President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) seeks to decipher how the brain’s circuitry produces thought and behavior. This is interesting on several levels. Certainly, ongoing scientific corroboration of what we have long suspected at an intuitive level is very useful. (thank you little mouse… sorry!) Two recent Science News’ articles looked […]

Free Willers Anonymous

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous and similar addiction programs begin their process of recovery by first admitting their addiction and powerlessness over it. That starts clearing away the blind spot that up until then made their life very problematic. This first step parallels Buddha’s first step of his Eight-Fold Path—Right Comprehension.

A Wealth of Happiness

They say wealth doesn’t bring happiness. However, when you think about it, it is easy to see how happiness is wealth. Correlations help sort this out. For example, consider how this corresponds to love. Love has two sides; one side is a ‘grasping, expecting, needy’ experience. The other is true love, a ‘giving, empathetic, content’ […]

You are Immortal!

Yes you are… I am… we are! That bold claim needs proof, which I can give you, and you will probably accept if you buy Buddha’s view of what ‘you, I and we‘ truly are. In other words, if you don’t accept Buddha’s Four Noble Truths as being true, at least in principle, this post […]

Just like Us, Just like Them

Have you noticed how much we tend to compare ourselves to other animals and see to what extent they are like us? That’s all quite normal, of course. All animals judge other animals to some extent, although I should say size up, gauge, or perceive, rather than judge. Judging is intimately tied to thinking and […]

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understanding