Preface
I am deeply grateful to my wife, Leslie Abbott, for all the proofreading and support she has given me over the decades. Without her help, this would be a painful read indeed!
This book is the culmination of an epiphany I had after mulling over my brother’s death in 1964. Later, in 1976, I made my first attempt to write about it (see Why?, page 242). By 1980, the Taoist point of view had become the best way for me to contemplate the existential mysteries of life… and death.
I began a public Taoist outreach in the early 80’s in a desire to share deeper forms of thought and fellowship with others. The Tao Te Ching is the epitome of deep thought, and so I set up a non-profit organization, Center for Taoist Thought and Fellowship. Later, with the advent of the Internet, I began posting commentary on the Tao Te Ching and general observation on life from a Taoist point of view.
The fellowship side of this never gained popularity most likely because we focus on a Taoist point of view — the Tao Te Ching — not on Taoism. The Tao Te Ching offers nothing around which to rally a fervent ‘ism’ fellowship — no ritual, dogma, rites, or even belief, frankly. That makes the Tao Te Ching and religion a little like oil and water. Even so, a small group of us meets monthly, which is perfect! Anything larger would make it impossible to interact on the person-to-person level as we do.
Realizing the hunter-gatherer within
The old way of our Paleolithic ancestors gave them an organic fellowship from the ground up — from birth onward — feeling connected by virtue of an intimate tribal experience that saw them through birth, growth, old age and death. Unlike civilized people, they needed no flags, dogma, experts, kings, common enemies, heroes, or bureaucracies to pull them together. They connected intuitively through simple survival necessity.
Our ancestral hunter-gatherer old way just happens to mirror the core “spiritual” qualities that the world’s religions promote. Essentially, our ancestors were ‘taoist’. They weren’t ‘taoist’ by volition, mind you, but rather by dint of circumstances — natural circumstances. I like to say that anyone finding themselves a ‘taoist’ today was born 10,000 years too late… or perhaps 10,000 years too early. The trick is to realize the hunter-gatherer within us, and thus come closer to our ‘Original Self’. (See Small ‘t’ Taoist, p.154)
Cup Half Empty, Cup Half Full, Cup Runneth Over
Just as hunter-gatherers were ‘taoists’, we are all still hunter-gatherers. Survival instincts drive us, and all animals, to either hunt or gather. The perception of the cup half empty vs. the cup half full speaks to this metaphorically. Setting aside our splendid cup runneth over moments, we naturally feel the cup half empty more often than not. Feeling this negative bias drives us to get out there to hunt and gather, just in case what we have will not be enough. All animals fear being caught short, and rightfully so; in the wild there are no warehouses full of food.
Importantly, our DNA didn’t discard these evolutionarily sound instincts when the Agricultural Revolution made ever-increasing surplus possible. No longer needing to hunt and gather food, we intuitively and instinctively substitute other things that we feel will make us fulfilled (happy and content). We buy ‘this’, we learn ‘that’, we explore ‘there’, we pursue ‘those’, we collect ‘these’, we indulge ‘here’, we create ‘new’, we perfect ‘it’. Then to top it off, instinct prods us to seek more and more. This simply comes down to be a matter of feeling a sense of less (a cup half-empty problem) and then hunting and gathering for more (a cup full solution). The ultimate purpose of Taoist Thought is to help moderate the influence of these instincts.
Introduction
The Brain has a Mind of its Own
Humans are an exceptionally social species. We are like ants and bees with huge brains, and this accounts for many of the advantages and disadvantages we face in life. Naturally, we’d like to minimize the disadvantages if possible. One problem in particular is our mind’s ability to make imagined mountains out of reality molehills. Taoist thought can help.
What is Taoist thought? The Tao Te Ching observes, The name that can be named is not the constant name. Thinking requires naming, and this process creates our common knowledge. The Tao Te Ching offers a point of view that counterbalances the common knowledge instilled in us from infancy via our cultural conditioning — our cultural baggage.
Now you may ask, “What’s so wrong with common knowledge?” Nothing is wrong, per se. Our culture’s education vigorously conditions us to live within our culture’s civilization, and rightfully so. However, the naming process also locks us into stories and beliefs — knowledge — about human experience. This intense conditioning obliterates the impartiality we are born with… the original self, so to speak. Without this impartiality, conditioned thought easily tips our lives off balance.
Thought has a tendency to run away with itself, fire up emotions, which soon snowball into anxiety and stress. The certainty of belief instilled in us from birth traps us into circular thinking, advancing new solutions, yet dwelling on that which is beyond our control. The Tao Te Ching tackles this dilemma head on by asserting, Realizing I don’t know is better; Not knowing this knowing is disease. Do you agree, at least provisionally, with this diagnosis? If so, what then?
How can we treat the disease?
Taoist Thought helps roll back certainty and stimulate insight. Rather than advancing knowledge, you gradually begin returning to the impartial point of view with which you were born. This impartiality reveals the world beyond the limits of knowledge itself. Linking up real world circumstances with Taoist principles is a step in that direction. We may not cure the disease but we can ameliorate it. As the Tao Te Ching observes, Already knowing its offspring, return to observe the origin. Nearly rising beyond oneself. Or as the subtitle of this book suggests, a process aimed at returning to original self.
This book’s 288 short essays help you steadily untangle cognitive knots by addressing various aspects of daily life from a Taoist point of view. Simply read one short essay every day or two and sleep on it. Drawing this process out over a few years gives your mind a chance to look beyond its narrow cultural box. As the Tao Te Ching, chapter 16 describes…
Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial,
Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural,
Natural therefore the way.
The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself
This book’s short stories are bite size observational chunks giving food for thought without, I hope, cerebral indigestion. These stories actually evolve toward an inevitable conclusion — a meta-story, so to speak. However, I didn’t realize this until I followed the observational path of evidence to its obvious conclusion. This concluding story answers the deepest questions I’ve had about our species and the conditions in which we find ourselves now.
You could just skip over the first 287 stories and see how the all-inclusive final story ends. Although, how well can we understand a story by just seeing how it ends? Much of the context would be missing, even though we could know ‘who done it’. To understand this closing meta-story requires a multi-layered sense of the human condition, and the preliminary observations aim to do just that. For this reason, it probably requires traveling down the same observational path I took writing these stories to reach the same ultimate observational end.
The thousand mile journey beginning beneath our feet
Subtle biases arising from cultural conditioning and empathic sensibilities make any “observational path” a twisted route indeed. The Taoist principles of impartiality (chapter 16) and profound sameness (chapter 56) are the main cognitive tools we have to realize the spiritual end we seek here.
A deepening sense of impartiality and profound sameness returns us to our original self by leveling our imagined mountains of difference into molehills of similarity. Alas, this straightforward process can also be very challenging. As chapter 70 puts it, Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do. Under heaven none can know, none can do. Every instinct urges us to abandon impartiality and take sides. This compels us to see differences more important than similarities.
Living creatures naturally perceive differences more keenly than similarities. This ‘difference bias’ along with partiality serves survival well, especially in the wild. However, these natural biases are much more problematic in civilization. Happily, the ‘school of life’ can reveal similarities underlying those “obvious” differences we noticed so keenly in our youth. Accordingly, being on the lookout for mountains of similarity rather than molehills of difference is the best advice I can offer the readers of this book. How will you know which one you are seeing? Sensing difference is emotionally stimulating. Thus, when you feel emotionally dispassionate and can behold the profound similarities that both sides share, Impartiality is close by.
Truth lingers behind redundancy
While compiling and editing the short stories, I noticed how these stories kept revisiting core themes. I thought, “There is an awful lot of redundancy here!” I then thought more deeply; we need constant vigilance and review to counterbalance our innate biases and the weight of our cultural conditioning — the baggage we carry throughout life. Recall this if you begin to feel cynical amid the redundancy. Frankly, to return to the original self, we need to adopt a broader and deeper story to replace our narrow culturally conditioned one… and redundancy cultivates this.
Using the Book
Taoist Thought is a printed version of the observations I posted on CenterTao.org between 2008 and 2017. I divide these into four sections for no particular reason other than to break it up a bit. This book also includes a handful of essays central to the observations. These begin on page 565.
The original posts have links to URL’s, which are other posts, online resources, or excerpts from the Tao Te Ching. If necessary, you can go to the particular post at Centertao.org and click on the link there, although googling them will often work. I’ve differentiated these links in print using a dashed underline regular font for general links and bold italic font for the Tao Te Ching. For example: “The blind men and the elephant parable comes to mind.” and “No wonder my mind is that of a fool – how blank!”
Note: Pages referenced to other stories in this book are denoted thus: p.(page#). For example, “This is also a survival advantage (See How The Hoodwink Hooks, p.100).”
Tip: I regard the essays as pillars of my Taoist point of view. Reading these first before the short stories might help overall comprehension. Also, throughout the book there are many links (references) vis-à-vis Correlations, free will, Buddha’s Truths, belief, etc., which these essays address.
D.C. Lau vs. Word for Word translations: There is a major shift in the links to the Tao Te Ching. Initially I quoted from D.C. Lau’s translation. However, I’ve never been fully satisfied with any translation that I’ve come across. Much meaning can be lost in the effort to elucidate the Taoist point of view within proper English. In 2001, I finally decided to render as literal a word-for-word translation of the Tao Te Ching as possible by ignoring proper English as often as necessary. When completed, I began quoting from it instead of D.C. Lau’s version. I also replaced some earlier D.C. Lau quotes with Word for Word where it felt useful.
Semantic Issues
Semantics is important when considering life from a Taoist point of view. That’s why I needed to include key synonyms for the Chinese characters in my Tao Te Ching, Word for Word translation. Explore these for any chapter you’re curious about at Centertao.org. Similarly, I need to define a few key words I use in this book.
I often use the words need, fear, emotion, and instinct in a broader sense than the meaning for which they are typically associated. These primal states affect perception in general, and thinking in particular. Allow me to address them briefly:
Need and fear: Need and fear, in the broadest sense, convey the primal biological driving forces of life. Feeling need attracts us to what ostensibly facilitates survival. Feeling fear repels us from what ostensibly impedes survival. Such need and fear are often below the threshold of thought, and only evoke conscious thoughts in humans above a certain level.
Importantly, animals only react to events when those events trigger survival instincts, most of which spawn either a sense of fear and need. Need and fear are the only actual catalyst for action (or inaction). Obviously, we generally believe that our species is able to transcend such instinct. Personally, I’ve yet to find evidence for that belief.
Emotion: I use the term emotion as broadly as possible to differentiate feeling from thinking. This includes all the “indistinct and shadowy” experiences, conscious or otherwise, that we are unable to adequately describe through language or portray artistically.
Instinct: We commonly think instinct pertains mostly to animals. It is their means of making choices in life. We on the other hand believe we have free will, and thus are able to operate outside the bounds of instinct. I’ve found this to be more wishful thinking than actuality. In any case, I think of instinct as something innate and along the lines of need, fear, and emotion. Instinct is the biological bedrock upon which all our perceptions and reactions originate.
Writing these observations fleshes out views that fall outside mainstream paradigms. Sure, this feels a little unsettling at times. On balance though, seeing life from other angles is healthful, not heretical. I imagine most people would agree, at least until a particular view begins to threaten their own sacred cow. At that point need, fear, emotion and instinct carry the day.
Biographical Notes
I have no formal qualifications for any of this… Heck, I flunked English and dropped out of high school. I’ve learned what I know outside of school. That may be a plus in terms of “Taoist qualifications”, at least to the extent that I can see outside the box and notice things others may miss. I used to assume this was due to my innate and apparently loner nature. By that I mean, I never really felt connected to the mainstream culture (music, sports, dating, politics, religion, etc.) around me during my childhood. I suppose that is one reason why the Tao Te Ching spoke to me deeply. Circumstances, beginning with emigrating to Australia at age 20, also played a role in my outside the cultural box understanding of life.
I finally realized, after having a family of my own, that I wasn’t truly a loner. In fact, I would have fit right in with our ancestral hunter-gatherer ways. I now believe I simply couldn’t connect well in the less intimate settings of civilization. I was just born 10,000 years too late, as many others may also feel. The following is a brief summary of my history.
I was born in Tucson Arizona in 1943. I had a normal childhood, which began to change with the onset of puberty. I dropped out of high school and joined the Air National Guard. The Cuban Missile Crisis of the early 60’s changed my destiny. I was plugging away at night college and working full time at an electronics firm when I was called up. My National Guard unit was headed for Germany to be cannon fodder, they half joked. I had to drop out of college and pack my bags. When the situation cooled down, the mission was cancelled and I was left without a “vacation” to Germany or my college.
My life was up in the air. I felt I had to go somewhere! Older WWII vets at work talked up Australia as a great place to go. Then again, I had adapted the NASA’s Gemini telemetry technology I was working on then for use in consumer products – a personal pager system for doctors, and radio controlled toys. What should I do? Stay and develop these inventions, which might make me millions or go to Australia.
I immigrated to Australia in 1963, and found work at the NASA satellite tracking station in Western Australia. Soon though, I was drawn to Asia where I spent years wandering, working and wondering, i.e., growing up. Overall, I spent 15 years traveling the world, much of it hitchhiking (see map above), until my mid 30’s when I decided to return to the USA and blend back into its melting pot.
Why was I gone so long? I really had no reason to return. Why did I return? The Taoist observation, He goes out farther, he realizes less, became increasingly apparent to me as my years on the road grew. Indeed, simply expecting to know more by going out further is in effect realizing less. In other words, expectation blinds realization.
Chapter 47 sums it up well…
Without going out the door, we can know all under heaven.
Without looking out the window, we can see nature’s way.
He goes out farther, he realizes less,
Accordingly, the wise person goes nowhere, yet knows.
Sees nothing, yet understands.
Refrains from acting, yet accomplishes
This chapter became truer for me as I realized the world I thought I was getting to know was actually merely a reflection of my own personal needs and fears; wherever I went, there I was. Thus, the better I knew myself, the more I ended up knowing the whole world. To put it another way, I can’t know anything ‘out there’ more deeply than I know the ‘in here’. For that, I just need self-honesty!
That is my philosophical angle on ‘why’. The simpler reason: I was just looking for a home — a place to settle down, which I did several times for a while… in Australia, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, and England. In the end, I wearied of being “the foreigner”, and decided to return to America and blend-in. As it happens, I found blending-in to be home.
I should add I’m referring to a subjective blending-in, and not a cultural pressure to conform. Chapter 20 describes this poetically. And while I’m innately less susceptible to cultural pressure than most, this may sum up what everyone feels to some degree.
Crowd of people all have appointments to keep,
I alone am dense and vulgar.
I alone am different from people,
And value feeding the mother.
I eventually settled down in 1980 in Santa Cruz, California, married and had two sons. My unconventional nature along with many years of other-culture experiences left me profoundly ecumenical and non-partisan. This turned out to be an asset for understanding the Tao Te Ching. In 1982, I opened the Center for Taoist Thought and Fellowship to provide a church-like place for like-minded—Taoist minded—folks to meet and share how a Taoist worldview relates to personal life.
P.S. Some of the short stories are part of a Times of Yore series. My kids have been after me to write my autobiography for some time. Alas, I’m no storyteller and I seldom reminisce past experiences; it all feels so indistinct and shadowy, even prehistoric. Still, I decided to try, and Times of Yore is the tag I used for posts that refer to something in my past.
[A]Those Who Speak Do Not Know. So, Why Speak? 3704
I now know enough to know that I don’t know. Chapter 71 speaks well to this state of mind, To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Chapter 56 is even blunter, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know. So, why do I post? My answer is simple: I am either gossiping, or ‘raising the alarm’. I can trace both of these roots back to the biology of a social species. In one way or another, that’s what ducks do, chimps do, I do.
Gossiping or raising the alarm is behind everything from casual chitchat to in-depth research. Of course, I suppose many with a professional stake in speech, like educators, commentators, politicians, preachers, etc., would dispute this.
This makes me sound like a skeptic and perhaps a cynic too, at least in the original sense of the word. Let’s see what Wikipedia says about this…
Skepticism is generally any questioning attitude or doubt towards one or more items of putative knowledge or belief. It is often directed at domains, such as morality (moral skepticism), religion (skepticism about the existence of God), or the nature of knowledge (skepticism of knowledge). Formally, skepticism as a topic arises in the context of philosophy, particularly epistemology, although it has also found its way into popular-level social and political issues like climate science, religion, and pseudoscience.
Philosophical skepticism is a systematic approach that questions the notion that absolutely certain knowledge is possible. Classical philosophical skepticism derives from the classical Greek verb, skeptomai, “to search”, implying searching, but not finding. Adherents of Pyrrhonism, for instance, suspend judgment in investigations. Skeptics may even doubt the reliability of their own senses. Religious skepticism, on the other hand, is “doubt concerning basic religious principles (such as immortality, providence, and revelation)”. Scientific skepticism is about testing beliefs for reliability, by subjecting them to systematic investigation using the scientific method, to discover empirical evidence for them.
The Cynics (Greek: Κυνικοί, Latin: Cynici) were an influential group of philosophers from the ancient school of Cynicism. Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, and by living a life free from all possessions. As reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way that was natural for humans. They believed that the world belonged equally to everyone, and that suffering was caused by false judgments of what was valuable and by the worthless customs and conventions which surrounded society. Many of these thoughts were later absorbed into Stoicism.
Philosophy for a Stoic is not just a set of beliefs or ethical claims, it is a way of life involving constant practice and training (or askesis, see ascetic). Stoic philosophical and spiritual practices included logic, Socratic dialogue and self-dialogue, contemplation of death, training attention to remain in the present moment (similar to some forms of Eastern meditation), daily reflection on everyday problems and possible solutions, hypomnemata, and so on. Philosophy for a Stoic is an active process of constant practice and self-reminder.
It appears that the ancient Greek worldview has a lot in common with the Taoist worldview, as I see it anyway. That isn’t too surprising because they were contemporaries, more or less. Both faced a radical paradigm shift brought on by the advent of iron technology — the Iron Age.
Biology’s Blinders 1280
I am constantly in awe by how easily our biology hoodwinks us into believing that human perception depicts reality. We evolved to sense the world ‘out there’ in a way that served survival. There is no reason to assume this coincides with sensing how ‘the world out there’ truly is any more than a bat’s ultrasonic hearing informs it about the true nature of ‘out there’. At best, the senses that a species evolves only convey a sliver of the big picture. The blind men and the elephant parable comes to mind. These guys are tasked with knowing what an elephant is by touching only one part of the elephant, e.g., ears, trunk, legs, tail, etc.
Actually, I am even more amazed at my amazement about this, or that I even realize it. Of course, that realization itself must be part of the biological hoodwink as well, which leaves me dumbfounded. At times, My mind is that of a fool – how blank!, as chapter 20 puts it. This looks like the future for physicists as well. Google [It’s Likely That Times Are Changing MINKOWSKI]. In the end, a Taoist point of view may be the only viable point of view that remains standing. Chapter 14 implies why… Dimly visible, it cannot be named and returns to that which is without substance.
Tao Views of the Dow 2534~!
The inflation-adjusted chart (right) covering the last 100 years of the Dow Jones shows the ebb and flow of the stock market. It is easy to see how the highs and the lows follow each other in a natural ebb and flow. As chapter 2 says, The high and the low incline towards each other and that Before and after follow each other. However, this doesn’t offer the details and timing we crave to make our fortunes.
Our cravings can be a handicap in our attempt to see life simply and act wisely. Self-interest skews perception and blinds us. The more we need something, the more certainty-biased perception takes over. Impartiality is lost.
Balance is crucial, no less in finance than in standing on one’s head. Bucking the tide is how to win at life. If the tide pulls you this way, you lean that way if you want to avoid falling over. The tide in yoga is the pull of gravity. In the stock market, the tide is either the fear to lose or the need to win. Emotional balance lies in being able to wax when the culture’s sentiments are waning, and to wane when they are waxing. To buy low and sell high is what everyone in the world knows yet no one can put this knowledge into practice, as chapter 78 puts it. When we feel doom is on the horizon, emotion (fear) drives us to sell. When boom times return, emotion (need) drives us to buy with abandon. To do the opposite can feel like suicide.
A poverty of wealth
The Dow Jones chart shows that wealth is increasing over time. However, what is wealth really? Especially in light of chapter 33’s point of view … He who knows contentment is rich. The chart does not represent this kind of rich.
Activity brings wealth, whether we are talking about bees gathering pollen for the honeycomb, or Bill Gates gathering customers for Microsoft. Moreover, from where does all this activity spring? Biologically, a lack of contentment drives us to act. When we feel we have enough of what we need, we rest content. As chapter 46 puts it, Hence in being content, one will always have enough.
The wealth in the land continues to rise over the decades, despite the ups and downs of the market. This tells me people are less and less content with life and so turn to more and more activity that, as the chart shows, increases wealth. Ironically then, you could say that the wealthier we become, the less rich we are — the less contentment we know.
What’s With All the Hair? 993
Ok, I know. I’ve let myself go a little lately. In the past, I’ve taken to cut off my hair – usually all of it – when it finally felt uncomfortable. That usually happens on a hot day working hard outside, but now summer is over. I’ve worked outside on hot days this year, and yet I’ve not cut off my hair. Sitting in the bath the other day I got to wondering…
Am I becoming more comfortable with discomfort? And, what is with all this hair anyway? How odd it is that our species has this uncurbed growth of hair on the head. Does the uncurbed activity going on up there between our ears play any role in this uncurbed hair growth? And what happened to the rest of our hair? Did we exchange our hair for clothes? It is all very odd, and even odder that I feel it odd. Should I cut my hair now? Nah, it’s winter-ish now. And, it is bound to become uncomfortable by next summer. (photo: why does it keep growing?)
Life is Struggle, Happiness is Contentment 1350~!
Struggle and contentment are codependent — two sides of the same coin. We must struggle to live, yet we must relax to enjoy living life. As chapter 33 says, He who knows contentment is rich. How does one deal with those two tasks without feeling stressed? Indeed, trying to balance these opposites suggests how we become confused, even neurotic.
One of the most significant long-term benefits of doing Hatha Yoga daily is that it provides a field in which to simultaneously struggle and relax. Ha means sun; tha means moon; and yoga means (1) to put a yoke on (2) to harness (an animal) to (a plow) (3) to join together; link (4) to join in marriage. The word hatha yoga elegantly embodies its core purpose… the joining together of struggle and contentment in ‘holy matrimony’. I’ve found that yoga accomplishes this purpose well, especially as it evolves into a private, non-competitive, life-long practice.
Activity driven by the competitive spirit is ha biased. Activity driven by a cooperative spirit is tha biased. It seems life’s pendulum always tends to swing past the golden middle. Hatha yoga offers the chance to practice aiming for this middle. The benefit of setting time aside each day seeking this balanced middle is invaluable. Chapter 64 suggests why, Deal with a thing while it is still nothing; Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in. (photo: bath in meiji park (japan 1975) after yoga)
Schrödinger’s Cat 298
This CenterTao member’s reply brought Schrödinger’s cat to mind! Google [Schrödinger’s Cat – minutephysics]. What do you think?
Seeing the world ‘out there’ 3073~!
I began studying astrology while living in Japan. I soon realized that up until then I’d been seeing everything ‘out there’ relative to myself — subjectivity to the hilt. Astrology opened a window onto the world for me — things were unique in there own right. Not only that, astrology offered what appeared to be an objective reason why things were the way they were.
As I dug deeper into astrology, the objective reasons stretched credulity. Sure, at the most fundamental level of non-locality, everything is connected. Non-locality seems to parallel chapter 56’s, This is known as mysterious sameness. However, going from mysterious connectedness to the detailed cause and effect of astrology ultimately felt too far-fetched. For an overview of non-locality, google [The Nonlocal, Entangled, Conscious Universe – Menas Kafatos].
Astrology began to look more like a symptom of a clearly human need for answers. In doing people’s horoscopes, it was interesting how those who believed in astrology enthusiastically accepted my presentation. Those who had no pre-belief were seldom if ever convinced. I began to realize that we only see what we already want to see, which eventually evolved into my sense that we only learn what we already know. I admit this is a very odd notion, but what can I say?
I realized that the world I perceived in my youth was actually a reflection of what I believed. Although at present, I think my perception is more a reflection of, not what I believe, but more of ‘who I am’ — innately, naturally, biologically. Our innate original self determines the beliefs to which we are attracted. I’ve come almost full circle, except that I’ve dropped much of the sensation of being at the center, and the sense of self-certainty that confers. Oddly, knowing that any belief I have simply mirrors my innate nature removes the heavy burden of self-responsibility. In other words, being ultra personal helps me not take life so personally. I say, “It is your biology stupid, and not the individual that your illusion of self ego thinks you are”.
As I write this, I wonder what genuine difference exists between my youthful perceptions and current ones. Truly, the main difference lies in impartiality, the Holy Grail of Taoist thought for me. As chapter 16 says,
I assume that genuine impartiality can only increase if innate emotional partiality and insecurity subside with age and experience. Likewise, youthful emotions and insecurity can’t avoid adopting passionate preferences. Ah, such is the school of life.
If the world we see is simply a reflection of who we are, then Chapter 47 makes more sense. The deeper we know ‘in here’ the clearer we know ‘out there’.
Where There’s Passion (fire), There’s Blindness (smoke) 1058
It is easy to notice other people’s obsession, which we ourselves don’t share. The moment we have a stake in any situation, passion blinds us. Take ‘puppy love’ for instance. Puppy love exemplifies the attraction emotion of need and love. This positive passion is the emotional energy that drives us reflexively to embrace that which we need… usually we love what makes us feel comfortable, secure, strong, etc. On the flip side is fear and hate. This negative passion is the emotional energy that drives us reflexively to avoid that which we fear… usually we hate what makes us feel uncomfortable, insecure, and weak.
Passions of both love and hate hinder us from realizing what chapter 14 hints at… This is called indistinct and shadowy. Our things and ideals are the treasures to which we both passionately cling and fear to lose. The passion binds us and blinds us, and makes us incapable of being capable. As chapter 10 challenges us…
When your discernment penetrates the four quarters
Are you capable of not knowing anything?
Such Synergy 349
I just came across this little diagram I drew up a few years back. It’s not a bad way to ponder some elemental issues using a minimum of words. It points to the synergy that exists between these elements.
At the center is Meaning / need. I’d probably add fear to that core. Need & fear make the world go round. One pulls in and the other pushes away.
Mind in Body in Mind in Body…xin… 3359
Science gradually debunks long held myths. It relentlessly peels away the cosmetic ideals with which we adorn ourselves. Warm-up your contemplative mind with this excerpt from a recent Science News report, Body In Mind. (Also google [Grounded cognition].) It takes another step towards taking the ‘sapiens’ out of Homo sapiens (Latin: sapiens ≈ wise man).
For the past 30 years, standard theories of cognition have assumed that the brain creates abstract representations of knowledge, such as a word that represents a category of objects. This abstract knowledge gets filed in separate neural circuits, one devoted to understanding and using speech, for example, and another involved in discerning others’ thoughts and feelings. If that’s so, then cognition operates on a higher level apart from more mundane brain systems for perception, action and emotion. Mental life must occur in three discrete steps: Sense, think and then act.
The new approach, often called embodied or grounded cognition, turns standard thinking on its head. It argues that cognition is grounded in interactions among basic brain systems, including those for perception, action, memory, emotion, reward and goal management.
These systems increasingly coordinate their activity as an individual gains experience performing tasks jointly with other people. Complex thinking capacities—in particular, a feel for anticipating what’s about to happen in a situation—form out of these myriad interactions within and between individuals, somewhat like the novel products of chemical reactions.
In short, people often act in order to think and learn, using immediate feedback to adjust their behavior from one moment to the next.
According to this view, bodily states—say, smiling—stimulate related forms of cognition, such as feeling good or remembering a pleasant experience. Researchers emphasize that the ability to think about an observed action or event, such as a friend biting into a peach, stems from neural reenactments of one’s perceptual, motor and emotional states—biting into your own peach.
“It’s really through the body, and the dynamic coupling of neural systems for perception, action and introspection, that cognition emerges,” says developmental psychologist Linda Smith of Indiana University in Bloomington.
Distinctions made between mind and body help reinforce our belief in free will, whether implicit or implied (p.587, 591). This, “If I can think it, I can do it” sense of personal control is too tempting to resist. However, this is misleading for it neglects much of biology’s role in thought and action, and the interplay between them. The separate mind – body paradigm promotes an overly positive human self-image, i.e., we’re not mere animals, we’re Homo sapiens, wise and learned animals and therefore superior.
The Chinese word Xin may offer a more accurate view of mind and body. Xin (心) translates as: heart; mind; feeling; intention; centre; core. This blurs the sharp distinction between heart and mind, feeling and thinking. The mind – body division falls away. Chapter 56 hints at what remains… This is known as mysterious sameness.
Finding cognition as less magnificent than we believed can only increase self-understanding. This puts another nail in the coffin of free will, moving us closer to regaining our membership in the animal kingdom.
Butterflies have wings; we have minds 1599
Butterflies have wings and fly; we have a mind and our thoughts soar. So far so good. The trouble crops up from trusting that our thoughts get us somewhere real. Any resulting belief easily leads to difficulty. When you believe the dream is real, nightmares are more likely.
Granted the mind can drive us crazy, but it isn’t really the mind’s fault; it is the trust we place in the mind’s thought. We believe that the cover we see is the whole book of reality. You can avoid much of this by simply viewing everything that you see as a symptom of the deeper shape that has no shape, as chapter 14 hints.
People’s thoughts reflect their innate nature and center around these common areas: sports, politics, work, relationships, food, sex, physical beauty, health, and so on. Again, so far so good. Our suffering occurs as soon as we put all our emotional marbles in our favorite thought basket. Chapter 71 points out this common error…
Even acknowledging this, what can we do? Do we have any choice over how much trust we place in thought? Trust is a curious thing; you trust something, e.g., people, actions, knowledge, beliefs, etc., until you deeply, intuitively realize your trust was misplaced. This comes down to having a visceral emotional experience, and not just understanding the principle idea, although that is a good place to begin. Plant the seeds today; reap the bountiful crop of emotional peace tomorrow.
Is Free Will the Only Option? 871
I think back over all the years I let my life-options distract me from what I knew I ought to do. As Buddha’s Fourth Noble Truth says, “There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty”. There was always ‘tomorrow’ I felt— an insidious later. Then I began realizing that ‘tomorrow’ never comes. This automatically gave me no choice but to do my “duty”. Facing the truth makes being distracted less possible. Ironically, deeply feeling I had no choice became a type of free choice… no will is free will. As life’s options fall by the wayside of life, the last option is the one that holds the freedom. Chapter 48 suggests this…
Of what is the Taoist Model Symptomatic? 2250
I was relaxing in the hot bath this morning and recalling CenterTao member Dave’s reply to Butterflies have wings; we have minds came to mind. A hot bath never fails to loosen up thought, I find. Anyway, Dave said, “Our models in our minds are staler than we know.” He also quoted George Box, one of the most influential statisticians of the 20th century, who said, “All models are wrong, some are useful”.
I agree with this if we’re talking about judging models ‘by their covers’. Taken at face value all models are wrong. However, when considering a model as mirroring the mind of the model maker, every model is 100% on target. This parallels something Jesus said: “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit”. We are the tree; the models we make, or are attracted to, are the fruit. The tree and its fruit share the same root.
The models to which we are attracted are those that resonate with how we feel — with who we are. They embody what we need or fear to see. The models are not a reality of something ‘out there’, but of something felt ‘in here’. As our needs change, the models that attract us change. For example, why would a person shift from a liberal worldview to a conservative one, or vice versa? Their needs shifted; their fears shifted; their circumstances shifted…
Seeing models as symptoms rather than as realities in their own right is very useful. Now I must ask, if models are symptoms, what does that say about the emotional needs and fears of those of us attracted to the Taoist model? Is this like the shape that has no shape of chapter 14, the model that is no model? Are we less inclined to conform? It is odd, considering chapter 65:
Mysterious virtue is profound and far-reaching,
But when things turn back it turns back with them.
Only then is complete conformity realized.
Isn’t complete conformity to non-conformity conforming completely? It’s just going about it from another direction. The end is the same and I’m back again to chapter 56’s, This is known as mysterious sameness. Considering everything I see as a symptom raises more questions than it answers, and the mystery remains.
It Is Spooky 2161
A Centertao member recently said on the Forum, “Philosophers see a subtle difference between two anti-Realist philosophies: “Dialectical Monism” and “Non-Dualism”. Well, I don’t doubt it!
It is difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to communicate things as simply as they are. The difficulty lies in subtle semantic differences. Oddly, we readily discount this, the weakest aspect of cognition, and so end up talking passed each other.
We might better avoid talking passed each other if we mutually knew what we meant by the words we use for thinking and speaking. Evidently, that is asking for too much. The impatient human mind wants to nail down its thoughts as quick as possible and move on to greener pastures of cognition. We innately care more about the result than the process that gets us there.
Without thoroughly examining the tools — the words and names — we use to frame our thoughts, we just keep beating around the bush of reality. Chapter 81 hints at why we take semantics so lightly: Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good. He who knows has no wide learning; he who has wide learning does not know. (Note: The Correlation process, p.565, can help examine humanity’s “tools” of thought.)
From Nature’s point of view is there any “beautiful” or “ugly”, “true” or “false”, “good” or “bad”? Indeed, that we see such polar distinctions says volumes about our biases, our needs and fears. There is nothing wrong with this naturally! This urge to classify and judge our experience makes the world go round. Still, how different would the human condition be if everyone were aware of the molehills of reality that lie beneath the emotional and cognitive mountains we feel and imagine?
Yet, we may be more aware of nature’s non-polarized unity than I feel. In truth, we all are ‘wise sages’ in life until the moment we have an emotional stake in any one of life’s situations. Our emotional stakes blind us; all we see is the reflection of what is important to us. I find this spooky because it is so obvious and yet such a disregarded fact of life.
How to Know You’re Happy 1314
I recall sitting in math class looking at the clock. Time stood still… minutes felt like hours. Time also crawls by sitting in the dentist chair. Now in my late 70’s, time flies by. Years feel like months, months like weeks, and weeks like days.
Certain activities make time fly by too. A sound sleep makes time fly by the fastest. Drinking alcohol, partying, shopping and travel make time fly by… until the hangover or other downside associated with these diversions occurs. Then I’m back in ‘math class’ seeking another pleasant pastime.
This tells me that feelings of happiness are associated with the sense of time flying by. That is a bit of a bummer. When I am the happiest, time flies by the fastest giving me less time to enjoy my happiness. Of course, as soon as I dwell on that, my happiness wanes, time slows and I have all the time in the world to look forward to what will make me happy again.
To sum up, I know I’m happy when time flies. This sheds light on aging. Despite the physical downsides of aging, I know I am happier now than in my youth simply because time flies by so quickly now. God, I can’t afford to become any happier, otherwise, I’ll be dead before I know it!
Peeking in on Nature’s Hoodwink 4146
We are born with a bio-illusion — a bio-hoodwink(1) — that goes like this: Through hunting, “I” gathers fillers to satiate (fill) the hole. Primal emotions of need (e.g., desire, wish) and fear (e.g., insecurity, anxiety) drive this illusion forward. This illusion originates in the survival instinct to find food to fill the empty belly. The illusionary aspect here is that the urge promises “I” will feel lasting contentment once “I” fill the hole. As chapter 46 notes, There is no disaster greater than not being content. Naturally, this promise is broken the moment the next need arises, which is often within moments.
Long-term Pleasure vs. Long-term Pain
“I” jumps from one filler to the next, driven by the short-term need to fill the hole. The hole is the eternal nothing, as chapter 40 literally puts it, All under heaven is born in having, having is born in nothing… Nothing correlates to the void, eternity, death, silence, loss, etc. The filler is a transitory thing. It correlates to having something we feel will bring happiness… i.e., objects of our desires, dreams, hopes, etc. The fillers are illusory because the contentment they bring is particularly fleeting compared to their promise. (See Correlations, p.565.)
The quest to fill the hole is futile in the long-term. Accepting this paves the way to the alternative (2) suggested in chapter 16,
Certainly, this is easier said than done, yet unless said and re-said, accepted and re-accepted, the illusion will continue to dominate awareness.
Biology hoodwinks us and sends us off on one wild goose chase after another in search of short-term pleasure. As chapter 65 hints, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. The most “of old” here is Nature. Nature’s role is to ensure that all living creatures seek what they need to survive. We start at ‘X’ and go around in circles feeling we are making progress, when in truth we are simply headed back toward where we began — as chapter 40 says, Turning back is how the way moves.
Nature hoodwinks living things into feeling that if they keep moving “forward” around this circle, they will succeed and find contentment. Ironically, true contentment only comes with death. Of course, Nature can’t allow living creatures to know this intuitively; otherwise, they wouldn’t take filling the holes seriously enough to survive! Only as we age, can this occasionally begin to ring true.
Civilization short-circuits the abundant balancing forces in nature, which throws nature’s bio-hoodwink process out of balance. Particularly problematic is our ability to increase the pleasurable aspects of life, and sidestep the unpleasant aspects. In addition, we easily lose ourselves in either a remembered past or an imagined future, instead of making the most of our moment as other Earth creatures do. This only adds to our long-term pain.
Fortunately, realizing nature’s hoodwinking ways can help us regain some balance. In other words, knowing the rules of life’s game helps us play it more effectively. Short-term pain; long-term pleasure succinctly expresses the approach often needed to regain balance. However, our biology innately drives us to the opposite — short-term pleasure; long-term pain. All we sense is the promise of the pleasure. The pain is a hidden and unintended consequence. Chapter 16 (above) outlines the short-term pain; long-term pleasure path. It doesn’t come naturally; we must prove through life experience that it leads us where we truly wish to be.
(1) I may have coined a new word here, at least as I use it.
(2) As always this is in the eye of the beholder, i.e., it is only true if you have found it so. The proof is in the pudding of your experience.
The Decider 4473
Google [Can Neuroscience Inform the Free Will Debate] for an overview of science and free will. This excerpt from Science News’, The Decider […Informing the debate over the reality of free will] also touches on key points:
“Perhaps,” write neuroscientists Alireza Soltani and Xiao-Jing Wang, “we are entering a new period of consilience between the science of the brain and the science of the mind.” Such consilience would certify the death of Cartesian dualism, the mind-body distinction articulated by the French philosopher René Descartes in the 17th century. In modern neuroscience, that division dissolves—the mind is simply a reflection of different states of the brain. And brain states dictate the behaviors that masquerade as free choices.
History clearly demonstrates how the advances in tools of measurement and observation have been the fulcrum upon which science advances. Now, research on free will using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is popping the illusion of free will, step-by-step. Consider this next excerpt:
Brains are, after all, the product of evolution. To survive and perpetuate their species, animals need food, water and sex. So brains are programmed to produce behavior that serves those ends—or seek substitutes that stimulate the same neural systems. Free will is not free to ignore these imperatives, although it isn’t always obvious how they all add up and tip the scales in favor of go or stop, do or don’t. Somehow, the brain sorts out the interplay between desire and caution, pleasure and pain, curiosity and fear. And the neural systems established by evolution for survival direct all the other decisions that animals (including people) routinely make—fight or flee, explore or hide, red or white, left or right.
Nevertheless, I reckon human culture may never accept the evidence. The phrase above, “So brains are programmed to produce behavior that serves those ends—or seek substitutes that stimulate the same neural systems”, suggests why. We have “neural systems” necessary for a social species such as ourselves to carry out the social interactions required for survival. When viewed as a result of our “neural systems”, the sense of free will itself can be seen as a “substitute that stimulates”.
Furthermore, the observation that “brains are programmed to produce behavior that serves those ends” must logically apply to our cognitive behavior as well. In other words, our brains are also programmed to produce thoughts that serve those “ends”. A necessary “end” for social animals is the establishment of hierarchical authority. A belief in free will (p.587) serves that hierarchical “end” for it allows us to assign responsibility, praise and blame. These judgments play a key role in establishing hierarchy. The ‘right, good, and strong’ rise to the top of the pecking order; the ‘wrong, bad, and weak’ sink to the bottom.
Social animals, including humans, need behavioral mechanisms that pull them together to cooperate at times, and push them apart to compete at other times. A sense of tribal hierarchy drives individuals to compete for the leadership position, or to cooperate and follow their leader. As part of this process, an innate sense of will, for lack of a better word, helps social animals size up each other and themselves in social situations. Given human cognition, it is not surprising that our sense of will turns into a wishful thinking belief — free will.
The cognitive inability of animals to speak about their experience, erroneously leads us to assume they, unlike us, act merely out of instinct. Actually, the only unique difference between them and us is that they lack the thought processes necessary to conjure up ideals of free will, and the rest. They have no “substitutes that stimulate” and thus their neural systems deal with life directly. Absent are the symbolic filters (names, words, and beliefs) through which we see life. Our ideas of free will and the rest, serve as “substitutes that stimulate”. Rather than debating the “substitutes”, I expect we’ll understand ourselves more deeply by examining the neural systems themselves.
Alas, the substitutes do such a good job of stimulating that it will prove difficult for us to set them aside. Among other things, substitutes offer us a prized sense of species-centric superiority. In fact, every species given the cognitive free choice would see itself as superior, would it not? It’s just Survival Instinct 101.
PS 2813
I struggled to make the essence of my previous post read as simply as I saw it. I feel I failed, so I’m going to take another shot at this. The following excerpt from the article The Decider […Informing the debate over the reality of free will], is my launch pad: “So brains are programmed to produce behavior that serves those ends—or seek substitutes that stimulate the same neural systems”.
Wouldn’t the notion of free will itself be a “substitute that stimulates”? After all, the thoughts we think stimulate our underlying personal needs, whatever they may be. The question then becomes, what neural systems do notions of free will stimulate?
Consider briefly the key role that free will plays in social interactions. These interactions hinge greatly on a perceived responsibility group members feel vis-à-vis their social obligations to the group. A belief in free will serves perceived responsibility perfectly. Free will gives us the perceived rationale upon which we can judge others, and ourselves, placing praise or blame as we see fit. ‘Minding each other’s business’ turns the wheel of natural social interaction.
Imagine how unnatural life would be if we actually could “judge not others”, “throw not stones”, “love our enemies”, and the rest. Such supremely spiritual ideals in fact fly in the face of nature. Humans, like all other animals in nature, do throw stones, do judge others, and do hate their enemies. The only difference is that other animals do so spontaneously — in the moment. They don’t harbor this negativity; they can’t dwell on it over time. Humans can, and do, due to the disease that chapter 71 points out, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
The belief in free will gives us the rationale we need for harboring resentments, for dwelling on remembered wrongs. If I think you have free will, then I can blame you for not doing the right thing. I can feel justified to ridicule you for not measuring up to our current cultural standards of goodness, beauty, truth, and countless other virtues. Conversely, if I feel you lack free will, I have to bite my tongue. You obviously can’t help being you, and for that matter, I can’t help being me. Alas, I expect we can never fully achieve such impartiality. Like all social animals, we need to pass judgment, praising or blaming the other fellow. Such favoritism is the social glue that binds.
However, there is still hope! Personally speaking, although I still judge others, the aftereffects I feel die quickly now that a belief in free will is not around to keep fanning the flames of praise and blame. Come to think of it, Christ must have been speaking to the nonsense of free will when, dying on the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
Do Good Christians Make Good People? 1894
It is my sense that Christians believe that good Christians make good people. On the contrary, I’ve found good people make good Christians. In fact, good people also make good Muslims, good Buddhists, and perhaps even good Taoists. Then again, we have the irony chapter 2 refers to, All realizing goodness as goodness, no goodness already… but I digress.
Hitchhiking in Malaya and Indonesia, and then in the Middle East and North Africa made this glaringly obvious. All these regions are Muslim, yet the cultural quirks are strikingly different, especially the Eastern two versus the Western two. If religion makes the people, then the people of each region, in this case Muslim, should have been much more alike.
Since those initial observations, I have seen numerous examples of this disconnect between the people and their religion or politics. People bring their innate personality and emotional stability to their religion and politics. Our fears often manifest themselves in malicious behavior and influence how we express our particular religious and political leaning.
Obviously, this is no great secret. Indeed, it is all too easy to notice, so why is this not part of common knowledge? As chapter 70 hints,
Social instincts compel us to judge people by their faction. Thus, if we believe our faction is good, it must produce good adherents. Instinct also induces us to adopt the religious and political beliefs that validate our membership in our faction or distinguish our faction from another faction. In this regard, beliefs serve much the same unifying tribal purpose as the styles of clothing, music, and food we choose to wear, listen to, and eat. (See Belief: Are We Just Fooling Ourselves?, p.591.)
Am I Bored or Just Content? 1458
Years ago, our Taoist group joked, “Be bored again”. This was the Taoist version of the Christian “Be born again” slogan. No wonder attendance was light! A fine line does exist between boredom and contentment. To be sure, I often slip back and forth across it playing the shakuhachi flute (google [Blowing Zen, One Mind One Breath]).
The curious thing about boredom is that we are tempted to blame ‘out there’ for causing the boredom we feel ‘in here’. One key step toward self-understanding took place when I realized the boredom I felt was my fault. That helped me contend less with reality, i.e., what is vs. what I want. Happily, accepting responsibility neutralizes blame. As chapter 8 observes, He alone does not contend, Hence, there is no blame. Nevertheless, biological instinct clamors denial… “It’s not my fault” we feel.
Biology induces us to flee boring contentment and seek greener grasses. Nature can’t afford to let animals in the wild feel what chapter 33 reveals… He who knows contentment is rich. Chapter 65 tells us Mother Nature’s secret, Of ancients adept in the way, none ever use it to enlighten people, They will use it in order to fool them. Who is more adept in the way than nature? She uses biology to fool us animals into feeling that more is always better. Yet, that’s only true in the wild. I can see through life’s con game better now that I know about nature’s bio-hoodwink. Fool me once; fool me twice… eventually I get it
How do we know what is true? 1072
How do we know what we know is true? The answer hinges on desire. We tend to see what we desire to see; therefore, much depends on the extent of our desires. The more we desire, the less we know. Unless all we wish to know, are only our desires. This doesn’t happen naturally though. We are biologically primed to feel that what we perceive ‘out there’ is truly how it is, and that we can realize our desires. In other words, we seldom feel content with just feeling the desire; we also need our desires fulfilled.
So, how does this relate to our serious global warming issue? The strength of science lies in a commitment to eliminate as much subjective desire as possible, and merely see and understand things as they are. Even so, we still end up interpreting what we see within science in ways that conform to our desires. Chapter 16 advises, Woe to him who willfully innovates, while ignorant of the constant. Neither science or religion, or anything in between, are capable of a superseding commitment to the constant. If we were, there would be no global warming!
It’s Like Magic! 1092
I am always amazed at how magical magic is. The slight of hand a good magician employs is remarkable. How does he do it? Distraction they say, but it is hard to believe that I can be so easily hoodwinked. Nevertheless, I am.
The untrained observer’s eye will follow where the magician’s hand leads it, subconsciously and involuntarily. How is this different from how biology pulls the wool over our eyes throughout life? It’s not, I say!
That said, I’ve found a way to manage biology’s hoodwinking ways. Just as an apprentice magician can learn to see how a clever trick works, each person can learn to see how their biology tricks them. Of course, one must carefully examine life’s promises to discern which promises life actually fulfills. The difficulty is that biology induces us to take the bait of life’s promises rather than examine it. Mother Nature does not use [the way] to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them, as D.C. Lau translated chapter 65. I’d only add that Her bait-and-switch fools all living creatures, not just people! (photo: hecate, the ancient greek goddess of magic)
Always be a beginner 2488
The photo here shows my son Kyle and I doing a forward bend. It appears that my bend represents an advanced stage of yoga, while Kyle’s represents an intermediate stage. In fact, we are at the same stage; we are both beginners.
Any activity you do with full integrity places you at a virtual beginning stage. In this case, doing yoga fully means that I thrust forward until I reach my limit. Kyle is doing the same. We are both at our limit; we are both beginners.
However, people don’t usually see life this way. Instead, Kyle appears to be the beginner and me the master. Seeing it this way is competitive and causes us to assume that the goal is to bend forward like the master. This often stirs up comments such as “I can’t do that” or “I can do that better”. Actually, the only goal in yoga is to do the task at hand fully and honestly. This applies to all action. The Bhagavad-Gita points this out, albeit, with an added measure of unrealistic implicit free will.
3:7 But great is the man who, free from attachments, and with a mind ruling its powers in harmony, works on the path of Karma Yoga, the path of consecrated action.
6:17 A harmony in eating and resting, in sleeping and keeping awake: a perfection in whatever one does. This is the Yoga that gives peace from all pain.
In this yogic approach to life, one is always a beginner, regardless of how it appears to the outside world. If one is always a beginner, why do we exalt mastery? That just sets up false goals and limits, e.g., “I must do that” or “I can’t do that”. Alas, comparing and competing are natural stages we go through on our way to impartiality — the Holy Grail of Taoist thought. Chapter 16 ends with, Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural, Natural therefore the way. The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself.
We instinctively admire expertise and strength, and in the case of yoga, flexibility too. There is also a social factor here in how we embrace role models who exemplify whatever we seek. Chapter 36 describes the ironic path we trod, In desiring weakness, one must first strive, In desiring to let go, one must first begin… Weakness is superior to strength.
I suppose you could say we begin at the end and travel back to the beginning. From a Correlations point of view (p.572) that makes total sense, i.e., time stays backward, energy moves forward. (photo: who is doing the better yoga?)
In praise of kale 1989
Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone”. Still, as my observations chew mostly on non-bread matters, I thought I’d put in a good word for food today.
I grow and harvest kale all year around here in California. As far as I know, this is the most nutritious veggie on the planet. Kale just boiled and served soon gets old. Chinese stir-fry is great. Then there are kale chips: chopped kale, chili, soy, tahini, lemon, garlic. Juicing kale is my favorite. Adding lemon juice or citric acid turns it into a delicious kale fruit juice.
| KALE | RDA | gram /3.5 oz. | gram /8 lbs. | % Surplus |
| Calories (c.) | 2000 c. | 50 c. | 2000 c. | |
| Protein | 50 | 1.9 | 76 | 152% |
| Fats | 2 | 0.4 | 16 | 800% |
| Carb | 250 | 5.6 | 224 | 90% |
| Fiber | 22 | 2 | 80 | 364% |
| Calcium | 1200 | 72 | 2880 | 240% |
| Phos | 1200 | 28 | 1120 | 93% |
| Iron | 18 | 3 | 120 | 667% |
| Magn | 400 | 40 | 1600 | 400% |
| Zinc | 18 | 0.5 | 20 | 111% |
| Pota | 5500 | 380 | 15200 | 276% |
| V-A | 5000 | 10000 | 400000 | 8000% |
| V-B1 | 1.5 | 0.15 | 6 | 400% |
| V-B2 | 1.8 | 0.26 | 10 | 578% |
| Niacin | 22 | 2.1 | 84 | 382% |
| V-B6 | 2.2 | 0.3 | 12 | 545% |
| Fola | 0.2 | 0.03 | 1 | 580% |
| V-C | 60 | 180 | 7200 | 12000% |
| V-E | 11 | 1 | 40 | 364% |
Examine the nutrient chart here to see just how perfect kale is. RDA is the USDA’s recommended daily amount. If you only ate kale, you’d have to eat 8 pounds of it to give you the 2000 calories you need daily. But just look at the incredible surplus of essential minerals and vitamins you’d get. Even if you only ate a fraction of that 8lbs. you’d do far better nutrition wise than before.
Kale is extremely cold hardy, which made it a staple for Siberian serfs; they needed all the nutritional help they could get! Kale is also remarkably insect and disease resistant.
So, if you have a plot of dirt handy, do your biology a favor and plant kale. It is easy to grow, and if you let some go to seed, little kale sprouts will pop up here, there and everywhere. To optimize this, all you need do is pluck the seedlings out and replant them with enough space between each plant.
Well, that’s all from farmer Carl (Carl actually means farmer in Swedish as I recall… or was it strong man? Maybe it was strong farmer man. Thanks kale!). (photo: a bed of my winter kale)
King Kiwi 2457
Kiwi is king of all the fruits. Over the years, I’ve compared all the fruits with each other and the kiwi always comes out supreme. Even so, fruit has nowhere near the overall nutritional value of veggies. Mostly, I see fruit as a healthy candy. Although, it’s true that each variety usually wins high honors in a few nutrient categories. The amazing thing about kiwi is how it even surpasses many a veggie on this score (1).
Watch out though, if you plan to eat scores of them daily. The kiwi contains a lot of papain that really tenderizes your mouth meat. Papain, an enzyme also present in papaya, breaks down tough meat fibers; it is sold as a component in powdered meat tenderizer.
| Nut. | RDA | Kiwi 3.5oz | Kiwi 7 lbs. | Surplus | Surplus % |
| Calr | 2000 | 60 | 2040 | 40 | 102% |
| Prot | 50 | 1.3 | 44.2 | 42.9 | 88% |
| Fats | 2 | 0.2 | 6.8 | 6.6 | 330% |
| Carb | 250 | 14 | 476 | 462 | 185% |
| Fibr | 22 | 3.9 | 132.6 | 128.7 | 585% |
| Calc | 1200 | 34 | 1156 | -44 | -4% |
| Phos | 1200 | 39 | 1326 | 126 | 11% |
| Iron | 16 | 0.4 | 13.6 | -2.4 | -15% |
| Magn | 320 | 30 | 1020 | 700 | 219% |
| Zinc | 18 | 0.14 | 4.76 | -13.24 | -74% |
| Pota | 5500 | 331 | 11254 | 5754 | 105% |
| V-A | 0.8 | 17 | 578 | 577.2 | 72150% |
| V-B1 | 1.2 | 0.03 | 1.02 | -0.18 | -15% |
| V-B2 | 1.8 | 0.05 | 1.7 | -0.1 | -6% |
| Niac | 22 | 0.5 | 17 | -5 | -23% |
| V-B6 | 2.2 | 0.07 | 2.38 | 0.18 | 8% |
| Fola | 0.2 | 2 | 68 | 67.8 | 33900% |
| V-C | 40 | 98 | 3332 | 3292 | 8230% |
| V-E | 11 | 0 | 0.07 | -0.05 | 0% |
The kiwi has a few other wonders up its fuzzy sleeve too. I’ve grown them for decades now and never found an insect or disease on them. Is it the papain? I never water them and in California, that means 6 months without rain. They are growing on river bottom soil here, which may explain that. They produce copiously and are ready to pick around Christmas. The only other fruit that’s ripe and ready here in winter are oranges and lemons. Finally, their vines provide great shade in summer and shed leaves in the fall to let sunlight in. I have my kiwi on a trellis over the compost area which keeps it shady in summer (a good thing), and beautifies that space as well – not that compost isn’t beautiful mind you!
Hmm, I should apply for a job promoting kiwis. It would be a lot easier that promoting Taoist “nonsense”.
(1) This table first shows the nutrients in 3.5 oz of kiwi, next the nutrients in 7 lbs. of kiwi, which is the amount you would need to eat to get the necessary (more or less) 2000 calories per day. The surpluses here are based on the 7 lbs. of kiwi. Of course, you’d not want to eat only kiwi for your entire caloric needs. Comparing nutrients as though you were just going to eat 2000 calories worth is the best way I’ve found to see the nutritional big picture. (photo: kiwi on trellis over compost bin)
The Gifts Given – Paid In Full 3882
Most of us accept that each person is born with a God given gift—a talent of sorts. What may be less known is that such talent is not actually a gift at all… talent is paid for in full at birth. I’ve come to know a few people extremely well. Each person, as far as I’ve seen, bears this out. I admit this is not much of an empirical sampling. Still, it makes sound philosophical sense.
Knowing myself best, I’ll be the example. Like everyone, I have acquired various skills over the years. My wife says I am a writer. No, in fact I only gradually developed a modest skill in writing to express my deeper ability to notice what others may not notice, or at least unable to put into words. Actually, I may be an explorer at heart… but am I? It may be more revealing to consider what price we pay for our gifts. What deficiency drove me to be the explorer I am?
Disconnection, plain and simple drives me. I was never socially engaged in American culture as a youth from as early as I can remember. Somewhat oddly, I never felt bothered by that fact either. I never felt left out because I never wanted to belong. That said, looking back on the many years spent abroad were really a search for home. Home was not only emotional (i.e., tribal connection), but philosophical as well. My shear lack of cultural ties drove me to search for meaning in life. I had no choice; I was out in a ‘paradigm wilderness’ and needed to discover what mattered. Unable to adopt the cultural story in which I was raised, or any other that I came across, I had to reinvent the wheel. Fortunately, The Tao Te Ching offers me useful stepping-stones without getting in the way!
It finally took having my own children to find my true emotional home. That brought me to realize how essential social connection is for humans, and how fragmentary that connection has become since the Agricultural Revolution. Nothing replaces the social security of the tribal bond, which has genuinely deteriorated ever since our hunter-gatherer days (1).
It also took me coming to my wits end with words to find a real philosophical home. I realized that the meaning of every thought I had hinged on the words with which I thought. It was a vicious circle. The basis for belief itself was melting away. There was no way out but to deal with the words themselves—to correlate them. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations. p.565.) This process loosened the grip words had on me, and alleviated some of the disease referred to in chapter 71: Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease (2).
In summary, the emptiness in my life drives everything I do. Emptiness, loss, failure, death, etc., drive me to do what I must to fill the ‘hole’ in life. (See Peeking in on Nature’s Hoodwink, p.11.)
This quid pro quo view of talent as being merely an upshot of emptiness might feel unpleasant or threatening. Chapter 40 paints a stark reality: In the opposite direction, of the way moves. Loss through death, of the way uses. This opposite direction is the antithesis of what our personal and tribal ego wants to hear. It is easy to see why the Taoist worldview isn’t mainstream.
(1) We don’t realize how socially disconnected we are. You can’t miss what you’ve never had. It took the circumstances of our family life: home schooling, home music, home garden, home business, home yoga, home Taoist and such to open my eyes and heart. It also helped that I was in my mid 40’s when I started a family. (See A Tao of Parenting, p.343.)
(2) It is difficult for us to know how peaceful a cognition-less consciousness would be. Names and words obstruct the view and language dominates mind. As D.C. Lau put it in chapter 71, To think that one knows will lead to difficulty, and this difficulty has certainly faced us ever since we humans evolved the ability to think.
Who’s a Sage? 1072
Some people have accused me of being a sage. Granted, I am a lao tzu (i.e., 老子 – father, old man), but a sage? While this may feel flattering at first, further pondering shatters that. Besides, it actually takes a real sage to know a real sage. What we see ‘out there’ is simply a reflection of ‘in here’. Put simply, we only see what we need or fear to see; we only truly understand what we already know. For example, I am sure those who followed Hitler thought him to be a sage of sorts. (photo: kamakura buddha)
This really boils down to the blind leading the blind. Blind social instinct connects people together… to each other and to their heroic leaders. The social need to fit in, to conform to our cultural hierarchy, our tribe, blinds us. We love — need — our heroes; we hate — fear — our villains. Love is blind, and so are fear and hate. Perhaps our lack of awareness of this blindness is why chapter 19 bluntly says, Exterminate the sage, discard the wise, And the people will benefit a hundredfold. (photo: baby hitler)
Family Life 3496
Watch this CBS video on the Cattoor family (http://www.centertao.org/media/family.mp4) if you can. The final comment stands out, “Giving your kids what they need is always harder than giving them what they want. Only when you’re older can you appreciate those fences”. This hints at how the American family dynamic evolved. Sure, “fences” are essential, but only if they are natural and healthy ones. This video depicts quite the opposite. I found a more natural approach to family life. I’ll make the case…
My parents reared me in the standard American family way. In the 1950’s most every American thought the American way of life was superior. Neither I, nor the folks I knew had any reason to doubt that. In fact, when I expressed my immanent plans to travel abroad, older colleagues at work warned me that scores of women abroad would want to marry me in order to live the American dream.
For the next fifteen years, I worked and traveled abroad, often among the peoples of the impoverished and “backward” cultures of the undeveloped world. That soon opened my eyes to the cultural myths to which I was accustomed. I finally realized some of the dysfunctional aspects of American culture, especially in its obsession with independence and the disconnecting effect that has on basic family life in America. In many ways, the American family paradigm is out-of-sync with some innate social instincts that have seen us safe and sane for countless millennia. Even so, Americans didn’t choose to opt out of humanity’s ancestral family norm.
The American family norm arose with the rapid settlement of the country by Europeans. These migrants left their ancestral home with its extensive family ties and landed in an open and ‘every man for himself’ situation (1). This became the seeds of the American ethical belief that independence was best. To be sure, with few ancestral ties to lean on in hard times, independence was essential. Unfortunately, independence does not truly match the needs of our social nature.
We are happiest and most emotionally secure when closely connected with others. Tribe and family have provided this social security for our species from the beginning. Tribe and family also form the social foundation for all the other primates, except perhaps the more independent orangutans of Borneo.
No doubt, folks who fully embrace the American cultural paradigm will find it difficult to evaluate these observations impartially. The dysfunctional aspects of the American family model blind us to those same aspects. It normally takes a unique jarring personal experience to see outside one’s box. Alas, I expect independence will eventually become the world model as increasing wealth and technology liberates everyone from a close dependence on one another. (See A Tao of Parenting, p.343, for other ways to approach family life. Also, cbsnews.com/news/easy-rider for the transcript of the video.)
(1) This ‘every man for himself’ situation may account for the appeal churches have in America. They help fill the need for extended family ties. ‘Every man for himself’ also serves the highly industrialized and expert driven life style that people value. Now technology is putting the final nails in the coffin of natural ancestral ways. Be patient though, natural ways are certain to reemerge in the long run. I doubt cell phones, e-mail, Facebook, Thanksgiving-get-togethers, or churches will ever make up for the loss. Nature always wins in the end!
Is Enlightenment Something or ??? 2741
Enlightenment is an interesting illusion. Just as chapter 2’s Something and Nothing produce each other, so do ignorance and enlightenment. The question is, what does enlightenment Correlate to, Something or Nothing? (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.)
If enlightenment is Something, it correlates to obvious, bright, light, life, full, sudden, special, etc. If enlightenment is Nothing, it correlates to DARKLY VISIBLE, DEATH, EMPTINESS, PERPETUITY, IMPARTIALITY, THE CONSTANT, etc. Chapter 40 sheds light here… In the opposite direction, of the way moves. Loss through death, of the way uses. All under heaven is born in having. Having is born in Nothing. The last line suggests that it is very misleading to believe that enlightenment is Something.
The biology that impels us to resist entropy runs deeper than any enlightened singularity in our brain’s mind. Enlightened or not, our animal nature still runs the show. In this regard, we are all in the same boat. Chapter 49 reveals this unity… The sage has no mind of his own. He takes as his own the mind of the people.
Striving to live an enlightened life is more realistic, and available to all. The only problem is knowing how to proceed. Many profits offer paths, and each path has its champions, often claiming that their way is superior. Ironically, this becomes a way to avoid taking “the beam out of thine own eye”, as Jesus put it. Ironically, passionately touting one’s way as superior is actually symptomatic of one’s deep personal insecurity—fear. What is more, chapter 65 reveals a deeper uncomfortable natural truth, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. (See How the Hoodwink Hooks, p.100)
If there is no actually ‘true way’, then what does one do? I find it helps to take great care in my life’s moment-to-moment rather than what I’m doing in particular or where any moment leads. It boils down to living the life I truly want to live. For that, it becomes a matter of quality versus quantity; process over resulting success or failure. As my life of desire began to feel less meaningful, I found I had no choice but to take this way more seriously. Indeed, The great way is easy (#53) when there is no alternative. In our ignorance, we chase the promises of desires until finally, as chapter 19 puts it, we come to Have little thought of self and as few desires as possible. Chapter 64 adds, Therefore the sage desires not to desire, And does not value goods which are hard to come by. I find much, if not all, of this comes about naturally through aging. We just need to live long enough until, as chapter 10 notes, When your discernment penetrates the four quarters are you capable of not knowing anything?
The Amazonian ‘Taoists’ 1088
The Piraha people, a tribe in the Amazon, gives insight into how innate a Taoist approach to life may actually be, and that the human mind has just become a little sidetracked of late. Of late, meaning the last 10,000 years or so. For an overview, google [Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle] by linguist Daniel Everett.
Members of the Pirahã tribe participated in an experiment that researchers say indicates that their language contains no number words, even for the number one.
The author of the book, Daniel Everett, was a missionary who went to proselytize to members of a remote Brazilian tribe, and eventually became a full-fledged linguist. This tribe has no creation myths or storytelling traditions. They live in the present and believe only in what they and their comrades directly observe — a cultural characteristic that lead Everett to abandon his own faith. Need I say more?
For more, google [Anumeric People] to see how hunter-gatherers embedded deep in Amazonia grasps quantities without naming them.
“Do you believe in angels?” 1874
“Yes” said the little four year old girl when asked if she believed in angels. “Why?” asked the reporter. “I don’t know”, she said. The ABC news segment went on to say how 68% of America believes in angels. For background, google [Are Angels Real? Live Science].
Why do people not only believe in angels, but often see them as well, while others never do? Like all perceptions, we perceive what we need to perceive. Need ranges from core biological needs like seeing color to psychological needs such as seeing angels. If an animal’s biology needs to see the color spectrum to thrive, it will. If a person’s psychology needs to see (believe in) angels to thrive, it will.
While many non-human animals see color, they don’t see ‘red’, ‘white’, or ‘blue’. They experience electromagnetic wave length differences, but they don’t experience those names. Nor do they experience ‘angels’. They have no such word to label their experience of ‘this’. As chapter 14 hints, This is called the shape that has no shape. Once the four year old had learned the name, ‘angel’, the belief easily followed. She probably believes in Santa Claus as well. Words such as God, ghosts, angels, spirit, and soul, all reflect an innate sense of what chapter 1 calls The gateway of the manifold secrets; all living things feel this, only we give it names. (See Belief: Are We Just Fooling Ourselves? p.591)
I feel names and words only get in the way of the way, so to speak. If so, why do we cling so tenaciously to names and words? Yes, they are useful, but also exact a price. Realizing the problem names and words pose at least helps me feel the ‘forest for the trees’ (‘trees’ being names and words). The ‘forest’, I feel, is a deep kinship with all living things — from apples trees to zucchini vines, ants to zebras, bacteria to viruses. As chapter 56 says, This is known as mysterious sameness.
Grinding Out Correlations 2478
After I finished grinding out Correlations to my satisfaction, I stood back and judged the process by the results, not by the process itself. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.) This was akin to judging a book by its cover. In this delusion, I naively thought this process would shred other people’s preconceptions just as it had done for mine, and as a result, the process would change the world. It is very hard now to believe I ever thought that! (photo: indian grinder found on my parent’s farm in Tucson)
It took a few years for me to ‘correlate’ my way to the realization that our mind actually sees a world that agrees with our emotional needs. This explains why two people can see the same facts on an issue so differently. Our interpretations follow our needs, fears, and expectations. If anything, we view the world in a way that supports our preconceptions, and tend to reject any view that threatens them.
Looking back, I recall how it was no different for me grinding out Correlations. Frequently words would correlate just opposite to what I wanted to see. However, my core need was to find the underlying cause of things… regardless. It often took months for me to drop how I emotionally needed to interpret a word and accept the more probable view.
Probable is a key word in the Correlation process. No Correlation is set in stone. In fact, hard, concrete and illusion all correlate to Yang. Remember that the process is key — not the results — when you’re struggling to reconcile words through the Correlation process. You are challenging the way you think; resisting what you want to see versus what may be closer to reality.
The table here gives a taste. See if you don’t feel the Yang words share similarity and are complementary to the Yin words, which also share similarity. Of course, it helps to look for mysterious sameness here. Once you see the similarity within each group, and how the opposites complement each other, you will gradually feel an even deeper mysterious sameness between the two groups. As chapter 1 hints, These two are the same, But diverge in name as they issue forth. Being the same they are called mysteries.
Essentially, you are looking for what you have never seen, or thought you’d ever see, so it helps to keep the end of chapter 78 in mind: Straightforward words seem paradoxical.
Can you say what you think? 1596
Can you say what you think, or even think what you know? Honestly, I have found it impossible to say, write, or think about what I intuitively know. What I end up with is a hodgepodge summary of the waves of intuition that ebb and flow through my mind. There are too many caveats to mention, too many angles to report, too many possibilities to entertain. Yet, I end up thinking, speaking and writing.
Chapter 56’s, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know sums up the queer nature of this disconnect between intuition and speaking, writing, and thinking. The root of this problem lies in the mysterious sameness referred to later in chapter 56. The process of nailing down thoughts, speaking and writing requires discerning and highlighting differences. However, focusing on differences misses the intuitive big picture and we end up beating around the bush. Accordingly, chapter 10 notes, When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, are you capable of not knowing anything?
The Tao Te Ching’s critique on naming, thinking, and speech are not a proscription on using language, as such. The real trouble begins when we convert waves of intuition into hard and fast belief. Why do this? We feel an innate need for certainty. Hanging in the balance feels too unresolved and uncomfortable. We want solid cognitive ground on which to stand. This need to nail down reality’s truth call to mind chapter 71’s literal words of warning, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
The Cost of Compassion 2219
I was hitchhiking through West Africa with my future, now ex, wife, when I came down with hepatitis. That knocked the wind out of my sails enough to return to California to see my folks, after seven years abroad.
Happily, I recovered within a few months, but sadly, my girl friend and I broke up and she returned to her home in Sweden. (photo; reunion in sweden, reconnection)
Out of that breakup arose a real yearning to feel a deeper sense of compassion. Why did this sudden hunger for compassion sweep over me? Realistically I was no different from other less compassionate males my age. I suspect my breakup and this quest for compassion were not coincidental.
A key source of human happiness is the sense of connection to something beyond oneself, and my breakup disconnected me big time. Compassion is essentially a deep sense of connection. My search for compassion was actually a cry for connection.
Circumstances changed and my cry for compassion eased up considerably. As it turned out, we married and spent seven years working on the marriage. In other words, helping each other grow up. Our final breakup and divorce was painful enough to awaken enough compassion and connection within me to persevere.
As the years passed, the compassion and sense of connection I sought deepened. Interestingly, back when I desired compassion, I had no idea that it would be as painful as it is. Feeling compassion involves feeling connected to both the joys and the sorrows of all life everywhere, and honestly, the sorrow is harder to deal with than the joys, i.e., we instinctively want to avoid pain. Simply put, life is work. See Buddha’s First Noble Truth (p.604).
There’s no yin without a yang. Everything comes with a price and compassion is no different. Even so, I’d not give up the compassion I feel to escape the added sorrow I sense. Why? The more compassion I experience, the more connected to all life I feel. That fully outweighs the sorrow. In addition, compassion has continued to deepen over time. As chapter 51 notes, Circumstances bring us to maturity… and our maturity is the key to how impartial, connected, and compassionate we can truly feel.
Correlation’s ‘Prime Directive’ 2384
Centertao member Cuc made a good attempt at Correlations despite some inconsistencies. For this process to succeed, two things are essential: (1) Find the antonym for each word you are pondering. (2) Align all the similar meaning words — ‘pseudo synonyms’ I call them — down one column with their antonyms down the opposite column. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.572.)
Compare these two sets. Notice how Cuc places yin in the YANG column, and yang in the YIN column. Doing that allows you to rationalize where you place other words, among other things. Your results end up being what you emotionally desire to see.
“Taking” and “killing”, for example, are very active relative to their opposites, and so belong in the active YANG column along with the other active words. “Death”, on the other hand, correlates to YIN. Death is eternal, universal, passive; killing is transitional, particular, and active. It may seem ironic at first, but kill and life are both similar and belong on the YANG side. Put simply, your results should often challenge you emotionally.
| Cuc’s version: | My version: | ||
| YANG | YIN | YANG | YIN |
| straightforward | confusing | active | passive |
| conclusion | process | answer | question |
| attachment | detachment | begin | end |
| yin | yang | life | death |
| Tao | Elohim (God) | kill | continue |
| writing | saying | first | last |
| YHVH | Israel | speak | listen |
| first | last | sound | silence |
| I | you (besides me | something | nothing |
| nothing | mystery | take | give |
| king | redeemer | hate | love |
| give | take | king | the people |
| love | kill | performer | audience |
| author | reader | God | tao |
| famous | nameless | ||
| order | entropy |
I understand why Cuc put ‘I’ and ‘nothing’ on one side, and ‘you’ and ‘mystery’ on the other. This order can make sense when just pondering these few words in a detached way. Such a detached view becomes harder to entertain as you work toward correlating all the contrasting verbs and adjectives that readily come to mind; this could be hundreds. The more rigorous and comprehensive your initial work to reconcile synonyms and antonyms, the more coherent the view. This helps you better feel the deep complementary relationship between words. Next, you’ll begin to feel the illusion of difference, and this helps disentangle words from reality. I know, that’s a leap, so proceed step by step. The proof is in the pudding. Alas, it is a subjective pudding that each mind must put together on its own and taste to prove. Correlations is just one way to untangle the knots as chapter 56 puts it.
Religion: The best placebo? 2033
The Science News report, Imagination Medicine, covers research on how the placebo effect functions in the brain. (Also, google [More Than Just a Sugar Pill].) It confirms my sense that religion also works by way of the placebo effect. Consider this excerpt from the report for example…
It all boils down to expectation. If you expect pain to diminish, the brain releases natural painkillers. If you expect pain to get worse, the brain shuts off the processes that provide pain relief. Somehow, anticipation trips the same neural wires as actual treatment does.
“It all boils down to expectation,” he says, and expectation is the currency religion uses — expectations of social connection, virtue, wisdom, salvation from death and suffering.
Most important is how religion provides the promise of social connection for fellow believers. As they say, misery loves company. Let’s face it; life is work. We struggle, either to obtain basic physical needs, or when those are met, our more elusive and never-ending psyche-emotional needs.
I’ve realized lately that the placebo effect seems to work even if I know it’s just a placebo. Perhaps because the need for relief is much deeper than any cognitive assessment I make. I’ve long felt the Taoist paradigm was placebo-like. On the other hand, Taoist views poke holes in the placebo sustaining rhetoric of religion. Indeed, the first line of its ‘bible’, the Tao Te Ching, begins with the disclaimer: The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way.
I imagine this is why I can trust the Tao Te Ching, and why its viewpoint is not popular. Folks don’t want to hear that the words their thinking and speaking are unreliable. Chapter 41’s the way conceals itself in being nameless and chapter 2’s keep to the deed that consists in taking no action and practice the teaching that uses no words naturally fall on deaf ears. Why? Perhaps because the faith we place in words and action allows us to escape into our imagined expectations, making language itself a placebo.
Even a little progress is freedom from fear 1884
Chapter two of the Bhagavad-Gita (2:40) says, “No step is lost on this path, and no dangers are found. And even a little progress is freedom from fear.” This struck home the first time I read it. That’s understandable, for I’ve always felt from early childhood that if I didn’t face my fears, the fears would overrun me. Facing my fears straight on has always helped diminishes their psychological hold on me. Even so, freedom from fear is truly out of the question. Fear is a core survival emotion.
In pondering dreams, my own, and those others share, I invariably find fear to be an underlying impetus. I don’t mean a flee-the-tiger kind of fear mind you, although nightmares probably fit that bill. The fears to which I refer are the general apprehensions, insecurities, worries, and concerns that haunt waking life.
Interestingly, when I am deeply concerned about something and trying to solve the problem, an answer often comes after sleeping on it. In a biological sense, I’d say dreams are a way the nervous system manages the emotional currents that drive life — need and fear, essentially.
Naturally, we need to look beyond any bizarre details of a dream to see the bottom line of the dream. The nervous system, in building a dream, is not concerned with how logical the dream is. It just needs to reproduce the emotional context. The dream needs to match our emotional reality. Then the nervous system can work on that.
This Science News report, When dreams come true, supports some of what I’m saying here. At one point the researcher, Morewedge, says, “Our results suggest that the dreams most likely to affect our daily lives and relationships are the dreams that accord with our existing beliefs and desires”. My only quibble is that he fails to realize that fear and need form the foundation for desires and beliefs. (Also google [The Science Behind Dreaming].)
Looking Through the Looking Glass 1254
Like a looking glass, Correlations are a tool for seeing yourself — your own mind. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.) As such, they should appeal to anyone seeking deeper underlying causes. Of course, you’ll eventually reach The gateway of the manifold secrets as chapter 1 puts it. Therefore, the Correlation’s process may only attract those for whom ‘the looking for’ is more satisfying than ‘the finding’. This is like looking through, rather than at, a mirror’s reflection… the closer you look, the fuzzier the view.
Correlations are a success in failure. They succeed in failing to offer more than a tentative answer to any question. The good news: All questions are answerable. The bad news: All answers are indistinct and shadowy. As chapter 14 describes it, This is called the shape that has no shape, The image that is without substance. Few people want indistinct and shadowy answers, so you’ll need to try this process out to see for yourself.
The good and bad news here corresponds to how biology drives us to seek answers (good) and avoid the indistinct and shadowy (bad). On the other hand, perhaps it is just vice versa. As chapter 2 says, The whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad.
Peaches and Pleasure 1931
After living years of hand-to-mouth existence in the developing countries around the world I settled down in Japan for an extended period. My hand to mouth living habits slowly waned as I began to enjoy the comforts of wealthier circumstances. For example, I began to treat myself to a weekly can of peaches. This was utterly delightful! After some months, this turned into a biweekly splurge. By years end I’d dropped all limitations. I’d buy a can of peaches anytime I desired. Whoopee!
This experience opened my eyes to the relative nature of pleasure. What initially was a truly pleasurable treat revolved into a take-it-for-granted routine. Not surprisingly, this induced me to up the ante and seek out a real treat. Essentially, I had destroyed the initially divine luxury of peaches.
Lesson learned: There is a fine balance in chapter 1’s, Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observe its secrets; But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations. The better that balance is, the more pleasurable life actually turns out to be. In this case, sticking to one can of peaches a week would have been more satisfying overall. On the other hand, I would have missed out learning this important lesson. This corresponds to an essential fact of nature pointed out in chapter 36, If you would have a thing laid aside, you must first set it up.
How can we tell when we are going overboard? Strong emotion serves as my warning bell… my canary in the coalmine. When we lose balance in allowing ourselves to have desire, the result is gluttony, obesity, addiction, meddling, and lust… “sex, drugs and rock and roll”. Noticing imbalance in ridding yourself of desire is more subtle. Feeling compelled to abstain from allowing desire is a sure sign the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Tick tock, back and forth — we are clearly not biologically set up to stay in the middle.
Wealth plays out in odd ways 2787
Wealth is fundamentally an availability of abundant survival resources. Hillsides full of tall green grass are a deer’s wealth. More grassy hills can support more deer. More deer eat more grass until overgrazing causes deer to starve. The deer population drops, grass rebounds, deer population rebounds, grass dwindles… and so on. This is the perpetual boom to bust to boom cycle of nature.
I assume this cycle applied to humans initially. Advances in tool technology made hunting and gathering more productive and secure. This increased resources and the human population rose. Tool technology has now made us the dominant species on this planet, the top of the food chain, and our numbers continue to increase. When does the bust phase of nature’s boom or bust cycle kick in? When, like the deer, do we consume all resources?
If all our tools disappeared tomorrow, food and other resources would plummet and our population would return to that of Paleolithic times. Let’s face it, without tools — from the stone ax on up — we are a wimpy species. We would be lion food. Speaking of lions, a total boom or bust cycle can’t occur with deer if lions are around to keep deer population in check. We solved that problem for our species by killing most of the lions, wolves, bacteria, virus… any predator that would help keep our population in check.
In lacking any predator to keep us in check, nature has made us our own predator, so to speak. We drive too fast, eat and drink too much, wage war, etc. What’s more, who knows what man-made disasters lie ahead — nuclear, genetic engineering, global warming, or some future unknown? So far so good, the natural balancing process is straightforward up to this point. Now for the odd part…
As people become more comfortable and secure, a primary result of wealth, the human population appears to trend downward rather than rising as it would for deer. If this trend holds up in the future, world populations will plummet as more and more of the world’s population becomes wealthy enough to feel comfortable and secure.
Why is this? As wealth increases, the standard of living rises. This increase in comfort and security lowers our tolerance for less. (I’ve also noticed the same effect in pets). The more comfortable and secure, the less grounded in nature we become… we lose perspective. We neurotically stress ourselves over increasingly petty matters. This leads us to spend more time indulging our ideals about the perfect life rather than on raw survival and procreation. If this is correct, it would make us the only species wherein the population eventually drops as wealth and access to resources increases. We certainly are an oddball species, but then perhaps no more so than Mother Nature’s other experiments.
Understanding Understanding 2158
I’ve been reviewing Buddha’s Four Noble Truths (p.604) for decades while doing my daily yoga headstand. Understanding these appears easy—they are short and straightforward enough. Even so, I plumb deeper meaning from them as the years pass. For example, some years ago the second truth, “The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things” finally sank in emotionally! I viscerally understood — knew — that everything I held to be important in life was propping up my “illusion of self” – ego. While I’ve always understood this intellectually, I never felt it in my bones. Clearly, understanding and genuine knowing are different at some level.
I’ve always felt that Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and the core teachings of all religions offered plenty of life guidance. Having actions speak louder than words is the true challenge. Yet countless words are written and spoken on the core teachings. Honestly, this is symptomatic of our lack of visceral intuitive knowing. Simply said, when we can’t walk the walk, we talk the talk even more. I guess this is true of most everything spoken or written. We are attempting to convince and remind ourselves. I know I am!
Does this mean my writing here is symptomatic of my lack of visceral intuitive knowing? No doubt, for the odd thing is that I don’t know that I lack visceral knowing on something until I experience visceral knowing. Such epiphanies illuminate what I only think I know. It could all be a house of mirrors, one revelation replacing another until my brain drops dead. That fits the biological model of the hunter-gatherer: nature drives me to keep looking for something new to chew on. What’s more, gossiping about recent revelations is an essential and natural way for humans to interact socially, and that includes me. Ah yes… Knowing doesn’t speak; speaking doesn’t know #56. Now that’s humbling.
I must add that seeing symptoms doesn’t actually illuminate true causes. Seeing matters as symptomatic of something deeper tells us that there is always more here than meets the eye… and perhaps the visceral eye’s knowing as well.
Public Tantrums 999
The Science News report, Public tantrums defeat monkey moms too, offers research that further narrows the gap between humans and other primates. (Also google [Mama monkeys give in to tantrums…when others are watching].) Apparently, rhesus macaque mothers act like human mothers when it comes to nursing their babies. When other monkeys are nearby a mother will indulge her baby’s tantrum more. If she fails to do that, macaque onlookers nearby become irritated and make threatening gestures, or worse, toward the mother.
Human onlookers are irritated by baby human tantrums too, although rarely react so overtly. However, I expect many feel they would like to. Generally, irritated humans just groan and complain, at least to themselves. Isn’t it marvelous how science is inextricably chipping away at the superiority pedestal on which our species has so proudly stood? Rather than being made in God’s image, we are simply one fruit among many in life’s family tree.
Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink 5743
A dipole is a term in physics that refers to a pair of separated electric charges or magnetic poles, of equal magnitude but of opposite polarity, i.e., negative (–) vs. positive (+) or N. vs. S. Life has adopted this natural dynamic to perceive its surroundings in a way that promotes survival in a competitive environment. In life forms with a nervous system, neurons communicate through an electrochemical process… (–) vs. (+). Given this, it is not surprising we see reality in a (–) vs. (+) mode. This (–) vs. (+) dynamic influences how humans label their perceptions: yes vs. no, good vs. bad, yin vs. yang, life vs. death, active vs. passive, go vs. stop, hot vs. cold, before vs. after, hard vs. soft, heaven vs. hell, male vs. female, white vs. black, and so on.
This dipolar-like perception is essential for survival in the wild. It boils choices down to the simplest level — yes (+) vs. no (–). The human ability to think and remember makes this both a blessing and a curse. Chapter 1’s, These two are the same coming out, yet differ in name implies the curse. Not only do we see things with a false ‘yin yang’ named simplicity; our dipolar memories nag our awareness constantly. Such dipolar-like perception hinders feeling these two are the same side of nature.
A view of Oneness informs the core of most religions, even though each expresses it differently. The odd thing is, even this meta-view (1) of a Oneness versus the many arises out of the brains dipolar-like perception. This feels like a house of mirrors. Watching moment-to-moment is the only way to Use the light, But give up the discernment, as chapter 52’s advises. Chapter 56 adds, Block the openings; Shut the doors. Blunt the sharpness; Untangle the knots; Soften the glare. Eventually, all that is left is a nameless, wordless light of consciousness, as I see it — This is known as following the constant as chapter 52 puts it.
Here ‘oneness’ and ‘many’ blend like dust. When you don’t define what is, you perceive the original, not the dipolar-like labeled model. The more literal Word for Word Chapter 56 puts it this way:
Profound sameness is simply an attempt to describe how the non-dipolar original feels. This description can serve as your ‘canary in the coalmine’ of your mind. When we see differences, we know we are seeing an illusion projected by our dipolar perception and narrow self-interests. When we see similarities, we know we are seeing more of the bigger picture… nearly rising beyond oneself as chapter 16 says. Certainly, we can’t help feeling a dipolar-like reality; the trick is to resist thinking and believing that reality is dipolar-like.
On a personal note:
I was dumbfounded when my brother died in the early 60’s. His death made death real for the first time in my life. This caused a life versus death quandary that occupied my every waking moment for months. What was the true nature of life and death? One day, sitting on the bus coming home from work it struck me that life and death were two sides of the same reality. Then chapter one’s “these two are the same but diverge in name as they issue forth” rang deeply true, although a dozen years passed before I could write anything to reflect that experience. Meanwhile, discussing anything took the form of me being a devil’s advocate on everything. Every issue had its dipolar twin.
In the early 80’s I found myself in a quandary again. I don’t exactly know why, although I suspect it was linked to my initial quandary. Realizing that life and death are the same never completely resolved my original question: What was the true nature of life and death? I now needed to get to the bottom of this dipolar-like perspective. This drove me to work out a Correlations process (p.565) as a practical way to return my mind to a pre “but diverge in name as they issue forth” point of view. It worked so well that within six months it had blown apart every cherished bias I held. I couldn’t take sides.
For a long time, I couldn’t understand why this process appealed to practically no one. Then it dawned on me; we are most attracted to that which supports our preconceptions, beliefs, and biases, not to something that blows them apart. That is precisely the main effect of Correlations… they weaken word meaning and thus any subsequent biases and beliefs that depend on dependable word meaning.
This brings me to wonder why I post my observations and links to the Tao Te Ching and the Correlation process. It is a futile undertaking after all. I assume the social instinct drives me to communicate and to help others to soften the glare (#56) of distinctions — the futility of it notwithstanding. It feels very ironic and quixotic!
(1) Meta view: Meta (from Greek: “after”, “beyond”, “with”) is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter.
I am using this term to indicate the idea of stepping outside-the-box, to step outside-the-box, to step outside-the-box… ad infinitum… to see beyond the box. In this vein, I imagine a meta-view of balance must include imbalance as integral to true balance. Imbalance ‘balances’ balance. Seen together, balance and imbalance compose an all-inclusive whole. Thus, whether I’m balanced or imbalanced makes no difference for I will need one or the other to counterbalance circumstances. I suppose that explains why nothing ever resolves itself. If it did, the universe would end… or begin. Poof!
Think what you believe? Believe what you think? 5402
I had a discussion recently with a Christian friend about belief. For me, pondering the process of believing is far more interesting than the content of any belief, so you won’t find me debating the existence of God. Instead, I’d wonder why people believe in God.
Clearly, we emotionally need to trust the veracity of our words before we can formulate a belief in any thing. Words and names are the building blocks of belief. We must believe they are real before we can weave them into intricate fabrics of belief. Indeed, we must trust word meaning religiously, unquestioningly, blindly, to believe truly what we think.
Words and names are like pillars of preconception from which we build and maintain the temples of our beliefs. Even writing these observations now requires an underlying belief in the meanings of the words I’m using to express these observations. I must believe in word meaning at least provisionally in order to think about thinking.
Debating the quality of a particular belief is like debating the quality of any product. Unless you test the quality of the materials used to build the product, you can never know the true quality of the product. For example, we use concrete to build bridges. You must inspect the integrity of concrete itself to know the true integrity of the bridge. Otherwise, it remains simply an aesthetic issue: Do we like the bridge? Is the bridge beautiful? Do you believe in the bridge? Like concrete for bridges, words are the material we use to build the beliefs we think, so let’s poke around, and see what turns up.
Origins of word meaning
Word meaning is the basis upon which we learn, preserve, and pass on our culture’s worldview (religious or otherwise), yet we seldom inspect the integrity of this foundation (1). Why do we so readily accept word meaning on faith? Obviously, we learn this framework from infancy onward. Our upbringing and cultural conditioning never offers us another way to experience awareness. Word meaning becomes a self-reinforcing virtual reality. Belief in the words we use to think leads to believing what we think, and vice versa. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy, so to speak!
It is clear that emotion plays a huge role in word meaning. A baby, before it learns the correct word to express emotion, expresses emotion in babbling and crying. As a baby learns word meaning, it uses words to begin expressing its emotions. As we mature into adults, word meaning becomes second nature; it is a closed loop where emotions evoke words, which re-evoke emotions. Our primal sensory and emotional experience creates the blind faith we place in word meaning.
Attraction pushes — Aversion pulls
Consider the primal emotions common to all animals — need and attraction versus fear and aversion. Attraction and aversion are the threads that tie all living things together. The push – pull dynamics of this play out at all scales of life, from amoeba to people. Need for something (pleasure) pushes us forward. Fear of something (pain) pulls us back. Pleasure attracts; pain repels. That mechanism makes survival possible for all living things. In nature, feeling need and pleasure indicate a survival advantage, whereas feeling fear and pain indicate a danger to survival.
Many animals express attraction and repulsion with vocalizations. Humans are the only animals we know who have honed such vocalizations into extensive cognitive vocabularies — names and words. If something stimulates a sense of pleasure, I’ll be attracted to it. In this, a duck and I are no different. However, when I think or say, “I love that, it is good, it’s beautiful, it’s right, and I want more of that”, I’ve transformed the raw sensation of attraction into words symbolic of that experience. The same applies to repulsion; feelings of repulsion and fear become linked to words: “I hate that, it’s bad, it’s ugly, it’s wrong, and I want to avoid that.” Unlike the duck, I am dealing with two experiences: an immediate sensory one plus a virtual cognitive one that I can dwell on for years.
Naturally, life seldom feels like a simple choice between what we are attracted to and repelled from. Often we are torn between the two. For example, “I love the Sun vs. I hate to get sunburned”; “I love meat vs. I hate the way they treat animals”; “I love cake vs. I hate being overweight.” As a result, we can spend much of our waking moments in a kind of tug-or-war between varying degrees of want and worry. Imagination pulls and pushes us. We long for a future and regret a past, or we long for a past and fear a future. Clearly, the power of thought has unintended consequences. Chapter 71 sums it up, To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. The “difficulty” arises from inferring too much reality in what are merely figments of our imagination. In other words, unmet expectations arising from imagined needs and fears produce stress.
Correlations is the only way I’ve found to weaken the ability of words to compel my mind to think that it knows. Would this process also work for you? (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.)
(1) LSD and similar chemicals can shake the foundation of word meaning temporarily, but this always comes with more adverse and unintended consequences than it is worth.
What is the Tao actually?
The Tao Te Ching begins with The Tao that can be spoken of is not the constant Tao. This line from chapter 1 literally translates to “way can speak, not constant way” (道可道, 非常道). “Way” (Tao or Dao) literally translates as: road, way, path, principle, speak, think, suppose. Nothing said beyond those definitions is constant. Clearly, our mind is capable of perceptions more profound than our thoughts or speech can express. Thought and speech always falls short. Still, such beating around the bush does flush revelations out of the bushes at times.
| _Active_ | _Passive_ |
| end | continue |
| begin | end |
| difference | similarity |
| illusion | real |
| life | death |
| linear | circular |
| movement | stillness |
| new | old |
| rise | fall |
| strengthen | weaken |
| struggle | surrender |
| temporal | eternal |
| imbalance | balance |
| yang | yin |
Chapter 25 says this much: The way models itself on that which is naturally so. This suggests that I’d be wise to model my life on that which is naturally so. The question is, what is naturally so? Balance certainly plays a role in this. Natural processes from atoms to galaxies’ seek balance. Balance is integral to nature’s design. When balance is lost, chaos usually occurs until balance reestablishes itself and stillness returns. Certainly, life’s biological processes all strive to maintain balance, i.e., homeostasis: A state of equilibrium or a tendency to reach equilibrium, either metabolically within a cell or within an organism or socially and psychologically within an individual or group.
Clearly, the way [Tao] and balance are related. Balance is the fulcrum upon which nature’s naturally so plays out. Thus, knowing the nature of balance ought to give insight into the nature of the way [Tao]. Still, how can we be sure the balance we perceive is true balance? While it’s easy to see physical balance, like standing on one leg, discerning meta-balance is much more subtle.
Efficiency is another property of Nature. Nature is nothing if not efficient as she flows through time, although, like meta-balance, the meta-efficiency of nature is subtle. What often seems efficient to us in the short-term is extremely inefficient in the long run.
Chapter 16’s Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant reveals why we excel at false efficiency. For example, housing projects, unbridled technology, processed foods, mono-crop farming, over-fishing, are pseudo efficient solutions that bring about unintended unbalancing consequences. Efficiency without balance is inefficient and ill fated. Nature will ceaselessly push to rebalance circumstances until balanced efficiency replaces efficiency.
Is living an efficient and balanced life possible?
My life feels more balanced and efficient when I am vigilant. Being constantly watchful is the only way I can notice when I start losing balance. As chapter 64 observes, Deal with a thing while it is still nothing; Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in. I just need to notice while it is still nothing! That’s less possible when my mind jumps around between imagined needs and fears. Sure, need and fear are catalysts for efficiency and balance, but only if I am aware enough to know when to stop. As chapter 32 cautions, Knowing when to stop one can be free from danger.
The problem encountered in being vigilant is two fold — focus and space. Environmental stimuli trigger vigilance when it rises above the threshold of perception. At this point, focus easily becomes too narrow. On the other hand, when stimuli are absent, vigilance wanes and thought wanders off into imagination’s space.
Too much focus and too much space are problematic. Of the two, too much space is probably the more serious. In the wild, waning vigilance enables the predator to take down prey. In civilization, the bus runs daydreamers over. Constant vigilance, on balance, favors survival. “You snooze you lose”, as they say. For example, note how birds are always on the lookout for predators and good drivers are alert defensive drivers.
Essentially, it takes fearlessness to stay alert rather than following the mind’s flights of fancy. As chapter 73 observes, He who is fearless in being timid will stay alive. When I am “fearless in being timid”, I’m patient enough to watch the “space”, or what chapter 14 calls the shape that has no shape, the image that is without substance.
This brings to mind the spiritual ideal of all this, which boils down to maintaining vigilance even without external stimuli. As good as that ideal sounds, is it actually possible? Somewhat perhaps, for as chapter 71 advises, it is by being alive to difficulty that one can avoid it. In other words, maintain an ongoing sense of tentative apprehension described in chapter 15, Tentative, as if fording a river in winter. If I remain alive to the difficulty of remaining awake, I have a better chance of avoiding that difficulty.
Jumping into the deep end
All things travel a path whose theoretical end-point is ultimate balance. In traveling this path, all things ebb and flow, veer left and right, rise and fall, strengthen and weaken, struggle and surrender, live and die, as they continue on the way.
This end is not an end, per se. The end I refer to is Nothing, and thus no thing will ever arrive there. In other words, nothing can ever arrive because all things are at the beginning of each moment. Yet, the beginning of each moment is the end of each moment. Consider chapter 2’s, Thus Something and Nothing produce each other; and chapter 40’s, The myriad creatures in the world are born from Something, and Something from Nothing.
You could say this end is this beginning is this end… and so on. I know this is starting to sound like nonsense, but just consider the words needed to say this nonsense. “Begin vs. end”, like all dipolar labels (see Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink, p.35), are poles apart and not the balanced golden middle, the balanced end. The way to that end is via the polar extremes, yet the journey is endless because we are already there. Huh? Balance is unbalanced if it lacks a degree of imbalance. In other words, balance and imbalance are also extremes and so require each other, just as yin requires yang. Thus, to paraphrase the great Taoist disclaimer of chapter 1, the balance that can be named is not the constant balance.
When there is a lot of rebalancing going on in our lives, life feels imbalanced in a kind of nasty, depressed, or stressed-out way. However, in the big picture, all is well and proceeding as nature intends; it just doesn’t feel that way. Our feelings are part of the dynamic. They create the ebb and flow, the balance and imbalance that is integral to nature. Our lives are naturally so, even when they feel like crap. As Chapter 25 sums it up, Man models himself on earth, Earth on heaven, Heaven on the way, And the way on that which is naturally so. So, let’s put a smile on our face, a song on our lips and be happy to be sad, or vice versa, of course. Well, it sounds good in theory anyway.
Note: The Correlation table may tie up loose ends and no doubt create new ones. Notice how end is in both categories depending on the antonym with which it is paired.
UPDATE 2020: It’s dawned on me that Einstein’s special relativity (and its frame of reference criterion) can offer a deeper sense of what Tao is. Frankly, even referring to Tao as the Tao easily conveys a false sense of an objective absolute Tao ‘out there’. There is no ‘the’ there. This is akin to seeking to know the real nature of space and time via classical physics. Now, I leave it to you to brush up on your laymen’s understanding special relativity to see its connection to Tao.
The trick lies in not believing, yet believing
I go on and on about the folly of trusting word meaning. Yet, I think, speak, and write. How do I pull off this apparent hypocrisy and still maintain intellectual integrity? That isn’t difficult really. Indeed, it is no different from watching a movie, and yet knowing that it is make-believe.
The more I feel the movie is real and not make-believe, the more it engages me. In thinking, speaking, and writing, the more I feel words are real, the more I can engage with them. However, this suspension of non-belief ends when the movie or my cognitive activities end, i.e., my trust in word meaning is provisional. I return to reality.
Much depends on what my deeper needs and fears induce me to think I see at any given moment. Thus, I experience both sides — that of a believer and a nonbeliever. Belief in anything, even raw word meaning, gives me a comfortable sense of cognitive security. The drawback is that belief establishes a range of opposites, a yin to every yang. The result creates endless, albeit low-level, conflict that makes it difficult to reach chapter 81’s The holy person’s way acts, and yet doesn’t contend. In short, belief offers a fortress to hide within, whereas non-belief offers an escape bridge over which to cross to the The gateway of the manifold secrets, as chapter 1 hints.
Interestingly, when I become emotional, my visceral belief in word meaning increases. This happens even when I become deeply, if rarely, absorbed in a movie. This brings me to think that life is like a movie, and emotion is the real power behind the throne of word meaning and perception. Life fascinates!
The best tao? (road, way, principle, speak, think, etc.)
Waking up following a pleasant afternoon’s nap, I found myself reflecting on the best way to approach life. By “way” I mean tao, and tao (道 dào) translates to road, way, principle; speak; think. Why do we have endless debates over the way to approach life, what to do and how to do it? This question draws those of like-mind together and pushes those of unlike-mind apart. We constantly promote our own preferences and inclinations as the answer. This social-tribal instinct — another bio-hoodwink (1) — certainly keeps the social pot stirred.
I began coming to grips with this hoodwink when I studied astrology. This opened me up to the idea that people might be fundamentally different! Fundamentally? Not really, yet it can feel fundamental thanks to social-tribal instinct. Astrology plus 15 years hitchhiking around the world gradually taught me that at the deepest level, people are the same the world over. We all just take different paths to reach ‘Rome’.
This egalitarian view corresponds to five major branches of yoga: Raja (meditation), Karma (work), Jnana (science in the broadest sense from the Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge”), Bhakti (devotion), and Hatha (force). Yoga literally means yoking, merging, joining. The ‘Rome’ we yearn to reach is the yoking, merging and joining with a constant. This constant goes by various names: God, Spirit, Tao, Enlightenment, Peace, etc. It doesn’t matter what name you give Rome. Rome by any other name is still Rome. While we all want to reach Rome, the path we follow must be the one that suits our emotional nature and cultural conditioning (2). One size doesn’t fit all!
When I view nature on its terms, I fail to see any ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way. That tells me that these adjectives are simply projections of personal preference — what attracts me vs. what repels me. Such impartiality doesn’t come easily, but the heavenly result is worth the sacrifice! As chapter 79 hints, It is the way of heaven to show no favoritism.
(1) Bio-hoodwink (p.11): I coined this term for the deception biology plays on perception. Chapter 65 says, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. The oldest of old, when it comes to living things is the biological process of life that hoodwinks all living things.
For example, a bio-hoodwink tells the brain that the richer the food, and the more you eat, the better. This was truly beneficial in hunter-gatherer times. However, we found ways around natural limitations in order to make food as rich and plentiful as possible. Human innovation fell out-of-sync with nature’s bio-hoodwink… Woe to him who willfully innovates, While ignorant of the constant, as chapter 16 cautions.
Regarding chapter 65’s “enlighten the people” comment (above), what natural need is there for enlightenment? Nature only needs to drive interaction between living things, and uses bio-hoodwinking as a means to that end. Moreover, I fail to see either ‘enlightenment’ or ‘ignorance’ in nature. Aren’t these ideals merely symptomatic of our desire to escape the life stresses we feel? Ironically, the uniquely human tension we experience results largely from pigeonholing life, labeling it as “good vs. bad”, beautiful vs. ugly”, “enlightened vs. ignorant”, and then imagining ways to escape the pigeonhole.
(2) Personally, all these yoga paths draw me except devotional yoga. I simply inherited fewer genes for the social traits, which that path requires. Of the other paths, Jnana (scientia, “knowledge”) pulls me the most, which explains my respect for Buddha. Buddha’ Second Noble Truth (p.604) identifies the dynamics of the bio-hoodwink… “The cause of suffering is lust. The surrounding world affects sensation and begets a craving thirst that clamors for immediate satisfaction. The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in a net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain”. It doesn’t get any more straightforward than that.
Right Mindfulness, Attentiveness, and Concentration?
Right Mindfulness, Attentiveness, and Concentration (1) are three folds in Buddha’s Eight Fold Path. Just what is the difference between these approximate synonyms? Over the years, I’ve split many hairs trying to resolve this issue. Don’t they all refer to closely related states of mental awareness? Google [Specialis Revelio! It’s Not Magic, It’s Neuroscience] for a report on cognitive research and magic that delves into inattention blindness. This research sheds light on this synonym issue of mine. (photo: neurons in the brain)
“We’re good at focusing attention,” says Simons. “It’s what the visual system was built to do.” “Inattentional blindness”, he says, “is a by-product, a necessary consequence, of our visual system allowing us to focus intently on a scene”.
This “necessary consequence” causes us difficulty. This makes the virtue of being in-the-moment feel a bit ironic. Surely then, Buddha’s Right Attentiveness is not the same as “being good at focusing attention”, as Mr. Simons put it. As a result, I regard Right Attentiveness as similar to peripheral vision — focusing on not focusing, so to speak.
| Positive (yang) |
Negative (yin) |
| focus | edge |
| conscious | oblivious |
| forward | backward |
| mainstream | peripheral |
| clear | obscure |
| active | passive |
| straight | circular |
| recent | past |
| narrow | wide |
| part | whole |
| hard | soft |
| certainty | tentative |
| life | death |
The Correlations (p.572) table here illustrates this point: The “attentiveness we are good at” matches up with the left column: “focus, conscious, forward, mainstream, clear, straight, active, certain, narrow, part, hard, certain, life”. Conversely, Right Attentiveness matches up with the right column: “edge, oblivious, backward, peripheral, obscure, passive, circular, past, whole, soft, tentative, death”.
Alas, language is a poor way to communicate or ponder a Taoist point of view. Language is an outgrowth of evolution and biology making it heavily biased toward survival. “Focus, active, certainty…” feel positive; they favor survival. “Edge, passive, and tentative…” often feel negative and favor survival less. Correlations helps notice this bio-hoodwink of language.
Finally, what is the connection between inattentional blindness and a Taoist point of view? Briefly, focused awareness hinders our feeling of ‘nothingness’ — the negative side of reality that correlates to, Mystery upon mystery, The gateway of the manifold secrets noted in chapter 1. Put simply, seeing something makes it difficult to see Nothing.
(1) I found a more accurate translation of Buddha’s Eight Fold Path (p.604). These three change to Resolution, Thought, State of Peaceful Mind, respectively.
Emotion Clear-cuts Perception
Emotion clear-cuts the natural diversity of original, unfiltered perception. Certainly, this is an innate survival adaptation. Any conscious being would require a way to filter out extraneous sensory input to avoid sensory overload and ensuing chaos. Emotion helps perception focus on that which has an immediate bearing on survival.
Now, consider the added filtering effect that words have on perception, which further narrows discernment. For instance, merely thinking that a tree is a tree filters all unique living individual trees down to a preconceived category. This perceptual pigeonholing stifles awareness of what chapter 14 hints to be dimly visible, it cannot be named. Thus, not only can’t we see the forest, we don’t even perceive the trees in their own right.
Nevertheless, we do get treasures to cherish, e.g., beliefs, music, science, literature, education… the list goes on. Our words, and the knowledge we weave with them, swaddle us in cognitive and emotional security. Importantly, emotion is the basis—the wellspring—of words and names, and consequently of the thoughts these form. Thoughts then feedback to drive and skew emotions… it’s a vicious circle. Thus, it is wise to be cautious about what you think is real, for that will determine your emotionality and stress level. As chapter 32 cautions, Only when it is cut are there names. As soon as there are names one ought to know that it is time to stop.
A Taoist Solution to Gay Marriage
Ideally, all governmental actions should be impartial, right? As chapter 79 reminds us, It is the way of heaven to show no favoritism. Being human, politicians choose sides rather than seeking impartiality. I guess heaven is heaven and earth is earth, and never the twain shall meet. Yet, we can hope. (photo: the ‘Stone Marriage’ of Zimzelen, a natural phenomenon in Bulgaria)
Here’s an idea
Instead of having gay marriage sanctioned or prohibited by the government, we could have all marriage removed from the government’s domain. Instead, government would simply offer equal protection under the law to everyone through a long-term partnership contracts.
Such contracts would still have restrictions agreed to be in the common best interest of society. That would preclude partnership contracts between siblings, animals, etc. At one time homosexuals would have been barred from such contracts. However, times have changed and there is now majority support in our culture to permit such unions.
Most of the objections I hear, from both sides of the gay marriage debate, seem to center around defining the gay relationship as marriage. Removing government’s role of what to call the “partnership contract” would remove government’s role in sanctioning marriage, period.
Marriage has been a religious, if not spiritual, practice for consecrating a life long bond between people. Traditionally, this bond has been between people of opposite gender. It still could be, depending upon the religious sect holding the ceremony. For example, Catholics can continue to recognize marriage between heterosexuals only, while Unitarians can view marriage as the union of two people of any gender.
Just as each religion defines God (or whatever higher power) according to its traditions, each religion could also define what marriage means for its followers.
Getting the government out of the business of defining what qualifies as true love or true marriage is no different from getting the state out of the business of defining what qualifies as the true God, true path, or true religion.
Consciousness Physics
My old friend Andy and I have differences over what accounts for consciousness: Andy says his impressionistic idea of consciousness is that it is characteristic of sophisticated nervous systems and thus diminishes down the phylogenetic scale. In his view, consciousness is a consequence of a nervous system’s myriad sensory input, making any creature “down the phylogenetic scale” less conscious than those up that scale. My only argument with his view is that it is too narrow. For me, consciousness feels a great deal deeper. (photo: consciousness or coincidence?)
I think of consciousness, especially the synchronous, spontaneous moment-to-moment experience, as an emergent property of ‘quantum weirdness’. Deep down quantum non-locality tunes individual consciousness to cosmic consciousness, so to speak. As chapter 52 holds, Use the light but give up the discernment which chapter 56 backs up, with This is known as mysterious sameness. For an overview of this, google [The Nonlocal, Entangled, Conscious Universe – Menas Kafatos].
Andy says the more sophisticated the nervous system, the more conscious. Conversely, I say everything is conscious, from atoms to humans: no nervous system necessary here. Here, each thing’s biological and chemical processes determine its experience of consciousness. However, for simplicity’s sake, I’ll set aside “my everything is conscious” view and limit this to the biological side of consciousness.
Research reported in Science News’, Living Physics, supports my view. As one researcher put it, “Now, with growing evidence that quantum weirdness indeed exists in biological systems, scientists are looking for ways to tell how, or even if, nature exploits these effects to confer an advantage.” Also, google [Growing evidence that quantum weirdness exists in biological systems].
Still, there is no true way to prove either view. Like Schrödinger’s cat, perhaps both points of view exist in two states, true and false. From that standpoint, they are equal. Take your pick and your observation will determine the outcome. Of the two, I like mine better because it offers me a deeper sense of unity and communion with all things of which I’m conscious. In addition, quantum non-locality parallels chapter 1’s These two are the same, but diverge in name as they issue forth and chapter 56’s, This is known as mysterious sameness.
The moral of this story: If you can’t prove either of two theories, picking the one that offers a deeper sense of connection makes sense. After all, we are social animals. Thus, anything that can enhance our sense of connection should certainly feel better.
The illusion of ‘moment’
There is no true moment, per se. I create an illusion of moment by striving and holding on. And, my imaginations of past and future add to this illusion. When I give up striving, the illusion of moment shifts to the space-time continuum, so to speak. The past, present, and future all begin to blend together as one. Chapter 40’s Turning back is how the way moves is a good way to describe it. I reckon this is what death feels like, and so when the time comes, how sweet that will be. Naturally, my striving self—‘I’—won’t be here to experience it, and yet… (See You are Immortal!, p.391)
The Glare Hides ‘Out There’ From View 475
The glare of emotion, “the flames of desire”, as Buddha put it, obscures our view. All we can see are the objects of our passion. As those flames die down and the glare subsides, we are gradually able to see what is truly ‘out there’. Peering through the darkness what do we see ‘out there’? Strain as we might, all we see is our ‘in here’. Chapter 10 describes the final view. When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, Are you capable of not knowing anything?
Enjoy What You Do – or – Do What You Enjoy?
A tricky part of life lies in how our biology constantly pushes us to do what we enjoy and pulls us away from what we don’t enjoy. This makes work feel like work. This stress is normally avoidable when work feels truly meaningful, if not enjoyable. Here, work can feel restful, or as chapter 56 says, mysteriously the same. (graphic: doing without doing)
Understanding how biology pushes and pulls us is helpful. However, as chapter 70 reminds us, My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. Being constantly aware of biology’s push-pull hoodwink is the challenge we face. This is where knowledge parts company with intuitive knowing. Knowledge can be stored in memory. Intuitive knowing is alive, concurrent with each moment. Chapter 2’s practices the teaching that uses no words speaks to this — the kind of teaching that is the living truth in each moment. Once we recognize this knowledge vs. knowing matter, how do we manage it?
Our main difficulty here is that we are attempting to resist biology. Simply put, biology trumps knowledge. Only concurrent intuitive knowing has a chance at redirecting the biological urge to do what we enjoy. The last line of chapter 3 points the way, Doing without doing, following without exception rules (literally: wéi wú wéi, zé wú bù hì… 为无为, 则无不治). This feels awfully close to the teaching that uses no words!
Cease Treading Water and Just Sink
Many people tend to think the benefits of yoga are increased flexibility and balance. To me, this is just icing on the cake. Yoga helps me know myself more deeply than anything else I do. As William Shakespeare observed, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man”.
More precisely, the doing of yoga isn’t what helps me know myself. I only find the knowing when I seek it. As Jesus wisely noted, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”. In other words, action is action and nothing more. The true value lies in how we approach action… any action! (photo: me treading water at mono lake)
A by-path for me has often been allowing action to substitute for approach. Action for action’s sake is just treading water. “At least I’m doing something”, I tell myself. Nope! Better to stop treading water and just sink. As chapter 32 says, One ought to know that it is time to stop. Knowing when to stop one can be free from danger. One danger I feel is letting a more meaningful life slip through my fingers.
Still, to paraphrase chapter 36 says, if you would stop a thing, you must first start it. By-paths are prerequisites for finding the way. Ceasing to tread water and just letting yourself sink can often mark the transition from your by-path to the way.
It was a dark and stormy night…
Soon after hitchhiking to Vietnam from Cambodia, some journalist in Saigon invited me to stay with them. They told me that if I got a press pass from the USIA (United States Information Agency), I could hop rides on military flights. Fortunately, I didn’t have to be a journalist; I just had to say I was a journalist. I thought, “Now that’s the way to hitchhike!”
All the same, hitchhiking on land is the best way to experience travel, with as much hiking in the countryside as possible. I hitchhiked up to the northern border of South Vietnam and then flew back down to Saigon via various military transport planes.
At that time, the Viet Cong would put up surprise roadblocks for a few hours here and there and check IDs, just to assert their authority I assume. Thus, as a precaution, I wrote an “I am a student of the world” style letter and had it translated into Vietnamese before leaving Saigon. I naively assumed that in the event the Viet Cong stopped me, they would see that I was no threat. Still, I’d probably do all right for this was in the early 60’s before the Tonkin incident ramped up our involvement in that foolhardy war.
Fortunately, my rides never encountered a roadblock, although, one evening while walking down the road, I did hear a lot of gunfire nearby. That should have worried me, but heck, a young man in his early 20’s is invincible… right?
About halfway up country, a typhoon hit, and there I was, walking down the road. Luckily, I was able to find refuge in a Buddhist temple for what was a dark and stormy night. My most vivid memory is the damage I saw the next morning. Although, being out in the countryside, the destruction was limited mostly to vegetation.
Normally, when hitchhiking, I would walk for a few hours before attempting to catch a ride. It’s a good way to get to know Mother Earth wherever your feet happen to be. However, this time a jeep pulled up soon after I had started walking and some U.S. advisors (there were a few thousand of them in Vietnam before Tonkin) “requested” that I accompany them. They took me back to the base and grilled me for half a day. What was I doing there? Why was I walking down the road? What did I really want? Was I a communist? They had a hell of a time believing my student of the world story. It just didn’t mesh with their paradigm. If they had water-boarded me, what story could I tell that they would believe?
They finally released me and off I went down the road. As nothing enticed me to stay longer in Vietnam, I soon returned to Thailand to settle down, get a job, and rest up for a few years. Indeed, working at a job is a real vacation from the day-in day-out toil of hitchhiking travel. Little did I know that I’d be back in Vietnam some years later, working as a surveyor, being shot at, and translating Vietnamese for a supervisor at RMK-BRJ (a US infrastructure contractor). Really now, isn’t living life like reading an unfinished novel… although, we do know the ending.
(See: The Further One Goes , [Biographical Notes p.xii ] for background on this Times of Yore series of posts.)
Are you out of touch with nature?
The Garden of Eden story in Genesis parallels the Taoist view of how humanity fell out of touch with Nature: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. Interestingly, chapter 1’s The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way; The name that can be named is not the constant name alludes to the same ‘knowledge’ problem in Genesis.
Later, in the Gospels we find, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. This conflicts with Genesis and the Taoist view. After all, isn’t “the tree of knowledge” built on the foundation of words, e.g., Yin vs. Yang; heaven vs. hell, good vs. bad; death vs. life; peace vs. war; old vs. new; and so on etc.? This ‘tree’ imparts a distorted view of nature as a whole.
The bell curve (graphic above) can be a broader way to view nature. There are two rather rare extremes, a total Yin on one side and a total Yang on the other, with most all aspects of nature sharing a kind of middle ground between these extremes. Our ability to recognize the complementary quality of nature’s entangled reality is weak, to say the least. You can’t have one side without the other, as chapter 2 observes…
We hang on to words as discrete realities, and we end up thinking—believing—that we know what we know. We only see what we believe in a kind of self-fulfilling virtual reality. Chapter 71 begins with, To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Deeply realizing I don’t know is my only way to begin returning to nature, the Garden of Eden.
Swimming Tai Chi Spermatozoa Style
Google [Microswimmers make a splash: Tiny travelers take on a viscous world] for research that describes movements of living things in the microscopic world as, “… very majestic, slow and regular…” That parallels the movement sought in Tai Chi. Google [Tai Chi – centertao]
Consider this quote from the research. “Motion at low Reynolds number is very majestic, slow and regular,” the late physicist E.M. Purcell said in a famous 1976 lecture on the physics of micro-organisms, “If you are at very low Reynolds number, what you are doing… is entirely determined by the forces that are exerted on you at that moment, and by nothing in the past.”
Or the future I’d add! This describes the essence of what I look for in doing Tai Chi. Picturing myself as a microorganism swimming in air can point me in the right direction. This is not far off the mark either. When I feel myself against the backdrop of eternity, it is easier to feel microscopic and vacant like a valley, as chapter 15 describes it.
Into the Jungle?
While working in Australia in the early 60’s, I met folks who intrigued me with their stories of traveling over land through India and Southeast Asia. Instead of returning to USA as planned, I decided to travel to Europe overland through Asia. Lack of funds meant hitchhiking a lot, and this felt weird considering I’d never once hitchhiked before.
To prepare, I read a book on tropical diseases. Though gruesome, it didn’t deter me. Instead, I packed a few boxes full of meds for every emergency I’d read about. After all, I was probably going to trek through jungles in Southeast Asia, full of snakes, tigers, bugs, and bacteria of every sort. (photo: bye bye Australia, hello Asia)
I sold my motorcycle and bought a ticket on a ship to Singapore. Friends from Perth drove me down to the port at Fremantle and gave me a mighty fine drunken send-off. They boarded the ship with me and together we celebrated bon voyage until the “all visitors get off the ship” whistle blew. Among those seeing me off was my girlfriend, Costello. Now what are the odds of an Abbott (me) meeting a girl named Costello? I don’t suppose our relationship hinged on much else for I can’t even recall her first name. Sorry, Ms. Costello. (photo: bye bye australia, hello asia)
Reaching Singapore was a big relief. I was bored out of my youthful impatient mind, even though it was a typical pleasure cruise ship. Why? Certainly, a cruise designed to be pleasurable for most people also meant reducing any chance of adventure… for me anyway. I was chomping on the bit for adventure.
I arrived in Singapore, got a room at a cheap hotel, and went out that night to see the town with folks I’d met on the ship. It was great… until I wanted to sleep. I had no idea where the hotel was, and I don’t recall how I found it — dumb luck I imagine. That taught me never to be lax again about knowing where I was! I soon found out that many folks don’t know exactly where they are. Therefore, whenever I needed directions, I’d usually ask enough people to garner a majority opinion I could most likely trust.
When I left Singapore for Malaya and mainland Asia, I remember thinking, “Where the hell is the jungle?” Malaya’s beautiful paved roads and hitchhiking Mercedes-Benz cars were not what I expected. That may have been the first time I realized how imagination and reality can easily be worlds apart. (photo: road in malaya)
At one point, hitchhiking my way up the Western coast of Malaya, a Chinese man in a big Mercedes stopped. We talked and the conversation went to religion. He told me he, like many Chinese folks, often follow multiple religions. For him it was Buddhism, Confucius, Taoism, and Christianity! He said it was just a good business strategy. I thought how different his way was from the Western norm; I liked it.
Oh, and those boxes of tropical disease meds… I threw them out in Bangkok along with 90% of the stuff I was lugging around (see earlier photo). I also cut off my Levis—the pant style I’d worn all my life—to shorts. Levis are lousy in humid tropical weather. (Sikh temple kitchen – all the dal you can eat!)
I did the deed while staying at a Sikh temple in Kota Bharu on the east coast of Malaya. My frayed Levis bothered the headman of the temple to no end. He offered to hem these for me, being the gentle generous soul he was. As I recall, he even pleaded with me a little to let him. Now, I tend to be one of those people when being nagged resist even more, so I doubt I agreed. Besides, I may have liked the frayed look.
By the way, one of the tenets of Sikhism is to share what you have. This meant that a traveler would be welcome to stay at any Sikh temple and receive as many bowls of dal with chapati as their stomach could hold. Alas, some Western travelers, taking advantage of Sikh generosity and generally acting boorish, eventually ruined this for everyone else.
And what about the jungle I expected to find? I found it while taking the train back from Kota Bharu. To be sure, a train ride through the tropical jungle is the perfect way to have one’s cake and eat it too. You can get really up close to the jungle, yet you can remain safe and comfortable in your window side seat. (photo: finally a jungle)
I remember looking down at a river flowing through that jungle scene and thinking what fun it would be to float down in a rubber raft. Now all I needed to do was find another soul with a similar idea of fun. That was not to be. However, later on, up in the jungles of Laos… but that’s a tale for another day.
(See: The Further One Goes [Biographical Notes, p.xii ] for background on this Times of Yore series of posts.)
Cave Man Shakuhachi?
Google [Stone Age flutes found in Germany] for a report on people living in Europe 35,000 years ago who made this flute out of a vulture bone. It’s shown here from three different angles with a magnified portion of the flute providing a closer look at two of the flute’s finger holes.
As far as I can make out, it appears to be a simple end blown flute like the bamboo shakuhachi. The blowing technique is similar to blowing across the top of a bottle to produce a pleasant resonant tone. By placing holes in it, you can play a melody, or something melody-like in the case of
It feels intriguing being connected to the musical tradition of an end blown flute that predates civilization by tens of thousands of years. Keeping that image in mind while I do suizen Zen (blowing Zen) on my bamboo gives me a transcendent, if brief, sense of ancestral continuity. It reminds me of chapter 14’s, The ability to know the beginning of antiquity is called the thread running through the way.
You Are Who You Are By Default
A recent report (google [Saey You Are Who You Are by Default]) gives some insight on the nature of who we are, particularly here, at the end of the report:
Once people reach adulthood, activity in the network is fairly consistent from person to person, with some slight differences between the sexes and in older versus younger people, Williamson and his colleagues wrote in a 2008 paper in NeuroReport.
This consistency in the network from person to person is remarkable, especially considering what its function is supposed to be. Everyone’s brain is thinking different thoughts while in the default mode, Fair says, and yet all healthy brains in default mode look essentially alike.
Such fundamental issues are among the puzzles of the default network remaining to be solved. “Nobody has really figured out what it is and what it does,” Williamson says. “But somebody will.”
“Nobody has really figured out…”? Well, I have a theory. The perception of difference, the feeling, is rooted in emotion, not the intellect. In other words, the sensation of difference originates deeper down in the amygdale, not in the cerebral cortex where all the action seems to take place. The cortex produces the illusion of difference and in humans assigns names to the differences; the amygdale makes that illusion of the names feel real!
The researchers end up thinking the differences they see between people’s thoughts are more real than they are. If, on the other hand, the apparent differences are really just that, apparent and not real, then one would expect to see everyone’s “default mode” very similar, as is the case.
One example of apparent differences lies in the perception of ‘god’. We all sense this, The gateway of the mysterious female as chapter 6 calls it, but just note all the different words people use to differentiate their experience from other people: God, Yahweh, Allah, Bhrama, Oneness, etc.
Belief in apparent differences is so deep as to cause us to kill one another in the name of our “True Name” for the same default mode emotion. Such is tribal blindness. I assume chapter 56’s This is known as mysterious sameness, is describing an aspect of this default mode.
Who is Right?
The current uproar over health care reform is fascinating to ponder. Who is right; who is wrong? First, doesn’t that depend on one’s definition of right? If we are referring to Right from a Buddha’s Eight Fold Path (p.604) viewpoint, then those who rant on either side are certainly not Right. The ranting we see are emotions at play — at war actually. When emotion—need and fear—stirs, knowledge of the constant and impartiality becomes impossible (chapter 16).
The biases fed by need and fear consume awareness so much that we seldom notice this is happening. What is more, no attempt to reason calmly and clearly ever counteracts such emotional blindness.
Emotional fervor, like a wildfire, just has to burn itself out. Certainly, this is discouraging to anyone who feels humanity should rise above this instead of being so animal-like. Alas, attempting to shoehorn reality into one’s ideality of how it “should be” is not only futile; it adds fuel to the emotional fires.
We’re victims of our emotional and cognitive biology. So surely, true impartiality and knowledge of the constant is humanly impossible. Not even God is capable of impartiality. He is on the side of the Good, right?
Still there is a bright side. Thought offers a way to nurture impartiality and discernment by challenging all “should be” stories we entertain. There is hope and help in chapter 56’s replacement story: This is known as mysterious sameness. The beginning of this Taoist story starts with seeing oneself as no different from any other animal. Once the ego adapts and settles into this pool of similarity, it is smooth sailing. Any blow to one’s ego is just the price to pay for greater peace of mind.
The Theory of God
We can prove something exists by evidence of its existence. Similarly, we can’t prove something doesn’t exist through a lack of evidence. So, what evidence exists supporting the existence of God? That depends upon what you believe qualifies as evidence I imagine.
Oddly, for a believer, belief itself appears to qualify as evidence. This kind of ‘evidence’ is remarkably foolproof. For example, a believer in God will point to the world around him and say how else could all this be? A believer will see this in itself as evidence. And if that weren’t enough, there is the “Word of God” in the Bible. A believer knows the Bible is the word of God because the Bible says so. It is a failsafe loop. Round and round… it is enough to make me dizzy.
Belief, like eating popcorn, is very compelling. When eating something tastes good, you can’t help but continue eating it. Belief works similarly. If believing in something makes you feel good, you will likely believe it even more. Beliefs, like our soul food preferences, are established in childhood and then reinforced over the years.
Nevertheless, some people drop some of their core beliefs as they age. Why? These simply cease to taste good enough to continue eating. At this point, they are open to a more satisfying belief. This is certainly my story. Around the age of seven, I recall believing in the common, up in Heaven watching over me, kind of God. Soon that belief failed to satisfy my hunger for meaning, which left me open to search for a theory that might quench my spiritual thirst. I eventually found that in the Taoist theory. However, like the theory of God, the Taoist theory has no proof either. Clearly, proof lies in the eye of the beholder. So what is the difference? The recognition of that simple fact is the difference… profoundly so! Believers in God believe their belief is objectively true and not merely true in the eye of the beholder. “Believers” in the way (道 tao, dao) can’t possibly do that because as chapter 1 says…
Although, as chapter 21 observes…
So, who knows?
Just How Big Is The Gap? 4470
In discussing human affairs, an old friend said, “We as a species are so very complex and vulnerable we’re easily led by whoever we listen to”. I countered with, “We are a profoundly social species which accounts for how easily we can be led. Human behavior reflects innate emotion…” He countered that with, “I have seen many comparisons of primates to humans, but modern man has put two little machines on Mars that send back pictures from there. That is a pretty big gap between humans and other primates”.(photo: wheel tracks on Mars)
I’ve heard this story about a “pretty big gap” between humans and other animals all my life, and it is utterly self-serving. How can the species judging that “gap” be an impartial judge? If gorillas could cogitate, no doubt they would see a “pretty big gap” between them and ourselves… and judge themselves superior.
Each species possess an innate species-centric sense of self and would choose that criteria as a basis upon which to judge. We evolved as a very ‘hand and mind’ species and so naturally, this is the criteria upon which we base our comparisons. It’s not surprising that the comparisons we make are instinctively (unconsciously) narrowly biased in our favor. The only true “gap” I see is that we canonize the judgments we make, which allows us to rationalize our exploitations of nature. That’s what allowed people to feel okay with slavery.
Didn’t Jesus allude to this issue when he said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged”. I suppose we can only truly “judge not” when we fully realize that we don’t know. Chapter 10 suggests when that may occur… When your discernment penetrates the four quarters are you capable of not knowing anything? So, how do we know our discernment has penetrated the four quarters? Chapter 56 hints, This is known as mysterious sameness.
Towards narrowing the gap
How does the “pretty big gap” and the accomplishments of modern man appear when we step back and view humanity over the last 200,000 years? But, why stop there? After all, several hundred thousand years earlier, our relative Homo erectus figured out how to harness fire. (photo: Homo erectus, 500,000 B.C.)
Discovering how to harness fire revolutionized the way Homo erectus lived. The next half million years saw incremental progress made by the Homo species (H. erectus, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens). Finally, a mere 10,000 years ago, the agricultural revolution occurred which built upon the foundation laid by the ability to harness fire.
The agricultural revolution set the stage for mega population and cultural organization of what in the wild were always scattered hunter-gatherer groups. Civilization accelerated the rate of change, especially technological progress, until the stage was set for the next epic discovery: The ability to harness electricity!
Harnessing electricity, a fire in its own right, was as significant a change to the way we live, as was the discovery of fire half a million years earlier. Without the harnessing of electricity, there would be no cars (ignition system), airplanes, T.V., radio, computer, refrigeration, or scientific breakthroughs in medicine, space, physics, chemistry, ecology, etc. No electron microscopes, Hubble telescope, and all the measurement technologies in between that make all things modern possible.
Stepping back farther, I see all that has happened hinged on a few pivotal changes. This is not unlike the process occurring throughout nature, as Darwin observed. The key pivotal changes in our case have been the harnessing of fire and electricity. Everything else is just an unintended consequence of those events.
Yet, even those pivotal events are only the consequence of having evolved as a very ‘hand and mind’ species. Again, the only true “gap” I see is that we can canonize the judgments we make. In the end, this canonization is what enables our discoveries to be accretive. It enables progress in our control of nature and clearly an equal regress in our balance with nature.
Stepping back all the way, I see a meta-natural balance remains. Our regress counterbalances our progress. One-step forward, one-step back, and so natural balance remains. We’ve merely exchanged one set of problems with another. For ages, physical survival has been our challenge. Going forward, emotional survival will be our challenge for ages to come. As chapter 5 reminds us, Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs.
An Essential Taoist Secret 2450
Our perception of difference begins at the cellular level: neurons flip flop between on (+) and off (—). The billions of neural connections in our complex nervous system make for countless ‘not quite on’, yet ‘not quite off’ indeterminacy. This feels somewhat like chapter 14’s, The image that is without substance. This is called indistinct and shadowy. Even so, awareness preferentially notices difference over indeterminacy. Taoist thought aims to neutralize this bias by turning the tables on this preference for difference awareness … A task easier said than done.
Perceiving indeterminacy and its companion impartiality is challenging because emotions inherently choose sides: attraction vs. aversion, good vs. bad, happy vs. sad, pleasure vs. pain, gain vs. loss. Chapter 1 observes, These two are the same, but diverge in name as they issue forth. Naming things institutionalizes and enshrines this divergence and since we begin naming things from infancy, the damage is largely done.
Naming things conveys the security of knowing, which takes the edge off the unknown. Heck, at least I feel I know something! I’ve often thought of this as a false sense of knowing — an illusion. Yet, I’ll admit that’s going too far the other way. So, to put it more impartially: Names and words deliver neither true nor false knowing. The extent of true vs. false actually lies in the emotional certainty of the believer, whether that be the speaker or listener.
The more important a belief feels, the more misleading it becomes. Here, survival emotions of need and fear empower the sense of importance. Chapter 64’s view, desiring not to desire, appears to offer a way to mitigate this. Most religions tout this tamping down of desire to counteract problematic emotion. This doesn’t work! Simply put, need + thought = desire (see Fear & Need Born in Nothing p.486). Besides, it also brings us no closer to the Taoist perception of indeterminacy and attendant impartiality.
Continually realizing that I don’t know is the secret. As chapter 71’s Chinese characters literally put it, Realize not know better, not know [this] realization disease — (知不知上，不知知病). The disease returns the moment I forget that I don’t know! As realizing I don’t know becomes visceral, chapter 10 comes within reach. As the Chinese characters literally put it, Understand four reach, able without knowledge? — (明白四达，能无知乎). Only then, can awareness notice indeterminacy!
A Hypochondriac’s Miracle Cure 2235
Hypochondriacs are anxious about their health. They make ‘illness mountains’ out of ‘wellness molehills’. However, we all make mountains out of molehills for issues in life that bother us personally . We are all somewhat obsessed about something, and so the hypochondriac’s cure really applies to us all.
Obsessions, both trivial and ominous, overtake the mind when emotion, or more precisely fear, pushes thought to irrational extremes. Nudging thought back toward the golden mean is difficult, especially when in the throws of emotion. The mind needs a model of moderation for guidance.
Some who judge other people’s immoderation are actually using the battle they have with their own immoderation as a reference. Many of these folks use various religious ideals of moderation as a reference for this ‘battle’. Alas, no universal standard of moderation is possible. Moderation is utterly relative, i.e., moderation for one person is often immoderate for another, and vice versa. Moderation is relative to one’s individual nature—custom made to fit their battlefield alone.
The ‘non-locality’ exemplified in Schrödinger’s cat (google [Schrödinger’s cat – wiki]) makes a interesting model of moderation, if one accepts the principle of mysterious sameness, as chapter 56 calls it. Reality isn’t this or that; it is both this and that. Alas, we are neurologically set up to experience reality as polar contrasts — ying vs. yang, good vs. bad, life vs. death, etc. You could say biology hoodwinks all living beings into seeing differences much more acutely than similarities. Perceiving difference serves survival by arousing interaction with the environment. This works well in the wild; less so in civilized circumstances.
Seeing the mysterious sameness inherent in Schrödinger’s cat, and other paradoxes, allows me to peek through and see reality as a whole. The more I can feel that both sides share the same coin, the less any obsession can get a toehold in my mind. The paradox we think we see is an artifact of our linear dipolar thinking. Dipolar perception enhances, if not causes, obsession. Once you get the hang of it, Correlations (p.565) helps diffuse dipolar thinking.
Suicide Just Doesn’t Work 5680
I was one troubled teenager for a time. I’d go off to the mountains for some peace and solitude. I wasn’t very concerned with my safety; life didn’t seem to offer much advantage over death.
One year I climbed Finger Rock without ropes. Going up was easy; going down was terrifying. Was this a latent suicidal death wish? I don’t think so, primarily because I am not very emotional by nature. Although, I’m not drawn to rock climbing or thrill seeking either, so who knows? As a kid I heard stories about a guy falling off Finger Rock and breaking so many bones that his body turned to the consistency of Jell-O. Fortunately, recalling that probably got me to turn around before reaching the top. (photo: finger rock, arizona)
Singing Wayfaring Stranger the other night reminded me of those difficult teenage years and of Finger Rock (1). As with many Christian Gospel songs, Wayfaring Stranger promises a heavenly afterlife, e.g., “I’ll soon be free from every trial…” and “I’m going there to meet my mother, she said she’d meet me when I come…”. This promise of a heavenly afterlife is one of the sharpest differences between Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions and Eastern ones. Sure, the Eastern ones promise something as well. However, with Karma you are merely promised an upgrade (or downgrade), and while Nirvana sounds more heavenly, the path to it is a winding road of countless lifetimes, so the story goes.
The Eastern paradigm agrees more with the phenomenon of non-locality—a form of entanglement observed in quantum physics—although, you really need to read between the lines at times to appreciate that (google [quantum physics for 7 year olds TEDx]). The evidence of entanglement suggests that at the most subtle and fundamental level, everything and nothing are inextricably connected. Oneness, or is it Noneness, is real despite what our biological senses tell us. This suggests that the biologically induced sense of a separate self, the ego in humans, underlies the illusion of life and death.
Considering all of this, I can’t see how suicide or a promised heavenly afterlife accomplishes its goal. There is no escape; destiny is eternity. Of course, we can’t tell our emotions that. Our needs and fears drive us to do what we do, feel what we feel, and think what we think, regardless of non-local reality; emotions anchor our local illusion of reality.
I sometimes feel deep sadness. It’s nothing specific, just a general weariness with life. I now feel certain that pure consciousness(2) is continuous, which may account for this weary feeling… I sometimes feel like I have been and will be alive forever. Knowing that consciousness is eternal also makes any hope of ending that weariness through suicide futile. This also makes any hope of gaining or losing the advantage, whatever it might be, futile.
What to do, what to do? Chapter 64’s call to be as careful at the end as at the beginning, and there will be no ruined enterprises is a good place to begin dealing with life. I find the joy in living lies in giving my utmost care to the enterprise of living. Giving, however, is not as easy as it sounds (3). The survival instinct drives us to take — gain, win, succeed. We dread loss. Indeed, our fear of death is really about the fear of losing the pleasures and expectations in life to which we cling. We are in a life-and-death tug-of-war: our need to let go in order to enjoy life versus our fear of losing what we value and not achieving what we desire. Chapter 64 offers one way to deal with this battle, The sage desires not to desire and does not value goods which are hard to come by.
(1) An old friend read this post and remembered more of those teenage years, which I’ll add below. I don’t ponder my past often, so I’ve forgotten much. Fortunately I suppose, I can’t recall how much I forgot.
I just read some of your Tao blog, I was with you when you climbed Finger Rock, I waited at the bottom of the rock, you did not pressure me to follow, thanks for that. I did not see you as a troubled teen at all, you were very happy and excited about life and had many interests. You were a risk taker but were confident in your actions, like walking on your hands at the edge of a cliff in Sabino Canyon near the top of Thimble Rock.
I think you were so good at walking on your hands and had no fear, like a French tight rope walker. Fear kills. Our many trips in caves I had no fear also because I couldn’t see how far I would fall. Your lack of fear made me think everything we did was reasonably safe.
I know you were cautious when you needed to be, I remember many cases of testing before acting.
(2) Pure consciousness is the foundation upon which living things perceive their personal identity. When biological function dies, the illusions of personal identity end, yet the foundation continues. Naturally, I can’t prove it!
(3) Giving is not as simple as it sounds either. For example, chapter 81 says, The sage does not hoard. Having bestowed all he has on others, he has yet more; having given all he has to others, he is richer still. It is important to note that the bestowed all he has and given all he has doesn’t literally mean giving all the stuff you have to others. Such overt giving is discordant with the natural balance of give and take, and thus unintended consequences inevitably follow. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. The giving referred to here is a state of mind and emotion, an approach to living and not the handing out of $100 bills — although there can be a time and a place for overt giving as well!
(See: The Further One Goes [Biographical Notes, p.xii ]for background on this Times of Yore series of posts.)
`$`Can You Believe What You See? 7835
The Science News report, What do you see? Emotion may help the visual system jump the gun to predict what the brain will see supports what I’ve suspected for years. Namely, our needs and fears (1) generally dictate what we see (2), even though our mind may believe otherwise. Our perception of reality is essentially a subjective reflection of our emotion. (photo: what do these object look like?)
However, the researchers see emotion a little differently than I do. For example, the article says:
Whereas emotions describe complex states of mind, such as anger or happiness, affect refers to something much more basic. Psychologists describe it as a bodily response that is experienced as pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable, a feeling of being tired in the morning or wound up at night. These responses are the ingredients for emotions, but they also serve as less complex feelings that people experience even when they think they feel “nothing”.
They want to have it both ways. For example, “pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable” refer to sensory experiences that most any animal can feel. What about anger, empathy, anticipation, fear, hunger, and need? Don’t these all fall under the category of emotion (3) in the broad sense of the word? Meaning, none of these sensations require a thinking “mind” to feel, as anyone who knows animals well enough can attest.
Note: Our penchant for splitting hairs is symptomatic of a deep human need to see ourselves unique and superior. Consequently, “happiness” must be a human feeling and requiring a “complex state of mind” to be felt. Lacking this “mind”, people wrongly conclude that dumb animals can’t possibly feel “happiness”. Is this merely ignorance or do we fear seeing animals our equal… a fear that spawns the need to stack the deck in our favor. While the human brain/mind innately needs a story, it doesn’t require one so utterly self-serving. Simply put, an insecure ego steers perception to create the story that can help it feel more comfortable and safe.
In the researcher’s view, “emotions describe complex states of mind, such as anger or happiness”. I’ve long thought of emotion as describing feeling as opposed to thinking. Feeling anger, fear, contentment, surprise, and need originate in the ancient midbrain (i.e., hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus). Conversely, the thinking mind (cognition), originates in the recent surface cortex, of which we humans are highly endowed.
Saying that “emotions describe a complex state of mind” is comparing apples and oranges. Sure, emotion and mind are both fruit of the brain, blending in our awareness and appearing to be similar. For example, thinking about earthquakes may arouse fear and stir up a need in me to live elsewhere. However, such lumping together of feeling and thinking complicates matters, which hinder self-understanding. Conversely, regarding thinking and feeling as fundamentally separate issues helps discern what occurs in each realm. Think of this as ‘dividing and conquering’ ignorance!
Emotion motivates life’s actions in humans, in dogs, in bats, and so on… perhaps even in viruses and bacteria, if you relax your definition of emotion. The so-called “complex states of mind” are more like shadows cast from the firelight of emotion. “State of mind” is a result of emotions pushing and pulling thought this way and that. Consider awareness as a horse and cart. The cart is thinking and the horse is feeling. The horse pulls the cart. It is notable that a main goal in yoga (i.e., Bhagavad-Gita) is a quest to put a driver in that cart. This spiritual ideal has one hitch… The horse is a wild untamable beast and doesn’t heed drivers (4). Chapter 71’s advice, To know yet to think that one does not know is best is much more doable, yet even then…
Apparently psychologists use the term affect to differentiate the so-called “complex states” from the “bodily responses”, which is probably a holdover from the old “mind vs. body” way of seeing life. This distinction arises from our ignorance of underlying inter-connectivity. As chapter 56 reminds, This is known as mysterious sameness.
Much of our ignorance stems from a mental projection of how we need to see ourselves. The mind-body illusion allows us to believe we can do anything if we set our mind to it. This is just the mind over body illusion of free will (p.587). Ironically, the effect psychologists are attempting to explore is affecting their way of seeing that effect.
Feeling “pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable” is integral to feeling fear, need, anger, contentment, etc. The idea that anger or happiness are complex states of mind and somehow separate from feeling “pleasant or unpleasant” is nonsense. Angry dogs, blue jays, or baseball fans are all feeling stress, uncomfortable and unpleasant. Their homeostasis (i.e., the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent biological processes) is unbalanced. The anger response pushes animals (human included) to somehow resolve that tension. When it is resolved, stress is relieved and “happiness” returns. As chapter 46 notes, There is no disaster greater than not being content.
Simply realizing that perception is a reflection of need and fear rather than what is actually ‘out there’ is extremely helpful. Little by little, science is heading toward what Buddhists and Taoists have always known: Emotions (desire, need, lust, fear, worry, insecurity, pleasure, pain, attraction, aversion) determine the reality we see. To ‘fix’ reality one must return to the moment. As chapter 64 advises, Deal with a thing while it is still nothing. As always, the simple elegant solution is also the most elusive. Chapter 63 and 71 nails it…
(1) I’m using the terms need and fear to convey in the broadest possible sense, the primal biological driving forces of life. Feeling need attracts us to what ostensibly facilitates survival; feeling fear repels us from what ostensibly impedes survival. Such need and fear are often subconscious and only evoke conscious thoughts once they pass some threshold.
(2) Broadly speaking, what we see also includes what we feel, hear, and think (i.e., the mind’s eye). These perceptions mirror the biological foundation from which they are experienced. One outcome of this is the naturally compelling illusion that the reality we perceive is objective, and not simply shadows in the mind of the beholder.
(3) I’m using the term emotion as broadly as possible to differentiate feeling from thinking. This includes all that indistinct and shadowy matters we perceive that lie outside our ability to adequately describe via words or portray artistically via colors, tones, tastes, etc.
(4) Becoming one with the beast, rather than attempting to control it works. Resistance only stirs the pot of emotion. How does one become one with the beast? Chapter 65 offers a helpful hint:
Only then is complete conformity realized.
Innately Ethical 2550
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. Yet, given their Taoist upbringing, it is odd to see how rigidly law abiding they are at times. For example, we headed down the street to order a sandwich at the corner deli. I grabbed a beer to drink (rare for me) as we walked there. They protested, saying it was against the law to walk in public and drink beer. I thought that nonsense. Drink and drive no way, but drink and walk?
All my life I have only obeyed laws I agreed with, so they didn’t pick up their highly law-abiding ways from Papa obviously. Perhaps Mama or culture in general influenced them. Still, given the circumstances of their childhood, I doubt they learned it from anyone in particular. This shows the strong pull ethical paradigms have on people — see Ethics: Do They Work Anymore? p.594. Most conform, some rebel, but everyone feels it.
Virtue and ethics are symptoms of dysfunction and hypocrisy, as chapter 18 bluntly points out, When the great way falls into disuse, There is benevolence and rectitude; When cleverness emerges, There is great hypocrisy. Virtue is ineffective at best, and downright debilitating at worst, as chapter 38 observes, A man of the lowest virtue never strays from virtue and that is why he is without virtue. Chapter 1’s disclaimer applies to virtue: The [virtue] that can be spoken of is not the constant [virtue]. Obviously, this requires a nuanced approach.
For example, I never told them to say “thank you” when someone gave them something. Instead I thought, let them one day say, “It happened to us naturally”, as chapter 17 notes. It was embarrassing at times for us when our ostensibly rude kids would not say “thank you” when receiving a gift. The point was, I wanted them to be authentic, rather than being prodded into displaying a facade of virtue. Again, chapter 38 tells it like it is, Hence, when the way was lost there was virtue; when virtue was lost, there was benevolence; when benevolence was lost, there was rectitude; when rectitude was lost, there were the rites. The rites are the wearing thin of loyalty and good faith, and the beginning of disorder.
So far, this experiment is turning out well, bolstering my faith in the truth of chapter 48, It is always through not meddling that the empire is won. Should you meddle, then you are not equal to the task of winning the empire. Oh, and yes, they soon felt the social need to say “Thank you”.
Peeking Through the Covers 4492
The Tao Te Ching is a manual that helps us peek through biology’s covers to reveal the deeper whats and whys of reality as best it can with words. Chapter 70 acknowledges the difficulty of this… My words are very easy to understand… yet no one in the world can understand.
As ancient as it is, this manual is fully relevant today. We are the same biologically now as back then. My goal is to put this manual in context with current times. One problem is that we are both inside and outside the covers, perhaps like Schrödinger’s cat (google [Schrödinger’s cat – wiki]). Words, being linear beasts, can’t convey a big picture viewpoint easily, if at all. Yet I struggle on to convey what I see. Perhaps the challenge lures me.
Essentially, things are not what they seem. We see this reality-check in chapter 2: The whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only the ugly; the whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad.
Take the current ideal of joy in-the-moment. Ironically, the less joy in-the-moment one feels, the more in-the-moment one is. In other words, life is about contrast. Whatever seems to be there is often, if not always, a reflection of what is not there. In this case, the moment has both joy and its compliment, sorrow — again, like Schrödinger’s alive and dead cat. This makes truthful statements through words virtually impossible. Any comment on ‘what is’ emphasizes ‘is-ness’ at the expense of ‘isn’t-ness’. Chapter 2 puts it simply, something and nothing produce each other… simultaneously no less. Little wonder chapter 56 notes, one who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know. That is why it helps to take everything with a grain of salt.
Why do those who have everything seem to want more? The more wealth people have, the more they tend to spend it on raising their standard of living: beans to caviar, Fords to Rolls Royces, houses to mansions, and so on. From a symptom’s point of view (p.141), the inescapable fact is that the mundane “cheap” things never bring contentment. Thus, we spend what we can afford to upgrade our things in the hope that better and more will offer contentment. They don’t in any lasting sense, and so our hunger quest continues. Riches never bring contentment. It is often the other way around as chapter 33 hints, He who knows contentment is rich. Getting and having is an external object oriented experience. Contentment is a subjective experience. The former, getting and having, promises contentment, and so we chase after whatever we value. Ironically, only giving up and letting go bring contentment. Yet even then, we can only feel this in a moment-to-moment giving up and letting go. We can’t just let-go and move on!
The lack of contentment sows the seeds of desire. From a symptom’s point of view, this lack of contentment is the actual problem. Thus, chapter 1 urging to rid ourselves of desire, or chapter 64 to desire not to desire are impossible ideals — strive as we might. Any advice to just relax and be happy is just silly. Like the old “Just say no” advice, it ignores underlying causes and always fails. Yet, I still find desires not to desire a useful aspirational goal to strive toward even though I know reaching it is impossible.
Why can’t resistance against desire work? Most obvious is the fact that it’s the mover of life—biology rules! Need, and its human offspring desire, pushes living things to get out there and take what they need to live to be content. You could say discontentment is built into life’s genome to push it to live a full life. The promise of contentment, illusionary though it is, allows hope to spring eternal. We feel that if we just get ‘it’, avoid ‘it’, accomplish ‘it’, win ‘it’, — succeed — we will finally be happy. The fundamental process of Nature portrayed in chapter 2 is another way to see this. To paraphrase:
Fight we must, but knowing that war never succeeds, whatever the enemy, helps take the edge off the battle. We make life much more difficult through our cognitive expectations of what it should be. As the Bhagavad Gita puts it: “Prepare for war with peace in thy soul. Be in peace in pleasure and pain, in gain and in loss, in victory or in the loss of a battle. In this peace there is no sin.”
The Future is Now! 3783
About ten years ago, humanity’s plausible future became increasingly obvious to me. I saw our advancing technology leading toward a time of plunging human population to a point where, for example, governments would support citizens during their parenting years. Now, when I travel on freeways, I eerily see a time when they will be half-empty and overgrown. I never expected to see any solid evidence of this future in my lifetime. Then too, I said that back in the mid 1980’s about seeing any impact of global warming in my lifetime.
To my surprise, a documentary (YouTube [Japan: Robot Nation]) supports my forecast for humanity. It addresses the plunging population of Japan. It was especially interesting for me as I spent five years there during the 1970’s. What is happening there, and the reasons why, appear to fit the overall model I predict for our species’ future.
I notice two primal forces at work in the evolution and interaction of social species. One is an attractive, cooperative, pulling force that draws the group together. Counterbalancing that is a repelling, pushing, competitive force that divides groups so that they don’t end up in one global monolithic mass. Such monolithic unity would stress their environment and resources. The idiosyncrasies of human cultures embody these forces in ways uniquely different in each culture, yet similar in underlying effect.
Up until now, evolutionary dynamics like a genetic bottleneck or founder event (1) have played an important role in pushing peoples apart on one hand, and pulling them together on the other. For example, the English settlers in America gradually pulled together as an American people, after pushing away from their ancestral European roots. Going forward, the exponential increase in global interconnection will prevent genetic bottlenecks or founder events from playing out in any meaningful way. It is now impossible for groups of people to become isolated from each other, or from any population mainstream. Yet, the same pressures, the push and pull forces of nature, are certainly still within us. How will they play out without the age-old conditions that normally allow a genetic bottleneck or founder event to occur?
In the midst of endlessly increasing technology, I suspect the only place these forces can play out is internally within each individual. Instead of island groups separated from each other through time and space, humanity will become island individuals separated from each other through a kind of cognitive time and space. Humanity’s greatest challenge has always been seeking the means for physical survival. This gives life visceral meaning. The greatest challenge facing humanity from now onward will be finding life’s meaning when physical survival is less of an issue.
Previously, much of our life meaning came naturally through the social interdependency necessary in our struggle with nature, or in wars between groups. As we either win, or call a truce in these, there is less survival glue to bind us socially. We will truly become free to ‘do our own thing’. Without core survival needs focusing our emotions, it is easier to become increasingly isolated, making neurotic mountains out of molehills in our quest for a meaningful life. (See Introduction: Fear, Need, and the Meaning of Life, p.587.)
Ironically, chapter 80’s Reduce the size and population of the state, will come about, but NOT because people of one state will grow old and die without having had any dealings with those of another.
(1) A genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events. A founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population.
Just In: We’re All Nuts! 2917
“Some mental disorders aren’t merely common—they’re the norm”, or so a recent Science News article, Rates of common mental disorders double up, reports. Note the tallest bar in the graph showing a recent prospective study of 1000 New Zealanders assessed for mental disorders eleven times between the ages of 3 and 32.
No doubt, such a study done in the USA would at least match New Zealand’s 50% anxiety number. Claiming 50% of the population has a mental health issue is somewhat bizarre.(1) How could half the human population have a “common mental disorder”? Disorders are presumably non-normal events. Can something so common be non-normal?
Overall, I feel these researchers are focusing on what is a symptom of our culture rather than underlying causes. This is especially so if mental disorders are the norm now. Given that the current norm is a 50/50 chance of having a mental disorder, perhaps something more fundamental is taking place. I imagine this something, lying at the heart of our cultural norms, is something we may not wish to see.
I suspect an increasing sense of disconnection that people feel causes most mental disorders we see now. The significant popularity of social media platforms and cell phones arises from our deep-seated need to feel more connected than we do. Simply put, we have a social thirst that goes unquenched. I can’t imagine members of close-knit tribal groups — our ancestral norm — being this socially thirsty. They had the true social security that a life-long bond of interdependent relationships provides. The unintended consequence of civilization is the loss of the close-knit tribal life style. Tribal loyalty was a core factor in the social bond. The closest match to this type of bond now-a-days is the nuclear family. Alas, a multitude of cultural distractions now competes for the attention of each family individual, which leaves even the nuclear family divided.
Accepting that civilization itself causes most of our problems is probably a very hard pill to swallow. After all, isn’t civilization a measure of human progress and a boon to humanity? Certainly, civilization has been a boon materially speaking. However, at some point doesn’t every seemingly good thing become too much of a good thing. The fact that trading up from our longstanding ancestral ways to civilization led to mental disorders is hard to entertain if one values civilization and naively expects progress to be a win win. Clearly, the world we see tends to reflect what we expect to see, and this is largely a result of what our culture has taught us. That makes a researcher’s task difficult, especially any researcher in the social sciences, where their cultural background may easily color their observations.
(1) Perhaps this 50% anxiety level reflects our disease… as chapter 71 more literally puts it, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Still, according to this chapter, we’re pretty well all nuts.
I understand, but do I know? 4732
What is the difference between understanding and knowing? Perhaps chapter 70 alludes to this… My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. Our cleverness at understanding far exceeds our ability to know intuitively what we understand.
Understanding is theoretical. Knowing is intuitive, visceral. For example, what do people and dogs have in common? They know what they know, and act accordingly. Dogs smell good food and eat; we smell good food and eat. Dogs see something they want and chase after it; we see something we want and chase after it. Dogs see something fearful and avoid it; we see something fearful and avoid it. This is visceral knowing, a teaching that uses no words as chapter 2 says.
The difference between dogs and people is cognitive—understanding. However, ostensible understanding absent deep intuitive knowing can easily lead to unintended and unfortunate consequences. Thought permits understanding, which allows for what chapter 71 cautions us about, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. You could even say that understanding and knowledge are forms of pseudo knowing.
To put it another way: We can only truly understand what we already know. If such knowing is absent, the understanding is shallow. To corroborate this, please apply this supposition to your own examples and ponder. First, here are a few examples of the differences I’ve noticed between understanding and knowing.
Wall Street
In the 1980’s, I studied the stock market until I understood it, theoretically at least. I didn’t actually buy and sell stocks. Now, 30 years later, came an opportunity to put my understanding to work. I understood the importance of ‘buy low sell high’, patience, diversification, being bold when others are fearful and vice versa. Chapter 8 says, In action it is timeliness that matters — it was time to act. That brought the inevitable bruises and scares as I descended down into the belly of knowing. Not surprisingly, it has taken being actively involved in the stock market over some years to begin truly knowing what I previously merely understood.
Gardening
While living in Japan I studied agricultural books. My ex-wife and I were planning to settle down and farm a hundred acres or so, either back in the USA or in Australia. Divorce spared us that experience. I say spared because I’ve spent the last 30+ years gardening a few thousand square feet, not 4,000,000 (i.e., 40,000 sq.ft. = 1 acre).
By now, I’ve forgotten much of that agricultural knowledge I understood. Yet I know much better what I’m doing. The understanding was word based; the knowing is experience based. Actually, I feel it would be impossible to write down what I know.
And thus my motto for life
The only way to perceive what might actually be real is to discount every thought that bubbles up into awareness, and that is far easier said than done! The visceral need to feel certainty in what we believe is intense. Nonetheless, simply adopting this motto for life helps manage the illusion of what I think is true.
Duke Huan and the wheelwright
This wonderful little story, “Duke Huan and the wheelwright” by Chuang Tzu, speaks to the essential difference between understanding (i.e., knowledge) and knowing. (Excerpted from The Writing of Chuang Tzu)
Duke Huan was in his hall reading a book. The wheelwright P’ien, who was in the yard below chiseling a wheel, laid down his mallet and chisel, stepped up into the hall, and said to Duke Huan, “This book Your Grace is reading-may I venture to ask whose words are in it?”
”The words of the sages,” said the duke.
”Are the sages still alive?”
”Dead long ago,” said the duke.
”In that case, what you are reading there is nothing but the chaff and dregs of the men of old!”
”Since when does a wheelwright have permission to comment on the books I read?” said Duke Huan. “If you have some explanation, well and good. If not it’s your life!”
Wheelwright P’ien said, “I look at it from the point of view of my own work. When I chisel a wheel, if the blows of the mallet are too gentle, the chisel slides and won’t take hold. But if they’re too hard, it bites in and won’t budge. Not too gentle, not too hard-you can get it in your hand and feel it in your mind. You can’t put it into words, and yet there’s a knack to it somehow. I can’t teach it to my son, and he can’t learn it from me. So I’ve gone along for seventy years and at my age I’m still chiseling wheels. When the men of old died, they took with them the things that couldn’t be handed down. So what you are reading there must be nothing but the chaff and dregs of the men of old.”
What Am I Doing? 3296
Chapter 56’s view that one who speaks does not know should logically include writing and thinking as well. After all, speaking, thinking and writing are all interconnected, which suggests that I don’t know what I’m talking about! So what the heck am I doing here? Why do I think and write anyway?
I was born with a human brain and that makes thinking a de facto reality. So far so good, as long as I heed chapter 71’s Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
The writing and speaking arise from simply feeling a socially instinctive urge to help, to connect, and to gossip. Gossip? Sure, gossip is a primal way to connect socially. On top of this, I do enjoy the challenge of shining light outside-the-box, or at least broaden focus inside-the-box. Of course, even ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ are iffy. To paraphrase Taoist chapter 2: Thus, the inside and the outside produce each other. Now, as long as I keep mindful of this iffiness and of chapter 71’s warning, I’ll probably do less harm, right?
Even so, doing this feels a little unsettling at times. On balance though, seeing life from other angles is healthful, not heretical. I imagine most people would agree, at least until a particular view begins to threaten their own sacred cow. At that point instinct—need, fear, emotion—carry the day.
For this quixotic quest, I rely on science generally, and biology in particular, to provide a point of reference, a baseline so to speak. Science has its problems, but science offers the most impartial point of view humanly possible due to its requirement for proof.
Primal forces of life
Key words I constantly use are need, fear, emotion, and instinct. I use them often in a broader connotation than the meaning for which they are typically associated.
Need and fear: I use the terms need and fear to convey, in the broadest possible sense, the primal biological driving forces of life. Feeling need attracts us to what ostensibly facilitates survival; feeling fear repels us from what ostensibly impedes survival. As such, need and fear are often below the threshold of thought — they are sub-thought. They only evoke conscious thoughts once they pass a certain threshold.
Emotion: I use the term emotion as broadly as possible to differentiate feeling from thinking. This includes all of the indistinct and shadowy (#14) stirrings we feel that lie outside our ability to adequately describe via words or names, or portray artistically via colors, tones, and flavors.
Instinct: I see instinct as a catchall word for need, fear, and emotion overall. Instinct is the biological bedrock upon which all perception originates. Instinct drives the choices animals make in life… except for us many believe. We think free will allows us to operate outside the bounds of instinct. However, this notion doesn’t stand up to my personal experience or to scientific scrutiny. (See Free Will: Fact or Wishful Thinking? p.587.)
And what am I doing hair-wise?
Long hair warms me in winter; no hair cools me in summer. Normally, when the weather gets uncomfortably hot, I cut it all off. It never got hot this year, so my hair just kept growing. This became my hair experiment. Now I know the hassle people with long hairstyles endure.
Of Course It’s Alive! 2329
The Science News report, Enter the Virosphere, covers a researcher’s discovery that shakes up the current biological paradigm. Apparently, he had actually found a gigantic virus—one so large and possessing such a peculiar mixture of traits that it is challenging the very notion of what it means to be alive. One researcher commented, “I think the discovery really messed up the heads of a lot of people”. Still another says, “The virus definitely seems to have its own agenda”.
Doesn’t all life share the obvious agenda of striving diligently to survive? I imagine “messed up heads” comes from a specie-centric ideal of what will (free or otherwise) means. Acknowledging that a human and a virus both have a will to survive really messes with our preconception of human supremacy. (photo: it is alive!)
At least some scientists are finally getting around to accepting the fact that viruses are alive. The real question is why we haven’t regarded viruses as being alive all along. Cultural biases obstruct the ability to see nature as it is. If it doesn’t pass our model for what life should be, then it can’t be living. Naturally, this bias applies to everything: If _(you name it)_ doesn’t fit your model for what is a true _(you name it)_ is, it can’t be real. Models and names blind us.
The similarities between viruses and higher life forms are not readily apparent and so don’t attract much notice. To be sure, nature conceals its mysterious sameness (#56) by making superficial differences much easier to notice. Thanks to biology, perceived differences readily stimulate neurons. For example, quickly differentiating a stick from a snake favors survival. Similarities, on the other hand, easily go unnoticed or bore us.
Speaking of similarities and differences, history is replete with our tendency to make mountains out of molehill differences, e.g., skin color, religion, politics, gender, sexual orientation, age, beauty, skill, knowledge, social status, etc. Blowing differences out of all proportion to reality gives those who are not essentially different a sense of unique group identity around which to rally. A “we are this, they are not this” serves the tribal instinct.
What chance does a lowly virus have in being recognized as life? Surprisingly more than I would have thought before reading the article.
Sage Advice from Wall Street 2509
They call Warren Buffett the sage of Wall Street because he is a most successful investor. His chief advice for investing is this: “Be fearful when others are bold, be bold when others are fearful”. Obviously, this advice frequently applies to life in general. It parallels chapter 73’s He who is fearless in being bold will meet with his death; He who is fearless in being timid will stay alive.
Implementing this advice is another matter. As chapter 70 says, My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. Why is the understanding easier than the practice? I suppose for the same reason it is easy to imagine yourself climbing Mount Everest and yet difficult for the body to do. This discrepancy between thought and action easily brings about unintended consequences. Hence, chapter 71’s To know yet to think that one does not know is best; not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
Couplets and the Co-generating Principle(1) is another way to apply Correlations to practical matters similar to Warren Buffett’s advice. One advantage of the Couplets is that they peel away various issues pertaining to one’s approach to life. For starters, consider how Couplets deal with Buffett’s advice:
Boldness evolves forth into MEEKNESS as it contends, yet MEEKNESS revolves back to boldness as it BOWS DOWN; hence, contend within the MEEKNESS, yet BOW DOWN within the boldness.
As you see, Buffett’s advise and the Couplet’s punch line is essentially the same. However, the Couplet describes the whole process in two parts. The first part portrays the ebb and flow. I find that being more aware of how this pendulum swings gives me a heads up. The second part, the punch line, offers guidance on how best to maintain a modicum of balance. Naturally, my success at this ebbs and flows. Yet, even in utter failure, at least I know what is happening. That alone is worth the price of admission into a Taoist worldview.
(1) My wish to apply Taoist principles to specific emotional issues led me to make up Couplets as a way to see the ebb and flow of life’s happenings more clearly. This soon led me to break perception down further into Correlations (p.565). Words and names were hindering my ability to see life as broadly and impartially as possible. Correlations offers a means to work with chapter 1’s, The way possible to think, runs counter to the constant way, in a somewhat practical way.
Are You A Belief-a-holic? 5571
I had a fine discussion with a born again Christian recently. These kinds of talks always offer fascinating food for thought. Particularly interesting was his view on global warming, and the conspiracy he thinks lies behind it. His certainty was high despite his limited knowledge of basic science. It may be that the less one knows, the more certain one tends to be (1).
Chapter 40’s, the myriad creatures in the world are born from something, and something from nothing hints at the dynamics involved here. My visceral sense of emptiness—the nothing— drives my need to feel certainty— the something. Feeling a dependence on something, anything, helps block feelings of emptiness. This is true across the board, whether it is a reliance on belief, work, sex, alcohol, drugs, tobacco — any addiction. We cling to anything that promises to fill the void. Chapter 5’s advice, Better to hold fast to the void is the last thing we wish to do.
Tobacco was something that filled my void. I see parallels between the Christian’s belief in their story and my experience with tobacco. Note, I distinguish belief in the story from Christ’s useful tips about life. I can substantiate through experience much of what Christ said, but not the story — the myth. The unique thing about belief is that it requires no verification. Faith is the ground upon which belief stands, and rationalization is the leg upon which faith leans.
Back to tobacco… I only halfheartedly acknowledged the scientific evidence that smoking contributed to cancer. I also conjured up ‘clever’ rationalizations to paint this evidence in a less serious light. I wanted to smoke and I wasn’t going to let facts get in the way!
Those who refute global warming may be rationalizing their stance further than I did with smoking. At least I acknowledged the science. That is probably because I am science literate, while my Christian friends tend to be more science illiterate. Science, at its core, offers no solid belief to stand on. As new evidence turns up, one’s belief must change accordingly. That is very unsettling to anyone who needs unchanging solid ground to stand on. That helps explain the historical tension that exists between science and religion.
Now, where does the Taoist point of view stand in all this? A small ‘t’ Taoists (p.154) would find chapter 16’s I do my utmost to attain emptiness; I hold firmly to stillness appealing… at least as an inspiring ideal. Conversely, for those who require solid ground, the dogma and ritual based Taoism ‘of the people’ would be a better match. I imagine chapter 38’s, When virtue was lost there was benevolence; when benevolence was lost there was rectitude; when rectitude was lost there were the rites would be unfathomable, and perhaps threatening.
As attaining emptiness deepens, chapter 43’s The teaching that uses no words, and the benefit of resorting to no action becomes a welcome ideal. This teaching, although closer to science, goes beyond both religion and science. It is bizarre, with no solid ground anywhere. As chapter 67 puts it, it is vast and resembles nothing. If it resembled anything, it would, long before now, have become small.
Belief-a-holics and Global Warming
I was going to title this post, Russian Roulette Anyone? Let’s say there was only a 1 in 6 chance that global warming was real. Shouldn’t we err on the side of safety? We do this constantly for product safety issues. Indeed, if the evidence showed that I had a 1 in 6 chance of getting lung cancer, I might have quit smoking immediately. With global warming (2), the evidence points to a much better than 1 in 6 chance and the evidence continues to mount. Curiously, this drives the disbelievers in climate change to clutch even harder at any rationalization that discounts the evidence.
Considered from a symptoms point of view, such people need to have global warming not be true. Naturally, everyone would rather it not to be true. However, denial of evidence dooms us, so why do we do that? Fear prevents us from entertaining any solid evidence impartial enough to destroy the beliefs we happen to cherish. Taking sides is what we do, and addiction to belief (3) keeps us securely there.
(1) The more deeply I accept that I don’t know, the less able I am to be certain about anything. Paradoxically, feeling certain that I don’t know is a way to know yet to think that one does not know, as chapter 71 puts it.
(2) I became aware of the mounting scientific evidence of global warming in 1985, which upset me a lot at the time. I now accept it, for I’ve accepted the historical fact that we, as a species, are unable to deal with a thing while it is still nothing, as chapter 64 advises. Disaster has to take its toll before we become motivated enough to act. We all know the admonition; ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broke’… So we wait until it is broken. Nonetheless, doesn’t waiting for ‘it’ to brake, rather than dealing with ‘it’ beforehand conform to the way. As chapter 65 hints, Only then is complete conformity realized. What’s more, if we could actually act upon every idea, plan, desire (need) or worry (fear), we’d soon burn ourselves out!
(3) Some will say that belief is not addictive. Looking around me, I reckon that belief may actually be the most potent addiction there is. Belief is closely tied to social/tribal identity. Belief defines the self, the ego. Belief causes people to go to war, to martyr themselves, to burn witches at the stake. Belief is powerful stuff, and alas, as blind as a bat. (See Belief: Are We Just Fooling Ourselves?, p.591.)
Trust But Verify 2867
In some ways, being a true believing Christian might hinder fulfilling Christ’s message to the world. Believers in anything, Christian or otherwise, rely on their tenets of belief to substantiate the very belief they hold. Approached this way, one has little incentive to challenge one’s own understanding. Rather, the understanding becomes the pillar of proof. Therein lays the pitfall of belief and faith. (photo: trust but verify or become dinner!)
One’s faith becomes the proof of one’s faith. Buddha cautioned against this circular blindness by advising folks to avoid taking anything he said on faith. He wanted his followers to trust but verify. Trust is accepting that there is a kernel of truth in everything. Verify is accepting that there are mountains of bias and myth in everything. The only way to separate the wheat from the chaff is to verify through one’s own experience as one’s life plays out to its end.
The first line of chapter 71 literally says, Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. This view will surely fall on deaf ears of any believer when it comes to their core beliefs. Conversely, noticing the ‘disease’ in another’s belief is not only easy; it is irresistible. After all, seeing how false ‘their’ belief is makes ‘our’ belief feel even truer. If faith in belief were the answer, the world would be trouble free by now. Faith in our beliefs never enlightens us, and most of the time it only serves to hoodwink us.
Faith in the wild favors fitness
Animals are biologically set up to accept matters on faith. All animals, including humans, have faith in what their senses tell them about the world they experience. Mosquitoes have faith in their acute sense of CO2 which guides them to their next meal. Similarly, we have faith that our senses don’t lie. Instinct tells us that if something tastes good it must be good for us, and that what we see with our own eyes is real. That is how we become so easily hoodwinked by magicians, politicians and the producers of junk food — to name just three. Sure, we may have learned that a magician uses slight of hand, a politician panders, and junk food is not good for us, but instinct tends to pull us in anyway.
In the wild, such faith in perception normally favors fitness, i.e., an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. Of course, various predators have evolved ways to use this to catch prey. The anglerfish (photo) and the fisherman both come to mind here. Alas, for us, rational thinking easily warps the generally healthy instinct of faith and we end up simply hoodwinking ourselves. As chapter 65 notes, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. Instinct and faith certainly fit the description “Of old”.
[B] Why Do Idiot Savants Run Things? 4188
First, we should ask, “do idiot savants run things?” I’d say so according to the second definition of “idiot savant” in Merriam-Webster Dictionary, i.e., 2: a person who is highly knowledgeable about one subject but knows little about anything else.
Of course, “knowledgeable about one subject” and “knows little about anything else” is relative and varies person to person. Nevertheless, anyone highly knowledgeable in an area is a savant by definition, i.e., 1: a person of learning; especially: one with detailed knowledge in some specialized field. That certainly sounds like the experts, whatever the field, who manage things. Experts in war become generals; experts in politics become presidents; experts in business become CEO’s; experts in religion become preachers and Popes; and so on. Without question, highly knowledgeable experts/savants run things in civilized society. The question is, are they idiots too? (photo: isn’t this proof that idiot savants run things?)
Do our experts also know little about anything else? From a purely biological standpoint, the price of being highly knowledgeable in one area means inevitably knowing less about anything else. Advancing civilization requires the narrower focus of such specialization. The specialist focuses deeply on one area of life leaving less life-time left for considering the rest — the big picture. The saying ‘they can’t see the forest for the trees’ increasingly applies. The broader ‘forest’ view is less valued and yet essential for long-term survival.
Clearly, idiot savants of a sort do run things. Who do we turn to for answers or for leadership? The expert! As civilization advances it opens up new niches for experts to fill, or is it vice versa? I think vice versa is more likely. In any case, chapter 16’s warning, Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant becomes much more likely.
An uncertain, insecure mind seeks answers and leaders who give them…
Social instinct pulls us to follow those who presumably have the answers we seek. In ancestral times, pre civilization, that would be a survival advantage. Hunter-gatherers would never focus so narrowly as to loose sight of the big picture.
At least expertise makes evolutionary sense. It’s nature’s way of balancing life as well. Here, the advantage of an expert’s sharper focus counter-balances the handicap of the expert’s narrower vision. Evolutionarily speaking, a species groping its way successfully through a field of advantages and pitfalls enhances fitness, i.e., those who manage to survive are fit. That means, no matter how expert-ridden, specialist driven, modern civilization becomes, it’s still part of the natural process. Don’t you just love how fairly nature deals the cards?
This is a matter of the blind leading the blind, or rather, the more blind leading the less blind. So why do the less blind — the silent majority generalists — follow the even blinder expert idiot savant? It may take being an idiot savant to become a leader, and being social animals, most of us instinctively follow leaders! They may be blinder than we are, but at least they will decide and lead… even if over a cliff at times.
Civilization requires decisive leadership. The only thing worse than blind leadership is no leadership, for then chaos ensues. Chapter 17 describes the range of leadership.
Note how “the best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence”. I assume that this “best ruler” is one who is honestly aware of his ignorance. As chapter 33 hints, Knowledge of self is honesty. From there, it descends down toward chaos as quality leadership wanes and the people “take liberties”.
UPDATE 2022: When you think about it, aren’t we all idiot savants in our own way. It is only a matter of degree. The genuine problem arises when an idiot savant gets excessive influence, power or control over others.
Keeping Birthday Happy 4095
Today is my 67th year here on earth. The picture is a magazine’s back cover of me in my birthday suit at a lake in Arizona (1). From then until today, fate has been fortunate, for I should have died quite a few times by now. As to my health, wealth, and family, I couldn’t ask for more. Indeed, there are so many things to be happy for on this birthday and every day. Nevertheless, I’ll find a problem somewhere… (photo: me on a magazine’s back cover c.1945)
We easily notice and dwell on what is wrong. We look for problems. This tells me that our innate cup’s half-empty sense of life overpowers our cup’s half-full sense. This is one of the more poignant, sad, sides of life. To be sure, Mother Nature can’t abide any other way. We need to see the cup half-empty more than the reverse to keep busy at the job of survival. We are but servants of survival.
I suspect this job of survival is more trying because we fall into the cognitive trap of thinking that we know. As chapter 71 warns, To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. The Chinese character translated here as “difficulty” is literally 病 (bìng: ill; sick; disease; fault; defect). (photo: being told to smile?)
The cure for this disease is to knowing nothing as in chapter 10’s, When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, Are you capable of not knowing anything? I find that actually true… The more I know, the more I know that I don’t know. Eventually, I’ll end up not knowing anything. Perhaps this corresponds somewhat to the Japanese proverbial three monkeys (三猿) — “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. Yet, for me, not knowing anything suggests far more.
In my early years, I fled ignorance by pursuing knowledge. Knowledge was power. Indeed, I once set out to read an entire set of encyclopedias. I felt certain that the more I knew and did, the better off I would be. How else could I keep the half-empty cup from draining away? (photo: in papa’s arms)
I’ve found the opposite to be truer through experience. Cognitive certainty has often led to difficulty. In practical terms, it’s best to be cognitively wary, as chapter 15 says, Tentative, as if fording a river in winter. That means keeping all judgments and knowledge provisional. Looking back, I feel my need for certainty, to know that I knew, was symptomatic of youthful insecurity… or more precisely a fear of the unknown, beginning with the unknown of my self. A long life helps fill that vacuum.
Consider chapter 56’s One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know. Knowing I don’t know is knowing something. Yet saying that I don’t know implies I don’t even know that much. It is a bit confusing. No wonder chapter 23 says, To use words but rarely is to be natural. I think it is time for a Margarita.
(1) As my parents were photographers, my brother and I did a lot of modeling throughout childhood. The only difficulty I remember about those years was being told to “smile for the camera”. It always felt odd and forced. Years ago, I did zazen in Japan. Afterwards, they took a group picture, and not a soul smiled for it. Now that’s my kind of photo shoot! The photo on the next page is me at that lake again. Next to this photo is the commentary my mother wrote for the magazine’s back cover (i.e., photo on page 80). Mom clearly raised me to be independent.
Let Your Child Go Native
Such moments are rare but when it is possible, let your child come close to nature.
Within a reasonable distance from most people’s homes there is a meadow, or a spot like this where, under supervision, children can open the pores of body and spirit to sun and air.
We can’t know just what it means to a child to feel that he’s on his own, even though you are nearby — and most of all, to feel that the world is his, and he is part of the world. He can’t know, but our common sense tells us it must be good.
Give your child his chance this summer if you can!
(See: The Further One Goes , [Biographical Notes p.xii ] for background on this Times of Yore series of posts.)
Are You As Happy As You Should Be? 2800
This post continues from my last post, Keeping Birthday Happy. Asking how happy we are, or wish to be, is an important question seeing that we spend much of life seeking happiness. Are you as happy as you would be if…? could be if…? should be if…?
The answers to these questions hinge on what you think will do the trick. This suggests why chapter 71 warns us… Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. The difficulty we have finding happiness stems from how easy it is to imagine circumstances that could make us even happier. This could come either, a few moments from now, tomorrow, or when (_you name it_) happens. The promise of winning happiness keeps hope alive. This is like the gambler who keeps putting good money after bad.
One of life’s great ironies is how letting go is the only way to be happier. Chapter 81 notes this principle, Having bestowed all he has on others, he has yet more; Having given all he has to others, he is richer still. Christ also alludes to this paradox, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it”. Not surprisingly, these teachings can be hard to swallow when taken literally… so don’t!
Literally bestowing all one has on others, or losing his life for my sake, only upsets the balance of Nature. Zealots, blinded by passion, don’t consider such unintended consequences. What about reasonable people? How can we keep to the spirit of these teachings, yet avoid the inherent imbalance in these statements?
It is as simple, and as difficult, as letting go of expectations. It takes constant vigilance because emotion (i.e. innate cup’s half-empty fear) continually stirs up thoughts and expectations. The moment you forget and start believing what you think, the thinking will drag you off to the land of would if…? could if…? should if…? Note: Mother Nature induces us to feel life’s cup half-empty much more than the reverse. The fear of half-empty drives life to fill in order to survive.
How to let go of expectations
Biology (bio-hoodwink) fools us constantly. Realizing the ancestral foundation of this can help avoid some expectations. Our innate hunter-gatherer instinct tells us that good things lie ahead, just over the next hill or in the next bush. In ancestral times, that is how we found our next meal. Circumstances have changed, but the instinct remains as strong as ever! “Bite the bullet” and accept the fact that nature is fooling us with an illusion that happiness lies just ‘over there’. It truly isn’t and so the less we look ‘over there’, the more we can find it ‘right here and now’. You don’t need faith for this; all you need is to test it out. As chapter 21 suggests, This essence is quite genuine, And within it is something that can be tested.
Teachers and Students 5838
Teachers and students are interdependent. You can’t have one without the other. Society admires the teachers, especially the esteemed professors, gurus, or senseis (xiansheng 先生). In reality, students are the more important part of the equation. After all, teachers can lead students to water, but only the students’ thirst determines whether they’ll drink. As chapter 41 says, When the best student hears about the way, he practices it assiduously; when the average student hears about the way, it seems to him one moment there and gone the next… and so on.
If this is the case, what makes a good teacher? At first glance, many may think this depends on the capability of the teacher and their command of the material. However, after home schooling my kids, I discovered an important, yet under-recognized, side of teaching that I’ll try to recount here.
Home schooling turned out well for my children. This was obviously not due to my command of the material. In some areas I have sufficient knowledge, yet in others, just minimal. Either way, I never really taught them much of anything, at least overtly. The real key to my “teaching” success was not to get in their way! That allowed them to follow their curiosity — their thirst! However, that doesn’t mean laissez-faire! Chapter 17 served as my model… The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
For example, Luke was learning computer programming and whenever he ran into insurmountable difficulty, he would come to me. I know next to nothing factual on the subject. I would just be a sounding board, occasionally asking questions, or offering observations based upon my overall life experience. It amazes me how well this approach works. The only true requirement was to be very patient, and generally curious and interested.
I reckon my sons learned what they know through what I didn’t say rather than anything I said. Indeed, of the things I did say, they took either too seriously or not seriously enough. That taught me that understanding hinges greatly upon intuitive knowing, and that arises from within and ripens over time. Attempts to bypass this, as we usually do, end in misunderstanding.
Knowing when not to say something is most important. That allows a child to stumble as a child, which you may recall, is how we learn to walk and talk! What would have happened if our parents hovered over us, correcting every misstep as we learned to walk and talk? Not fun! Not helpful! Not efficient! Doing life ‘wrong’ is a necessary step on the way to doing it ‘right’. Sparing us from our missteps would actually have hindered us greatly. As the old maxim says, ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’.
I only set the overall quality of the environment and refrained from micromanaging anything. This allowed them to take on as much responsibility as they wished, no more and no less. This let them fulfill whatever innate potential they had. As chapter 72 advises, Do not constrict their living space; do not press down on their means of livelihood. It is because you do not press down on them that they will not weary of the burden.
I feel that the social component accounts for ≥ 90% in teaching, while the teacher’s command of the material merely ≤10%. This is realistic if you agree that we can only truly understand what we have an intuitive sense for (see I understand, but do I know? p.70). Granted, that is hard to swallow in a culture like ours that views students as empty vessels into which a “good” teacher can pour knowledge. Rather than pour knowledge in, the trick is having favorable social circumstances that nurture a student’s thirst and intuitive sensibility. Ability and knowledge will come in due course naturally.
Finally, let’s go back to the question of thirst. Is the person thirsty for learning or thirsty for something else? They say it is better to teach a man to fish than give him a fish, but what if he’d rather be given a fish than taught? Giving and receiving fish is far more socially achievable than any true teaching. In addition, our thirst for social connection is far greater than for knowledge. Yet we hold knowledge in the highest regard — knowledge is power after all!
Society evades this discrepancy with the myth touting a teacher’s actual ability to teach. In reality, all this mostly amounts to mimicry. True learning blossoms in the mind of the student. A truly effective teacher merely sets the stage.
A case in point: When I began teaching yoga, I soon noticed how some students considered me their guru. I was striving to teach the yoga equivalent of teach a man to fish (yoga approach), but most weren’t thirsty for that. They only wanted the equivalent of being given a fish (yoga practice). Regarding me as their guru appeared to be the social dynamic that supported that. Personally, I’m not thirsty for that type of teacher/student relationship (1) and tried to discourage it. I didn’t thirst for the Teacher role; I was just hungry to help. I don’t thirst for the Student role either, although I consider myself a student through and through. It is just that I find ‘the teacher’ I need in everything and everywhere. Perhaps chapter 20 describes the inherently weaker social nature of Taoists — or at least of the one writing this post…
I alone am foolish and uncouth.
I alone am different from others
And value being fed by the mother.
(1) That changed some with my own family and kids. As a father, I naturally fell into the role of teacher, albeit in a shadowy presence kind of way. Frankly, civilization is just too massive and incomprehensible for me to feel very connected. A small hunter gather group around 20,000 B.C. would have been more my speed.
(See: The Further One Goes , [Biographical Notes p.xii ] for background on this Times of Yore series of posts.)
The Future Takes Care of Itself 2723
My mind often wanders and wonders about ‘tomorrow’, whether that’s five minutes, five weeks, or five millennia from now. I reckon a hunter-gatherer instinct drives this because everyone I know sees a ‘tomorrow’ awaiting them. Why are humans always jumping ahead of the moment? … Because we can! The mind’s space is larger than most mundane moments can stimulate and fill. It seeks greener pastures, i.e., the hunter-gatherer impulse to look for food that must be just ahead, either in reality or in the fertile fields of human imagination.
Keeping mindful of this is invaluable. Life turns out much better. Chapter 14 speaks to this:
What about the future? Shouldn’t we look ahead for opportunities or dangers that await us? Actually, most genuine opportunities and dangers are in the present. Thus, awareness in-the-moment is the way to take advantage of opportunity and avoid danger. The future generally takes care of itself when I am fully engaging in the present (1). Chapter 64 speaks to this nicely…
Looking to the future actually robs the present, and besides, as chapter 38 cautions us,
Foreknowledge is the flowery embellishment of the way, and the beginning of folly.
Speaking of foreknowledge, in the 70’s, I learned to read palms, cast horoscopes, do the I-ching, and Tarot cards. A fascinating aspect of this was how people reacted when I revealed their past, present and future. Those who had faith in what I was doing from the start not only bought every word, but often amplified the narrative as well. That shows the power of belief!
Those who didn’t have faith from the start were less than convinced and neutral at best. This only goes to show how our beliefs and expectations play a huge role in how and what we see. Anything that supports these will wind up reinforcing them. Likewise, anything that doesn’t support our preconception, we will heavily discount or ignore.
(1) Then again, looking ahead is how I remember what I truly want in life. For example, when I’m drinking alcohol or eating cake, looking ahead is how I sense when to stop… as chapter 32 reminds, Knowing when to stop one can be free from danger. I must be-in-the-moment to maintain awareness of consequences, i.e., “A stitch in time saves nine.”
Headstands and Apes 1522
After settling down in Tokyo, I began going to the vast Meiji Park to do yoga in the morning before work. While standing on my head and seeing people walking by off in the distance, I noticed something odd. The people had an obvious bob in their gait as they walked. Initially I wondered if they were walking that way on purpose, for I’d never seen this before. Then I realized that I’d never actually watched people walking while standing on my head. (photo: leaving Meiji park after yoga)
The gait I saw reminded me of apes, and after all, we humans are apes. All it took for me to see our true way of walking was a 180-degree shift in perspective. These days I notice this bob in people much less when I do yoga down at the beach. The novelty wore off —familiarity breeds blindness.
The moral here: I must offset familiarity to see the world anew, or sometimes to even see the world as it may actually be. The question is, how can I counteract familiarity? The Correlation process (p.572) helps.
Trusting language helps impart a sense of familiarity with life. The more I trust language, the more certain I am that I know. I easily fall into the trap chapter 71 points out, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Even so, the benefit of this lies in how “thinking I know” allows me to feel secure in my ignorance. Chapter 72 tells me the price I pay for this “blissful” refuge of cognitive ignorance, When the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them.
Significant Others 2663
There is a curious thing I notice in the life of my two sons. They are not chasing girls like I was at their age. They aren’t gay either, so what gives? I look back on my youthful lust and see a disconnected lad looking for companionship that my independent upbringing never fully provided. All I ever really wanted was intimacy and acceptance, and I felt the only path to that deeper sense of connection was through a pair-bond relationship. That was true of my wife and most everyone I know, especially in Western cultures. Ironically, our culture’s love of independence and self-reliance actually leaves its people with just the opposite — deep down anyway.
The radically different path my sons seem to be on is not that surprising when considered from a symptoms point of view. The boys get a level of acceptance and intimacy from me and my wife that a taoist approach fosters. (Note my use of small ‘t’ not capital ‘T’ — see Small ‘t’ Taoists, p.154.)
They never felt the need to rebel as teenagers. After all, how can you rebel against a Taoist point of view; how can you push back against nothing? We didn’t push self-reliance as a virtue, yet it evolved naturally. In a way, to paraphrase chapter 2, It is because we lay claim to no [self-reliance], that [self-reliance] never deserts us.
It helps that we do have a family business, which provides a practical connection. It helps too that I readily let them take on any level of responsibility they wish. The latter was something neither my parents, nor any I knew, seemed willing to do. Parents often need to maintain control. The paradox that we often get the opposite of what we push for applies to the sense of responsibility too. To paraphrase chapter 22, He does not consider himself [responsible], and so is [responsible]).
Much of what parents do in raising their children is in reaction to, and symptomatic of, their needs and fears. This visceral sense of insecurity impels parents to take control and push their agenda onto their kids. Teenagers then end up rebelling against this projection of parental expectations. This feels like and awful waste of time and energy. I waste much less of that now because I understand that our actions, or inactions, are simply reactions – symptoms of deeper causes. A keen awareness of such under-the-hood dynamic of life makes it much easier to be Tentative, as if fording a river in winter, Hesitant, as if in fear of his neighbors, as chapter 15 describes it. (photo: my sons)
(See: The Further One Goes , [Biographical Notes p.xii ] for background on this Times of Yore series of posts.)
A How-To for Extinguishing Self 8529
One of the main themes in Buddhism is the extinguishing of self through enlightenment… or is it the other way around? Both ways work if we’re referring to ‘original self’. So, are they the same thing? Initially asking such basic questions on word meaning often helps when pondering life. The more basic question here is, “What is self in the first place?”
“What is self in the first place?”
Let’s consider the self in the largest sense of the word. In biology there is the concept of emergent properties where simple structures, processes, and order, form a foundational pattern from which emerge structures, processes, and order that are more complex.
This principle applies not only in biology, but throughout all existence as well. Indeed, what is biology but an emergent property of some more primordial order? It is helpful to think of the self as just such an emergent property, not only of biology, but also of something universal that extends From the present back to antiquity, as chapter 21 puts it. (See Tao as Emergent Property, p.121.)
It helps to take into account the natural impetus in all things to maintain a kind of self-integrity… From the impetus that keeps an atom of hydrogen stable to the impetus that keeps the human heart pumping away. In all things, this impetus to maintain self-integrity is not self-conscious. As chapter 20 put it, like a baby that has not yet learned to smile. The atom doesn’t think it has to keep-it-together, and neither does the heart as it pumps. The worm, the tree, the crow all feel the impetus to keep-it-together… to survive, but none think they “should”. There is impetus to just-do-it, without any thoughts of choice or purpose. We humans are different, at least on the surface.
The emergent property of a mind knowing ‘I am’
The mind is an emergent property of thought, which enables us to think that we know. One of the earliest things we think that we know is “I am”. All the while, however, the innate drive to maintain self-integrity (survival) is pulling the strings. In addition, the more confident one feels “I am”, the harder it is to appreciate that instincts are actually pulling the strings. About 400 years ago, the belief in “I am” got a real boost in the Western world from Descartes, “I think, therefore I am; or I am thinking, therefore I exist”. From a Taoist point of view, such certainty just asks for trouble. As chapter 71 puts it:
Deeming everything that you think and do as an emergent property of something ancient (if not eternal) is very calming, especially when felt deeply. On the other hand, this “I am” and the other beliefs we hold true can often lead to trouble. For example, the idea of God hints at what chapter 4 calls a darkly visible, it only seems as if it were there something. However, the belief in a particular personal God fosters a perpetual focal point for “your God” vs. “my God” division and strife. Still, as a tribal species, I guess we need something to squabble and fight over.
Buddha’s Second Noble Truth states, “The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things”. His Third and Fourth Truth go on to say that “conquering self” and “whose self disappears before truth” will end suffering. Finally, Buddha’s Eight Fold Path offers a means to accomplish this task. Taken too seriously, this sets up an ideal that is impossible to achieve. This is also the case with some of Jesus’ ideals. Doesn’t setting up ideals that are impossible to achieve create unnecessary stress? Then again, being a somewhat neurotic primate, we may need impossible dreams to aim for. Still, lowering our ideals to correspond with reality better makes sane sense.
Ideals as emergent properties
Up to this point, we see that the thought of self is perhaps just an emergent property of a simpler universal reality. This gives some clues for our goal of extinguishing this illusion. Going forward, it will help to examine the ideal of extinguishing the self from an emergent property point of view.
It’s not an accidental whim of nature that human thought is rife with ideals: spiritual, political, romantic, health, intelligence, knowledge, sports… you name it! Ideals provide the direction for our actions, our self-actualization. Overall, such ideals themselves are emergent properties, not only of biology, but of something primordial as well.
First, let’s review: In biology, there is the concept of emergent properties where primary structures, processes and order, form a foundational pattern upon which more complex structures, processes and orders emerge. This principle is at work throughout Nature.
Still deeper, I see balance serving as Nature’s fundamental ideal or principle. This ideal gives the impetus to maintain self-integrity for all phenomena. Likewise, Nature’s core ideal of balance serves as the foundation out of which all human ideals emerge. (Whoa! That’s a big chunk to bite off, I’ll admit.)
Now, to bite off an even bigger one!
The ideal of balance underlying the impetus of Nature to balance itself can never be realized! Ironically, any state of perfect balance is not perfect unless it allows for and incorporates imbalance. In other words, perfect balance is counter balanced by a necessary degree of imbalance. The ideal can never be reached for reaching it would be one sided—static. Thus, perceived perfection and balance are an illusion, incomplete, and not the cosmic ‘big picture’ for this abandons imbalance. As chapter 78 says, straightforward words seem paradoxical. Not surprisingly, chapter 45 puts this principle more poetically… Great perfection seems chipped, Yet use will not wear it out.
The ‘how to’ of extinguishing the self
We have finally come to the ‘how to’ part of extinguishing self. Chapter 71’s warning gives us a clue… To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. The question is how can one know and yet think one doesn’t? This really boils down to the depth of faith you have in names and words. The more faith you have in them, the further from the constant you will unavoidably be; as chapter 1 observes, The name that can be named is not the constant name.
Chapter 56 gives us more clues: One who knows does not speak [think, write]; one who speaks [thinks, writes] does not know. I added thinks, writes as those interrelate with speaks. To put this in an emergent property context: first comes think, then speak, then write. Chapter 56 also advises us to Shut the doors, Blunt the sharpness; Untangle the knots; Soften the glare. To me, these points are metaphorical for softening our faith in names and words. Next, chapter 56 refers to mysterious sameness, which reveals the illusion of difference. Ironically, the illusion of difference is essential to maintain meaning and faith—the “reality”—in names and words.
Okay, I’ll admit, I am only beating around the bush of how to extinguish self. This may be as far as I can ever go. Perhaps Buddha’s Second Noble Truth shows why. Namely, “The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things”. Words, names, ideals, and beliefs are all things to which we can cling in order to maintain our illusionary sense of self. Yet, as we have seen, even absent these things, we would still experience the primary property of an un-self-conscious self. The “illusion of self”, itself, is a natural emergent property. Any notion of ridding ourselves of this is itself a delusionary ideal. Round and round we go!
This brings us back to the only escape I have found — mysterious sameness! The more I can see similarity in all things, the softer, and more muddled my faith becomes in apparent differences between words, names, beliefs, and ideals. I’m able to be more like other animals, less dominated by that which so easily throws me off balance… namely faith in words, names, beliefs, and ideals. This is as close to “A How-To for Extinguishing Self” I’ve come.
Perhaps chapter 36 offers the best view of the how extinguishing self plays out over time in each of us.
Self Integrity, Slime, and Karma 2842
Research reported in Science News (google [Slime mold is master network engineer]) helps exemplify the drive to maintain self-integrity that I discussed in my last post on Extinguishing Self. First, consider this quote from that research.
“The slime mold has no central brain or indeed any awareness of the overall problem it is trying to solve, but manages to produce a structure with similar properties to the real rail network…” [This behavior] “is really difficult to capture by words,”
I see this impetus to maintain self-integrity as a force extending throughout creation. It is the driving force to be, to do, and to succeed, and results in feats of engineering in humans and slime molds alike.
On the surface, humans and slime molds appear vastly different. Viewed more deeply, the only significant difference I see is that we have a ‘thinking that we know’ disease, as chapter 71 observes, whereas the mold just knows without thinking that it knows. By regarding ourselves as a superior species (e.g., wise, intelligent, free willed, etc.), we lack the humility to observe the world impartially. Rather than feeling all that we share with the rest of creation, we feel ourselves alone and separate from the rest of creation, and suffer as a result. We are incapable of feeling that mysterious sameness to which chapter 56 refers. Ah, to return to the innocent humble bliss of the slime mold. 😉
Karma, in the broadest sense, can help us return in spirit to the innocent bliss of slime mold. The hitch here is that such returning, as opposed to moving up the karmic ladder, would be traditionally viewed as a consequence of bad actions in life — bad karma. Obviously, from a slime mold’s point of view, if it had one, just the opposite would be the case. From its point of view, moving up the karmic ladder toward a thinking human state would be a result of bad action in life — bad karma. Karma, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder.
If that’s sounds silly, consider human ideals of good and bad as chapter 2 bluntly notes, The whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad. Ideals are simply thought-projections of what pleases us (attraction) or pains us (repulsion). Indeed, I see no good, beautiful, bad, or ugly in Nature, either in the wild or in humanity. While humans do some very destructive things to each other and nature, these are only symptoms of nature’s pendulum like balancing process playing out within us, and not the result of misdirected free will, a devil or evil spirits.
As Christ said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. The Taoist version of that could be chapter 70’s, It is because people are ignorant that they fail to understand me. That brings us back to the disease highlighted in chapter 71. A disease perhaps only the Tao Te Ching attempts to ameliorate.
Why Not Protest To Raise Taxes? 2787
There are many people out protesting against spending cuts in education. This state, California, as well as the country as a whole, is massively in debt. However, all that I hear are frantic cries for “no more spending cuts” and “no more new taxes”. Now, just how is that supposed to work?
On top of this, when California had a massive budgetary surplus, the people spent it left and right, saving none for an economic downturn. Should I laugh or cry? My kids, as toddlers, had a better sense of economy than many adults these days. I assume this is due to the practices affluent culture like ours model. It was different in the old pre-capitalist days of widespread poverty, if not famine. Back then, people were motivated to save surpluses.
This is another example of our animal nature. We are irrational and emotional just like every other creature on earth. We want to have it both ways. Chapter 70 speaks to our irrational predicament:
I think most people do understand that one must pay for what one gets. It is common sense, right? Yet, the urge to get something for nothing is irresistible (1). Credit imparts a sense of free because you get your desires met immediately and can put payment off to some distant future. Free is one of the most emotionally enticing words we use, and the most illusory! Capitalism, being based on growth rather than conservation, must nurture this approach. Indeed, capitalism’s paradigm of perpetual growth, like free will, is an illusion, i.e., natural processes obey the laws of balance… growth followed by decay and free followed by payment.
(1) The overpowering desire to get something for nothing cause us to conjure up schemes that make us feel we can. A good example of this is the idea of taxing the rich greedy corporations. That either forces a corporation to (1) relocate abroad and lay off workers, (2) pass tax increases onto us customers through higher prices, or (3) make its business less competitive in the global market place and eventually lay off workers. Getting things the easy way is a healthy instinct in the wild. This instinctive approach to make life as easy as possible naturally continues within civilization. However, this drive to get things the easy way, absent natural restraints encountered in the wild, is unbalanced, and this makes life more difficult in many ways. In the end, balance is essential. There are no free rides in nature despite our shortsighted attempts to the contrary. Chapter 53 enlightens, Were I possessed of the least knowledge, I would, when walking on the great way, fear only paths that lead astray. The great way is easy, yet people prefer by-paths.
Know Truth, Live True 6566
Truth? What’s truth? This is really about what passes for truth. More people are able to agree on scientific truth than any other truth. Interestingly, science is proving through brain imaging that there is more pleasure in giving than in receiving (1,2,3). Wise people have known this for ages. It is an essential pillar of most religions, yet only science can prove it’s true! Knowing that giving makes me happy, all I need do is to find a way to live true to that knowledge!
Giving mostly centers around social altruism, where giving is about helping others. However, there can be negative consequences that result when we overdo this. For one thing, it can foster dependency in the recipients that can cripple them long-term. As they say, ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. In addition, you can only give so much until you run out of things to give; you can only help so much until you run out of ways to help… not that these last two are usually a problem.
Altruistic giving arises from emotions, which accounts for many of the negative consequences. Fortunately, altruistic giving is not the only way to give. Buddha’s Eight Fold Path (4) offers a way to give, be happier, and cause virtually no adverse consequences when applied sincerely. Four of the steps specifically concern the mind: “Right Understanding, Right Mindfulness, Right Attentiveness, Right Concentration” (5). Clearly, this type of giving, hinges on one’s state of mind. This is about self-honesty more than emotion. As Buddha said, “Mind only”. (Skt. Cittamātra)
Plainly, these Buddha “Rights” don’t typically guide our approach to life. On the other hand, it is not that we are not innately inattentive and unmindful either. It is just that we are not innately all that Right. What is the difference between ordinary attentiveness and Right Attentiveness? In a word, Balance … underlined with a capital B! If we’re over-attentive, we can’t see the forest for the trees. When under-attentive, we can’t even see the trees, let alone the forest… or the snake or tiger in the forest.
Nature employs this continuous ebb and flow of attentiveness to help thin the herd, i.e., predators would starve is their prey were flawlessly attentive. This makes living “Right” difficult. The assertion voiced in chapter 63, even the sage treats some things as difficult pertains to this. Maintaining balance requires paying attention moment-to-moment, along with enough reflective awareness to see whether we are paying too much or too little attention. That is a tall order! What can we do? What choice do we have?
If we actually had free will, none of this would be an issue, right? This is where Buddha’s “Letting your sole desire be the performance of your duty” can become a game changer. Approaching all action as personal duty (Dharma) helps intentionally guide watchfulness: in sweeping the floor, in walking, in working, in resting… in everything! Such action has a better chance of being balanced than action driven by whims of the moment. Of course, even actions prompted by whims of the moment can be balanced, when “Right Attentiveness” is awake, i.e., watching life attentively helps avoid life’s potholes.
As long as life is action, we might as well get the most out of it by giving our sincere attentiveness to it — Right Attentiveness. This moment-to-moment watchfulness is invisible to the outside world. The difficulty here is that there is no external stimuli—medal or merit—to motivate Right Attentiveness. That means no action, from washing the dishes to winning an Olympic race, is more exceptional with respect to watchfulness and integrity of living true. Naturally, from a Taoist perspective, all action is the same when seen in the light of mysterious sameness, as chapter 56 calls it. (photo: just sitting… bzzzz… giving blood)
In summary, attentively giving my mind to each moment of life feels particularly fulfilling. Naturally, the hitch here is that external stimulus is the inherent way the moment captures the mind’s attention. Knowing that science corroborates the real benefit of giving helps wisdom stir up the necessary internal stimulus. As chapter 41 hints, When the best student hears about the way, He practices it assiduously.
(1) In Europe, taxation rates are high, and services are funded by government spending, whereas in the United States, low taxes and higher philanthropic donations are the norm. Not surprisingly, in the Science report, (google [Neural Responses to Taxation and Voluntary Giving]) we see this:
Subjects experienced a hedonic reaction when tax revenues were transferred to a charity, and subjects who showed greater neural activation under this regime were more generous when charitable contributions were made voluntary. The sense of well-being in the voluntary giving condition surpassed that seen when subjects were taxed.
(2) Research using brain scans is lending empirical support to the long held belief that it is better to give than to receive. Consider this quote from PNAS.org: (Google [Human fronto–mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation].)
Remarkably, more anterior sectors of the prefrontal cortex are distinctively recruited when altruistic choices prevail over selfish material interests.
(3) This excerpt from Neural Responses to Taxation and Voluntary Giving also stands out:
In the automatic transfer of funds to the food bank, pleasure areas of the brain (that are traditionally stimulated by food, sex, sweets, shelter and social connection) were significantly activated. In the second part of the study when the subject chose to donate the money, the effect was even greater.
(4) Study the Bhagavad Gita and you will probably notice the rational seeds from which Buddha’s message later sprouted. This verse, for example, could pertain to the useful role science has in a spiritual life, “But the man who knows the relation between the forces of Nature and actions, sees how some forces of Nature work upon other forces of Nature, and becomes not their slave.” Doesn’t “forces of Nature” sound like what I call the bio-hoodwink? (See Peeking in on Natures Hoodwink, p.11.)
(5) I found what for me feels a more accurate translation of Buddha’s Eightfold Path. These correspond closer to certain core Taoist views of thought: [ Right Understanding -> Comprehension [ Right Mindedness -> Resolution [ Right Attentiveness -> Thought [ Right Concentration -> State of Peaceful Mind. (See Right state of peaceful mind, p.494 for details.)
Hunger: A Natural Stimulant 2390
It’s been my habit for decades to eat nothing much until late afternoon, even though I start my day early. This goes against the norm that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Sure, this may be a little stressful to my body, but that turns out to be a good thing. As with most things, it isn’t the “what” that matters, it is the “how much” straw that breaks the camels back. (photo: modern hunting and gathering)
Consider this excerpt from Science News. (Google [Anti-aging: A little stress may keep cells youthful].)
The study focused on individual cells, but for whole organisms, the finding could shed light on a link between stress and life span. “A little bit of stress can actually prolong life,” says molecular biologist Richard Morimoto of Northwestern, a study coauthor. Mild stress activates the heat shock response but does not harm the cells, he adds.
One mild stress that can activate the heat-shock response is a calorie-restricted diet, which has been shown to extend the life of all species tested so far, including mice and dogs. Calorie-restricted diets increase the levels of Sirtuin 1, or SIRT1, an aging-related protein. “
In her wisdom, Nature employs hunger as an essential tool for evolution. What is desire, but imagined hungers? Therefore, I find keeping myself on the hungry side helps moderate the imagined hungers and focus on priorities. The offshoot hungers of desire, lust, and expectations are less likely to draw me in when I’m feeling primal hunger. The weaker those trivial hungers are, the easier it is to Have little thought of self and as few desires as possible, as chapter 19 advises. Then, as chapter 7 suggests, Is it not because he is without thought of self that he is able to accomplish his private ends? (photo: ancient hunting & gathering)
One negative result of civilization is a ready access to food. All I need do is go to the store to feed hunger. The ability to satiate hunger so quickly paves the way for the trivial hungers to take over. Millennia ago, before the agricultural revolution, our ancestors experienced ‘fulfilling’ hunger. Like animals the world over, their hunger was fully utilized in the day-in day-out pursuit of food. Ah, those were the days! Then again, medical care was scant back then. As always, something lost, something gained. The loss is less troublesome when I allow myself to feel hungry.
He Who Speaks Does Not Know, but… 1668
Years ago, I began to notice that I was incapable of truly being in-the-moment while speaking — or even while thinking! When I’m speaking, I’m not reporting from an immediate state of knowing. Rather, I am passing on what I’ve already thought thru somewhat. Speech references past experience, if even only a second ago — not now. Yet, now is all I can truly know; the rest is only partial views and after-thoughts arising from previous moments and tainted with my own partiality. On the other hand…
I speak and think, to know what I know
I think and speak to understand what I know. How does this comport with chapter 56’s, One who knows does not speak; One who speaks does not know? To paraphrase chapter 2, Knowing and speaking produce, complement, offset, harmonize, and follow each other. The knowing is that dimly visible essence we feel yet can’t nail down in words. On the other hand, speaking abandons deep knowing. For example, saying, “What a beautiful sunset!” leaves the now moment behind.
We need to speak, think, or write in order to understand what we know. By understand, I mean almost literally to stand under in order to look up and observe what we feel we know. Certainly, we lose much of the intuitive knowing by speaking, thinking, or writing, yet by giving our knowing a tangible side, we can cognitively work with it. Like a carpenter sawing lumber and nailing it together, thinking what we know allows us to nail something together. Fortunately, we can even preserve sanity and balance if we follow chapter 71’s, To know yet to think that one does not know is best. Otherwise, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
Omega-3 and Vitamin D 5343
When it comes to human nutrition, it is a struggle separating the wheat from the chaff. Each era has its blind alleys of nutrition. Foods deemed healthy today could easily be less so tomorrow… and vice versa. In the 70’s, I got nutrition religion and set out to uncover information that was closer to the truth. I spent hours researching all the information I could find on nutrition, biology, great apes, and history (1) at Stockholm’s main library. (photo: my extended family)
I soon discovered a wide divergence of opinion on nutrition. The science was a work in progress, as it should be. For all I knew it might take science 1000 years to settle things. I couldn’t wait, so I decided to focus my search on finding out what the other great apes ate. While humans and the other apes are vastly different in life style, they share pretty much the same DNA— as high as 99.4%. I figured knowing what they ate would give me a solid baseline upon which to consider the matter.
The chart below is a summary of the amounts of some essential nutrients in three main food groups. It shows which nutrients would be available if you had to acquire your daily 2000 calories from only that food group. As you see, consuming 2000 calories of green vegetables gives you copious amounts of the nutrients you need without the extra fat that the other two groups provide. Moreover, the other two groups are devoid of vitamin C, an essential vitamin that our body can’t synthesize, and a paltry-to-none amount of vitamin A, another essential vitamin… and who knows what other undiscovered essential veggie micro-nutrients are lacking!
Not surprisingly, the chimpanzee diet is more similar to the ‘greens’ food group than the other two. In fact, Jane Goodall found that chimpanzees in the wild consume over 200 different plants.
| Nutrient | Calorie | Protein | Fat | Calcium | Iron | Vit-A |
| Daily-Need | 2000 | 40g | 2g | 0.5g | 10mg | 700IU |
| 0.5kg meat | 2000 | 150g | 150g | 1.0g | 40mg | 150IU |
| 0.7kg grains | 2000 | 70g | 21g | 0.2g | 21mg | — |
| 4.0kg greens | 2000 | 160g | 2g | 20.0g | 900mg | 24000IU |
| Nutrient | Calorie | Vit-C | Vit-B1 | Vit-B2 | Niacin | |
| Daily-Need | 2000 | 75mg | 1.2mg | 1.7mg | 18mg | |
| 0.5kg meat | 2000 | — | 1.5mg | 1.5mg | 30mg | |
| 0.7kg grains | 2000 | — | 2.1mg | 0.8mg | 21mg | |
| 4.0kg greens | 2000 | 6000mg | 3.2mg | 10.0mg | 40mg |
Vitamin D
Recent research shows we may need up to 10 times more vitamin D than previously thought, and this makes total sense. Skin produces vitamin D from sunshine and we evolved in the very sunny environment of Africa. People who migrated north out of Africa had to evolve lighter skin to admit more sunlight to synthesize adequate vitamin D. Now we do much of our living in the shade indoors. Hence, vitamin D supplements are probably necessary… even more so for darker skin folks living in the north.
Omega 3
The lack of essential fats in our diet has been another recent discovery. Unlike most fats in our diet, these turn out to play a key role in the health of the immune system, among other things. Fish is a major source for these essential fats. However, great apes don’t eat many, if any, fish. So where else would primates get these essential oils? Interestingly, the most widespread source of these particular lipids (fatty acids) is green vegetables! There you go — just eat your several kilograms of veggies.
Well, we know that’s not practical. It turns out, animals that eat green veggies have a higher proportion of omega-3 lipids in their fat, and insects are the main green veggie predator out there. There you go — just eat your several ounces of bugs too.
Insects would have been a major food for our ancestors, just as they are for chimpanzees today. Alas, dietary insects are not very practical — at least yet. A good alternative is to eat green veggies, walnuts, and ground flax seed. They’re tasty and contain many other essential nutrients.
Faulty information and hype
The hype around Vitamin E may offer an example of nutritional misinformation. I have noticed over the years the buzz surrounding the benefits of mega doses of vitamin E. Yet, I found no natural source for substantial amounts of vitamin E that our ancestors or other apes could have consumed. Hmm… Now, come to find out, mega dose vitamin E actually helps cancers grow. In addition, mega dose vitamin E, or mega dose anything else, will probably create an imbalance vis-à-vis other nutrients. Doesn’t this remind you of chapter 16’s, Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant!
Balance is key
The same balance issue surrounding vitamin E is true of the amounts and types of fats we consume. The body manufactures omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) by converting the essential fatty acid, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) found in veggies, flaxseeds, walnuts, etc. However, this conversion rate is low if the diet is too high in omega-6 fatty acids found in vegetable oils made from corn, sunflower, soybean, or safflower. Oops! As you might guess, modern diets are extremely over weight in those omega-6 fatty acids. (photo: alpha-linolenic acid)
(1) It is odd looking back on this now, pre-Google. What an information wilderness that was. Without Google, it was much harder to come by information. Ironically, the difficulty now is sifting through tons of information to find what is truly relevant—or even true. Win some, lose some. In this post, I’ve just given an overview… the big picture. Now, with Google, you can chase down any particulars you need.
How the Hoodwink Hooks 4105
Chapter 65 begins with; Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. Initially, I thought of old referred to people, e.g., parents, politicians, preachers, gurus. On the other hand, these people are often?… usually?… always?… hoodwinked by their own set of beliefs. As a result, I feel now that of old plainly refers to Nature herself. What is more of old than Nature? Nature and her co-conspirator, biology, hoodwink living things to do their living.
Fishing offers a useful example of how one might partly avoid Nature’s hoodwinking hooks. Consider the wise old lake bass that no fisherman can ever hook. That’s because that fish quickly learned that the bait was a hoodwink, and so avoided the hook from then on… “Once bitten, twice shy”. The fish in the frying pan is the one, blinded by hungry desire, didn’t learn and ended up hooked.
So, do fish desire? That depends on what desire means. Upon scrutiny, desire looks like this: Desire = need + thought (1). Fish don’t think, so it is only their need to eat that drives them to take the bait. In fact, need is the urgent visceral emotion that pushes both fish and us to act… to take the ‘baits’ in life. Thinking is where fish and we part company. Thought enables us to project our emotions (primarily needs and fears) into a future, or carry them along from a past in the form of stories we tell and retell others and ourselves.
To sum it up: The bio-hoodwink refers to the underlying biology that drives life, via need and fear(2), to survive. In addition, the complex nervous systems of “higher” animals have a more acute sense of need and fear. In our case, the mind notices the outcomes of these biological drives (need and fear). This produces an illusion of self that imagines it controls action. Voilà: we are naturally hoodwinked into believing we are in control. In fact, biology runs the show. This is similar to the impression of personal power and control people get when riding a motorcycle, a horse, or surfing a wave.
Biology hoodwinks all life by giving it the sense that (A) it will live “forever”, and (B) responding to need and fear always guarantees survival. Thinking merely intensifies this impression. We clearly need to distrust the thinking side of this enough to avoid taking the bait and becoming repeatedly hooked by our own rationalizations.
Buddha’s Four Noble Truths (p.604) offer part of the solution. However, even more applicable is chapter 71…
The reality we think we perceive is not the full-blown cosmic reality. We merely see what evolution primes our senses to perceive for survival’s sake. Moreover, the senses tend to filter out every aspect of reality that doesn’t actually serve survival. We exacerbate this perceptual blindness by feeling the genuine certainty that our perceptions are the true and total story.
A deep and constant awareness of Nature’s hoodwink makes it more difficult for our instincts and senses to fool us. We will realize it’s better to take everything we sense as only provisionally true and real… to be taken with a grain of salt.
For another angle on the hoodwink, see Peeking in on Nature’s Hoodwink, p.11.
(1) Depending on circumstances, many other words denote need and desire, e.g., hunger, thirst, lust, greed, cleaving, longing, clinging, wishing, yearning, hankering, and so on.
(2) It helps to realize that fear is the ultimate precursor of need. The fear of nothing, loss, death, and the void, drives all living things to move, to organize, and to resist entropy — death. Understandably, that means that fear + thought = worry (anxiety).
(3) The first two lines translate more literally as, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease… Disease! I wonder why D.C. Lau pulled his punches. Was he being politically correct?
Bathtub Tai Chi 2261
I finally realized multitasking was a waste of time. Taking this shortcut fooled me into feeling I could really accomplish more. Paradoxically not so, as chapter 48 hints, One does less and less until one does nothing at all, and when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone. More importantly, the divided attention of multitasking makes nigh impossible chapter 64’s advice… Be as careful at the end as at the beginning, And there will be no ruined enterprises .
It isn’t learning or an epiphany that accounts for this realization. Mostly, it is due to becoming older and having less energy to chase after desires as I could in my youth. Wisdom comes when folly takes too much energy. (photo: bathtub tai chi)
However, one area of multitasking does pay off, if you call maintaining good posture multitasking. ‘Right’ posture keeps me grounded throughout all the day’s activities. The photo above shows a version of beneficial multitasking. Here I’m drying off after a bath and training balance simultaneously (1). Balance becomes increasingly problematic as we age, so I’d be wise to do what I can to slow down its gradual, inevitable decline.
Sitting on the floor, erect with a forward bend or other yoga like stretching, offsets various drawbacks of a more sedentary activity. In the photo, I am flossing my teeth, reading Science News, and bending forward. I’m doing three activities simultaneously and additively and neither interferes with the other. (photo: forward bending, flossing and studying)
This kind of multitasking is likely additive because the activities arise from a desire to do my duty vis-à-vis my body, and not from transient pleasure or goal oriented desires. This is as Buddha’s Fourth Truth advises, “… There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty… ”. Performing a duty to body is an existential duty. Mother Nature smiles upon that!
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(1) The smiley face is my son Kyle’s creation. I am surprised how rule abiding my sons are, given my lack of this. To see a humorous take on this, watch from minute 5:10 on YouTube [AB #16: now with 30% more bloginess!]
Odds Are, It’s Wrong 2914 4656
Google [Odds Are, It’s Wrong] for a look into how science fails to face the shortcomings of statistics. It reminds me of chapter 71’s, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. The patient search for truth pales next to our hunger for the answer, or any answer. Science is humanity’s best attempt to counteract this urge, but it can fail as this article points out. This is especially true for the softer sciences, e.g., sociology, economics, medicine. The eye-opening information in this report helps remind me that we are animals first, and whatever else we think or wish we were a distant second. Here is an excerpt:
Especially since the days of Galileo and Newton, math has nurtured science. Rigorous mathematical methods have secured science’s fidelity to fact and conferred a timeless reliability to its findings.
During the past century, though, a mutant form of math has deflected science’s heart from the modes of calculation that had long served so faithfully. Science was seduced by statistics, the math rooted in the same principles that guarantee profits for Las Vegas casinos. Supposedly, the proper use of statistics makes relying on scientific results a safe bet. But in practice, widespread misuse of statistical methods makes science more like a crapshoot.
It’s science’s dirtiest secret: The “scientific method” of testing hypotheses by statistical analysis stands on a flimsy foundation. Statistical tests are supposed to guide scientists in judging whether an experimental result reflects some real effect or is merely a random fluke, but the standard methods mix mutually inconsistent philosophies and offer no meaningful basis for making such decisions. Even when performed correctly, statistical tests are widely misunderstood and frequently misinterpreted. As a result, countless conclusions in the scientific literature are erroneous, and tests of medical dangers or treatments are often contradictory and confusing.
Replicating a result helps establish its validity more securely, but the common tactic of combining numerous studies into one analysis, while sound in principle, is seldom conducted properly in practice.
Experts in the math of probability and statistics are well aware of these problems and have for decades expressed concern about them in major journals. Over the years, hundreds of published papers have warned that science’s love affair with statistics has spawned countless illegitimate findings. In fact, if you believe what you read in the scientific literature, you shouldn’t believe what you read in the scientific literature.
Wow! Experts in statistics have been sounding the alarm for decades. Alas, like balancing the government’s budget, preparing for disaster in general or global warming in particular, the expert’s warnings will go unheeded until some awful visitation descends upon them (i.e., the population), as chapter 72 cautions.
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As with much in life, science will always be two- steps forward, one-step backwards. Consider the following quotes from experts in the field.
“Despite the awesome pre-eminence this method has attained… it is based upon a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of rational inference, and is seldom if ever appropriate to the aims of scientific research.” —William Rozeboom, 1960
“Huge sums of money are spent annually on research that is seriously flawed through the use of inappropriate designs, unrepresentative samples, small samples, incorrect methods of analysis, and faulty interpretation.” —D.G.Altman, 1994
”Many investigators do not know what our most cherished, and ubiquitous, research desideratum—‘statistical significance’—really means. This… signals an educational failure of the first order.” – Raymond Hubbard and J. Scott Armstrong, 2006
“These classical methods [of significance testing] are in fact intellectually quite indefensible and do not deserve their social success.”- Colin Howson and Peter Urbach, 2006
“A finding of ‘statistical’ significance… is on its own almost valueless, a meaning-less parlor game.” – Stephen Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskey, 2008
“The methods of statistical inference in current use… have contributed to a widespread misperception… that statistical methods can provide a number that by itself reflects a probability of reaching erroneous conclusions. This belief has damaged the quality of scientific reasoning and discourse.” – Steven Goodman, 1999
“What used to be called judgment is now called prejudice, and what used to be called prejudice is now called a null hypothesis… It is dangerous nonsense.” – A, W F. Edwards, 1972
The Worry Gene 3751
Have you noticed how something always seems to be wrong no matter how right things appear initially? There is an apparently endless supply of issues to fret over. After we resolve our pressing life and death issues, you’d think we could relax and appreciate that victory. Alas, no sooner is one problem solved than we find another issue to fuss over.
This reveals we have what I’d call a ‘worry gene’, with some folks inheriting an extra helping and some with a more meager serving. Like the gene for body height, some are taller than others, but everyone has height. Simply put, we are all going to worry until our dying day no matter what solutions we embrace to alter that fact (1).
This may sound fatalistic, but there is hope. It begins with recognizing that problems and questions are the constant reality. Chapter 16 advises us, Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial, Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural. This means accepting the fact that our innovative solutions and answers will constantly be short-lived. The promise of permanency is merely another of Nature’s hoodwinks. Realizing this helps liberate emotion from expecting to find any permanent or perfect solution to anything. With that, you can focus on the one constant problem you may actually have some control over. Buddha’s Four Noble Truths points the way, with the last truth being the only solution that rests in your hands… or rather in your head.
The Fourth Noble Truth is the Middle Path that leads to the cessation of suffering. There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty. He who is wise will enter this path and make an end to suffering.
Eight steps on the Middle Path are: 1. Right Comprehension, 2. Right Resolution, 3. Right Speech, 4. Right Action, 5. Right Living, 6. Right Effort, 7. Right Thought, 8. Right State of Peaceful Mind.
Notice that at least half of these steps refer to the mind. Of those, Right Thought is the one most directly connected to human awareness. Without awareness, the mind as we know it doesn’t exist. Awareness (i.e., alert, attentive, conscientious, observant, watchful) helps optimize many aspects of life for all sentient animals. However, the human mind can be easily distracted by trivial thoughts, ideals, and expectations. This makes it less capable of noticing what is optimal or of perceiving ‘the eternal now’. Such presence of mind for humans is the foundation upon which all Buddha’s “Rights” rest. Noticing circumstances is the foundation upon which survival rests for all animals, including us. Such watchfulness is the one constant problem you may actually have some power over. As Christ said, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” (2)
(1) One important feature of the worry gene is that it drives us to worry about something no matter what. It is the perpetual version of Murphy’s Law. When we lack truly mountainous issues of survival to worry about, we make worrisome mountains out of any molehill in sight. The worry monster must be fed. This easily leads to neurotic stressful worry. Simply put, emotion is blindly irrational and readily stimulates the body and mind to respond as if being chased by lions.
The beauty of focusing on one constant problem is that no matter how much you toil you’ll always have room for improvement. That gives the worry gene something to sanely and constantly sink its teeth into.
(2) I consider the “pray” that Christ spoke about as being synonymous to, and a simple summary of, the four: Right Thought, Right State of Peaceful Mind, Right Comprehension and Right Resolution.
SETI… Quixotic SETI 4783
An article in Science News, Can you hear me now?, explored issues around the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) program. I see a Taoist twist on this, but first here is the editor’s take on this:
An intelligent ET would probably just stay home.
Apart from jokes about how hard it is to find intelligent life on Earth, let alone in the rest of the galaxy, the possible existence of extraterrestrial beings — and the lack of contact with them — poses a perplexing issue.
Because the galaxy is several billion years older than the Earth, planets around distant stars have had plenty of time to produce civilizations that would by now possess technology millions of years beyond current human capability. Presumably those advanced aliens would have built vessels permitting easy interstellar travel and so should be conducting regular tours to their favorite Earthly vacation spots. But as the famously sagacious physicist Enrico Fermi long ago observed, alien life is conspicuous in its absence. “Where is everybody?” Fermi asked. Ever since, people have sought reasons for why the best response to Fermi’s question is something other than simply concluding that no aliens exist.
Of course, proving alien life’s existence would not require an actual visit from Klaatu and Gort or those Witch Mountain kids. A text message or even a Morse Code telegram would be evidence enough. But as Elizabeth Quill points out on Page 22, human strategies for finding such a signal have probably been attuned to the wrong medium: the electromagnetic waves, basically radio, that represent a transient phase in Earth’s communication technology. Seeking signs of ET by listening to radio waves is like trying to watch ESPN on a TV with rabbit ears.
So searchers for extraterrestrial intelligence are now attempting to imagine other ways that more advanced societies might advertise their presence. It may be, though, that they are not advertising at all and would prefer to conceal their existence from other civilizations. Because if anybody has developed high-speed interstellar spacecraft technology, the galaxy is a very dangerous place.
Imagine a ship only the mass of the space shuttle — at a mere 20 percent of the speed of light, its kinetic energy would exceed that of 15,000 hydrogen bombs. You wouldn’t want to invite a visitor to aim such a ship in your direction.
In fact, realizing the potential weaponry power of an inter-stellar spacecraft might be just enough to persuade a really intelligent civilization not to build one. And so the answer to Fermi’s question might be that everybody decided to stay safe at home. —Tom Siegfried, Editor in Chief
Okay, the first thing that comes to mind is how the Tao Te Ching ends (1)…
If there are any civilizations thousands or millions of years ahead of us, you’d think they would have found greater contentment, settled down, returned to a way of life more in step with nature. That means, above all, not one bent on progress, at least as we define it.
A civilization so far ahead of us would have matured enough by now to realize the cognitive illusion that deceives thinking creatures, and adjust accordingly. We, on the other hand, are like infants who have just learned enough to get around. We still have thousands (if not millions) of years left of Circumstances to bring us to maturity, as chapter 51 puts it.
(1) Actually it ends one chapter later with, among other things, He who knows has no wide learning; he who has wide learning does not know. I can’t help but feel we are just at the bare beginning of beginning to know ourselves deeply and honestly, and that is how it should be. After all, our planet is young, relatively speaking, with a lot of evolution left to undergo. Humanity is still at the stage of setting it up, i.e., If you would have a thing laid aside, You must first set it up, as chapter 36 put it.
Swarm Savvy 2023
Google [Swarm Savvy: How animals avoid dumb decisions] for insight into the dynamics all social animals share… including humans. I’ve always been in awe by how well people manage the logistics of living in a civilization composed of millions of individuals. Sure, I realize how supply and demand plays a role in this. Still, it deeply mystifies me.
Being less social makes me wonder about chapter 17’s, The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects. Can such a shadowy presence coexist with being a ranking member of the group? If not, how could serving as a ruler be possible in the first place? What does a shadowy presence really mean?
It helps me to think of each of us as the ostensible ruler with regard to our own small-scale individual circumstances. I am the ostensible ruler over myself, my life. From this point of view, shadowy presence doesn’t mean much. How can you be a shadowy presence to yourself?
In truth, it is biology not “me” that determines how “I” react to circumstance. This ‘biology’ has no identity… it is a shadowy presence. Arising from this bio-reality is an illusion that “I” am the ruler deciding how “my” life plays out. We all experience this “free” will, “free” choice illusion. The question is, to paraphrase Shakespeare, “To be a free willed individual or a swarm savvy member of the human swarm… that is the question”.
Recognizing and accepting the close parallel between human decision-making and the swarm savvy of bees, ants and other animals is extremely calming. The reason this is not easily noticeable is that we need to be, to think we know and to think we are in charge of our lives, unlike so-called instinct driven animals. The “illusion of self” and its “free” will blinds us to what is actually happening. This illusion can also be stressful in that your isolated “I” is up against the universe. For me, the answer is not to be by means of embracing chapter 56’s mysterious sameness and the calming swarm savvy of the universe that goes along with that.
The Family Purse 3436
The money in our family is family money… really. It is one big pot that each takes from as needed. This is radically different from the independent model my parents used to raise me. I did chores for which I got a salary. I suppose the idea here is to prepare their child for the employer / employee relationship that lay ahead.
That was not to be my model for raising my kids. Everyone still does the chores, but not as a job. Each of us just pitches in and does what needs doing that day. Sharing responsibilities as a group feels much more connected and egalitarian. This works best when each person takes on what they are most naturally capable of doing. Chapter 17 was my model, When his task is accomplished and his work done, the people all say, “It happened to us naturally”.
Nature and my experience tell me that turning over as much responsibility to people as they can handle, regardless of their age, makes them feel more responsible. This definitely helps make life feel more meaningful. I assume that was my parent’s intention, but they just didn’t understand that their approach often worked against this. Having an opportunity to feel shared responsibility is a most organic way to feel connected to one’s group. And this nurtures life satisfaction and mental health. No doubt, the failure of modern culture to offer children this opportunity helps make drugs a compelling pursuit.
Over the years, I’ve noticed a common cultural trend to not delegate responsibility, but maintain control instead. I guess this stems from an innate paternalistic and materialistic need to manage situations “better”, i.e., protect us from ourselves, and any mistakes we might make. The fact is, control and responsibility are inseparable. Giving a person more responsibility means giving them control and the freedom to stumble, make mistakes… and learn in the process!
Google [CBS News 4 Generations Under One Roof in India] for a report about a 78-year-old blind man who accepts his disability and feels his way to work every day. He lives comfortably with his 13 family members in India who all share one bank account!
This story helps reveal something our culture has abandoned in its obsessive pursuit of personal independence and self-reliance. As a result, we ironically seem more inclined to avoid personal responsibility, and instead point the finger and litigate. Ironically, our culture is becoming a ‘nanny state’ in the process. All this, and a deepening sense of disconnection, is the natural and inevitable result of wealth. (See Poor Thais and Rich Swedes, p.115)
To be fair, our country is not alone in this. My point is that the virtue of independence is an illusion. We are a socially interdependent species. Pushing an essentially un-natural virtue of independence must backfire eventually. So why do we do this? I imagine this is a natural and predictable result of a modern society structured to meet the needs of a capitalist, consumer oriented, growth-based civilization. Well, cancer is growth-based too. Oops! As chapter 30 warns, A creature in its prime doing harm to the old, is known as going against the way. That which goes against the way will come to an early end. Nothing qualifies better than Nature as the old. Nature is not growth-based… It is balance-based. Global warming may be the least of our problems going forward. Even so, Mother Nature will rebalance everything in the end.
Gossip, Hysteria, News 2876
It is easy to notice gossip or hysteria in the news sometimes. This brings me to wonder how much of the news is actually gossip and hysteria. Since gossip and news closely correlate (p.572) they are definitely equivalent, at least in the grand scheme of things.
We think of news as a serious attempt to report the truth, while gossip is more about an exchange of frivolous hearsay. Yet, one could say, “One person’s serious is another person’s frivolous”. Google [Making informed decisions about mammograms] for data that relates to this question. In light of the widely covered uproar over advice on mammograms, this little tidbit really struck me.
“Imagine 10,000 women age 40. Over the next 10 years, without mammogram screening, about 35 will die of breast cancer. With screening, 30 will die — five fewer.
But of 10,000 getting screened, 600 to 2,000 will have at least one false positive leading to a biopsy, and 10 to 50 will be over-diagnosed. They will be told they have cancer, and they will undergo surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, which can only hurt them since their cancer was never destined to cause symptoms or death.”
Five fewer deaths out of 10,000 is the benefit of mammograms at age 40, against the host of negatives of over diagnosis, false positives, etc. I never heard that explained in the news, and I know why. This balanced view requires serious and thoughtful reflection to evaluate… and that takes work!
This is just one example, but I wonder about the other news stories, from the daily turmoil to global warming. When gossip and hysteria easily play a role in the news, it is tempting to downplay all the news. It is like Aesop’s Fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which ends with the old man saying, “Nobody believes a liar…even when he is telling the truth!” You see the same idea in the 25-century-old folk tale, Chicken Little, with its hysterical claim of “The sky is falling!” and in the Buddhist Jâtaka Tales, The Foolish, Timid Rabbit, where upon hearing noise, the Rabbit claims “The earth is all breaking up!”
This tells me that not much has changed since Buddha’s and Aesop’s time. Sure, the modes of communication and cultural traditions have changed greatly, but the essentials are the same. It is comforting to know some things never change even when the world around us is changing at what feels like light speed. On the other hand, how comforting is it feeling that what really needs to change never seems to?
What else can one do but seize the moment and make the most of it, as Chapter 19 hints, Exhibit the unadorned and embrace the uncarved block, Have little thought of self and as few desires as possible. Note: This is not saying one must be perfect, but instead to do as possible. For me, doing as possible is true natural perfection, as opposed to the ‘carved’ and adorned human ideals of perfection.
Chairs: One of Our Big Mistakes 1394
The use of chairs in the West is ubiquitous. One of the most important life style changes I ever made was giving up my use of the chair fifty years ago. Chairs and sit down toilets are good examples of my motto, short-term pleasure invites long-term pain; short-term pain invites long-term pleasure. The physical ease a chair provides gradually robs the body of an important part of its natural capacity for movement, and that invites pain later in life. This is easy to see when comparing elderly Western and Japanese people. (photo: grandma, 82, reading the paper)
The photo is of my son Kyle’s Japanese friend’s grandmother. She’s 82 and much more flexible than many Western people less than half her age. So, what is so good about being flexible? Oh, the list is so long; I’ll spare you. Besides, I think the long-term pleasurable benefits are obvious to most. People just don’t realize in their youth how the use of chairs relentlessly, albeit slowly, deteriorates flexibility. (photo: flossing, forward bending, and studying)
Maintaining flexibility adds to the quality of life throughout life. So, abandon your chair and return to a more natural self! This also puts you closer to the lower position, i.e., chapter 61’s, The female always gets the better of the male by stillness. Being still, she takes the lower position. For another angle, see also, Bathtub Tai Chi, p.102.
We’re Not So Different After All
Google [Chimps may be aware of others’ deaths and Neanderthal genome yields evidence of interbreeding with humans] for research that challenges the prevalent myths of human uniqueness. The Judeo-Christian myth, “Man was created in God’s image”, obviously proclaims this uniqueness. This need to pin down our origins is universal, going back into prehistory. The advent of modern science and technology just continues that quest, albeit based on fact more than imagination’s flights of fancy. (photo: chimp mother climbs a tree for food while carrying her dead infant.)
Various Tao Te Ching chapters easily nip such myths in the bud, e.g., chapter 1’s The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way, chapter 56’s, One who speaks does not know, and chapter 10’s When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, Are you capable of not knowing anything? Little wonder the Taoist worldview isn’t popular! The Taoist point of view is only palatable if you can endure not knowing anything.
Google the CBS video [Bird Grooves to the Beat] for a delightful example of just how fuzzy the line separating us from other species turns out to be. If this keeps up, we’ll have to admit we are just another life form, neither superior nor particularly special. Such sanity can’t happen too soon to suit me! Alas, that’s certainly not going to happen in my lifetime. Oh well, it is always good to leave enough for our distant descendants to triumph over.
It is striking how driven we are to see our species as different and superior. This is certainly evident in humanity’s spiritual traditions. From a symptoms point of view (p.141), this looks like the survival instinct forcing its way from emotion up into thought and out into speech. If ants could think and speak, I’ve no doubt they would say they were special and superior too. Seen this way, we are not so special after all. Now, is that comforting to know?
Learning What You Know 1785
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 Luke when I blurted out, “People don’t learn anything.” My word, in writing that down just now, I don’t even agree with this! I confess, I often blurt stuff out, testing the waters to see what I can stir up.
| ACTIVE
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PASSIVE
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| mimicry
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learn
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| outside
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inside
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| horizon
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here
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| surface
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deep
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| sound
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silent
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| begin
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end
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| goal
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arrival
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| illusion
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reality
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| thought
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perception
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| understand
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know
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| answer
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question
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| solution
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problem
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Our debate ended in a stalemate and we went on with the day. Later I realized my error. Instead of saying, “People don’t learn”, I should have said, what usually passes for learning is actually mimicry. As is often the case, my words got in the way of communication… well, duh!
I then made a short list of Correlations to better illustrate the point I was trying to make. Luke studied it for a moment, nodded and said, “Ah yes, that makes sense”. The point I was trying in vain to make earlier, became obvious through Correlations. Naturally, that comes with its own downside. Perfectly clear communication eliminates the fun, the tug of war, the give and take, the drama. Examine this set of Correlations I showed Luke and see if it makes any sense to you.
Note: A Correlation’s view of this issue may work better within our family because I introduced the Correlation process (p.572) to my sons when they were knee high to a grasshopper. They are familiar with this process of boiling issues down to fundamental parameters. While it never offers a final answer, it does point towards one in a fuzzy kind of way.
Desire and Contentment 4582
Chapter 46 puts forward a curious dilemma. According to that chapter, when the way prevails in the empire, fleet-footed horses are relegated to plowing the fields; when the way does not prevail in the empire, war-horses breed on the border. However, chapter 34 holds that, The way is broad, reaching left as well as right. Add to this chapter 1’s, The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way. Can we reconcile these seemingly conflicting views?
What does when the way does not prevail truly mean? Take a moment to ponder the reality of Nature versus how we feel about that reality. Saying, the way does not prevail speaks about the latter… About how you or I subjectively perceive the way, and not about The way that can be spoken of.
Regarding Nature, let’s consider the Chinese characters for nature. This can shed light on the immutable authenticity of nature. Nature = dàzìrán (大自然). The characters breaks down thus: dà (大) = big, great; zì (自) = self, certainly, of course, from; rán (然) = right, correct, so, like that. Here are some ways to assemble these English words: (1) great + of course + so, (2) big + self + correct, (3) great + self + so. Right now, I prefer great + self + so. In other words, ‘it is what it is’.
When I think that the way does not prevail, I am really projecting my perceptions onto the way. Essentially, all this amount to a reflection of my personal needs, loves, fears, and hates. This clearly doesn’t meet chapter 16’s Taoist standard of impartiality.
Moreover, chapter 19 counsels us to, exhibit the unadorned and embrace the uncarved block, have little thought of self and as few desires as possible.
Returning to chapter 46’s, when the way prevails in the empire, fleet-footed horses are relegated to plowing the fields, etc. How did this view that peace is nearer the way than war come to appear in the Tao Te Ching? After all, neither war nor peace exists independent from each other, i.e., to paraphrase chapter 2, War and peace, produce, complement, offset, harmonize and follow each other. Just because I hate war doesn’t mean war is not of the way. Indeed, as chapter 67 states, The whole world says that my way is vast and resembles nothing. It is because it is vast that it resembles nothing. If it resembled anything, it would, long before now, have become small.
The difficulty in seeing life through Taoist eyes is that the view seldom supports what we desire to see. Yet, desire doesn’t truly deserve the blame. From a symptoms point of view, desire simply reveals a lack of contentment. This deficiency generates desire. As chapter 46 literally says, Therefore, in being contented with one’s lot, enough is usually enough indeed.
Therefore, it helps to see the desire for anything as only a symptom of the lack of contentment. This bio-hoodwink (p.11, p.100) is how nature works. Feeling hunger and thirst arises from a perceived lack of food and water. In humans, this also translates into other symptoms of discontent… A desire, ‘hunger’, and ‘thirst’ to travel is a symptom of not feeling content where you are — whether it is to travel to the toilet to pee, or to travel to an exotic place to play. Chapter 80 addresses this contentment issue.
Although, how one is supposed to bring that about is beyond me. Feeling content is one of the most mysterious things to do. You can’t just ‘do it’, because doing it would have to arise from a lack of contentment with the status quo.
Remembering that the problem is constant, and solutions come and go helps. Although, you’d think this would be discouraging. Actually, fully accepting the dynamics of life fosters a sober and yielding contentment. Put simply, it is easier to conform to Nature than to fight it. As chapter 65 says, Only then is complete conformity realized.
Finally, Buddha definitely nailed it with; “First Noble Truth is the existence of sorrow. Birth is sorrowful, growth is sorrowful, illness is sorrowful, and death is sorrowful. Sad it is to be joined with that which we do not like. Sadder still is the separation from that which we love, and painful is the craving for that which cannot be obtained”. If you really accept that, the rest takes care of itself!
Time’s Arrow 2817
John Wheeler was a visionary physicist and teacher who helped invent the theory of nuclear fission, gave black holes their name and argued about the nature of reality with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. This quote from him about language and time shows he must have been a natural ‘taoist’, so to speak. Perhaps he was a closet Taoist.
“We have learned how to use our words. It’s a fantastic thing – we humans are so easily trapped in our own words. The word time, for instance. We run into puzzles about the concept of time and then we say, ‘Oh what a terrible thing’. We don’t realize we’re the source of the puzzle because we invented the word.”
Of course, his comment applies to absolutely everything in life that bewilders us… most particularly death. For more on the puzzle of time, google [Sean Carrol on why time flows one way]. This excerpt from Science News, stood out …
In this way, the high-entropy empty space-time that existed before the Big Bang can always increase its entropy even more — by giving birth to a baby universe. Although the baby would have low entropy, the total entropy of the system (mother de Sitter space plus baby) would be higher, preserving the second law. After pinching itself away from the mother space, the low-entropy baby will expand and the second law will drive a direction of time as the baby’s entropy rises. Eventually, the baby universe’s entropy will reach a maximum, becoming just like its timeless de Sitter space parent. And then it could give birth to baby universes of its own.
“As time evolves, you pop universes into existence — a baby universe comes into existence, expands and cools, and for a moment, there’s an arrow of time,” Carroll said. “The moment is several trillion years.”
I see here a few telling parallels with the Taoist view. Here are a few examples: Chapter 4, The way is empty, yet use will not drain it. Chapter 5, It is empty without being exhausted. Chapter 45, Great fullness seems empty, Yet use will not drain it.
My favorite is chapter 40…
Sure, these ancient thoughts lack the rigorous research of modern science. In the end though, all we will ever see through science is the reflection of our own mind… How could it be otherwise? The benefit of the scientific process lies in how it demands a high degree of impartiality. The beauty of the Tao Te Ching lies in the impartiality achieved through means other than modern experimental science. Yet, they are certainly in sync with each other in the grand scheme of things. Honestly, I suspect the parallels will only increase over time, especially as science increasingly proves and recognizes the power of Nothing!
Poor Thais And Rich Swedes 5335
I had a little bakery on the Thai-Cambodian border in the early 60’s. It was little more than a shack, but big enough for me and my common law Thai wife (photo right), her mother, brother, and sister (1). Most of the customers were Thai peasants who would stop by for some sponge cake on their return from the town market. Being partial to sponge cake myself, business never grew — I ate up most of the profits! After rising early to bake the day’s offerings, I’d sit at the front of the shop and swat at flies while awaiting customers.
This and other experiences in Asia over the years gave me intimate insight into the lives of peasants. I was virtually one myself, at least financially speaking. Although I never worked long days in the rice fields, I had settled into what amounted to a peasant life style.
Fast-forward about a decade later to when I lived with my Swedish wife in Sweden. We settled into an area of Stockholm inhabited by the wealthiest Swedes including the King himself. I didn’t adapt well to a Swedish life style however, given that my earlier S.E. Asian peasant-like life felt more comfortable. Naturally, I couldn’t help but compare the lives of the upper class folks I came to know there with the peasants I had lived among in Asia. One thing stood out like a sore thumb: these wealthy folks seemed no happier than the poor Thai peasants did. If anything, they even seemed a bit less so.
Looking back, I understand it better. Living beings live out their days struggling against the inevitable entropic path — birth, growth, decay and death — that Buddha’s First Truth addresses. The struggle–to–survive lies at the instinctive core of life’s DNA. In the case of peasants, this struggle is fully engaged in the simple operation of basic survival — not so for wealthier folk. As a result, into what does a wealthier person’s struggle–to–survive instinct sink its teeth? It certainly can’t strive for down-to-earth practical survival!
On the other side of this struggle–to–survive instinct is the innate drive to seek happiness. I’ll call this the contentment instinct. Like the fight or flight dynamic, each living thing must find its balance between struggle and contentment. On one hand we stir, move forward, and work; on the other, we are still, return, and rest — so far, so good. When our struggle–to–survive instinct engages itself in down to earth challenges, it is more in line with the evolutionary circumstances of our ancestors.
The innate sense of more-is-better generates ideals of wealth that promise an escape from primal survival challenges. We feel certain that we could then live struggle-free, content in optimal comfort and security. Actual success in achieving more-and-more, or as we call it progress, has unintended consequences. What does a wealthier person’s struggle–to–survive instinct strive for then? DNA is immutable compared to changing circumstances. Simply put, the acquisition of wealth doesn’t neutralize the struggle–to–survive instinct. Chapter 16 hints at where progress can unwittingly take us… Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant.
The striking thing I remember from Sweden was how wealthy folks worried about idealistic issues, like the selling of South African grapefruit in Sweden, while Thai peasants worried about realistic issues like the price of cooking lard. Obviously, freedom from down-to-earth struggles replaces concrete worry with abstract worry. The focus of stress moves, but the stress continues or even neurotically increases. Actual wealth delivers profoundly less than it promises. This more-is-better illusion is one of nature’s most potent hoodwinks. Instinct overrides reason, and we take nature’s hoodwinking bait even though we know that money doesn’t bring happiness (2). As Christ said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”. So, be aware and beware!
(1) I had planned to settle down in Thailand. When money ran really low I went off to Vietnam to work and save money. The plan was to return with a grubstake and upgrade the bakery. That plan changed, but that’s another story. Suffice to say, at that tender age I lacked the experience to know that plans are little more than visions based on limited experience. Life, on the other hand, flows out moment to moment into what chapter 14 hints is called indistinct and shadowy.
(2) Wealth is relative! If you are starving and you find food, you are profoundly wealthier, at least until your food runs out. The Thai peasants were wealthy relative to the many folks I saw in India, Ethiopia, and Niger, for example. A truer definition of wealth is found in chapter 33’s, He who knows contentment is rich, or as Henry David Thoreau put it, “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone”. From this standpoint, Mother Theresa’s view that America was ‘poorer’ than India holds water. Mind you, it is not that people in India don’t want to be rich; they do. And when they succeed, they will be as ‘poor’ as we are.
By the way, my wealth frees me to struggle at writing my observations down as coherently as possible. Similarly, wealth frees you to struggle to read and ponder these observations. As long as meaningful struggle continues, we are happier than otherwise.
Decisions Decisions 2328
Harvard Decision Science Laboratory held a fascinating interview. For a transcript, google [Decisions, Decisions – CBS News]. Here is a short excerpt:
It may not sound rational, but experts say emotions and gut feelings are more important than intellect in making choices. “We’ve never succeeded, never, in having people recognize the irrational influence of incidental emotion,” Lerner laughed. “Never?” Spencer said. “And then to make steps, no. Never.”
Never say never, right? Actually, it is possible to tame “the irrational influence of incidental emotion”… In other words, manage the bio-hoodwink (p.11, p.100). By regarding my decisions, perceptions, and actions as actually symptoms of something deeper calms down incidental emotion (see Symptoms Point Of View, p.141). Next, Correlations (p.566), offers me a way to look deeper and nip much irrational and hypocritical thought in the bud, which helps prevent it from feeding back into emotion.
This research on decision-making matches my observation… How I feel drives how I act, just like any animal. When a duck feels hungry, it goes and eats. When I feel hungry, I go and eat. How I feel also drives what I think. If a duck could think, the same thing would happen. Presumably, we are the only species that thinks, and that is where our trouble begins.
Thoughts cycle back and influence how I feel. This easily turns into a neurotic vicious circle. Thought has a firm impression that it knows and controls. Chapter 71 points out the trouble this causes, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Cognitive certainty is a self-fulfilling prophecy wherein the truth it realizes is delusional.
Ironically, the best way to avoid living this lie is also via thought. This means maintaining a continuous, albeit, subtle awareness that biology—the bio-hoodwink—is always pulling your strings via your own needs and fears, desires and worries. It is insidious!
Note how Buddha’s Fourth Truth says, “There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty”. Cultivating a sense of priority — duty — is essential. Maintaining a steady awareness of this helps you keep in touch with biological forces acting upon you. (See also, The Decider, p.13.)
Where Is Freedom? 1516
I bought a caged finch in Japan in the early 70’s. I took it home and left the cage door open so it could fly around if it wished, but it wouldn’t. It just stayed contentedly in its cage. Months passed before it ventured out. I left the window open too, and soon it would go out, fly about, and return home. The bird stayed away longer and longer until one day, it didn’t return. (photo: a little one on one with my bird)
I see a parallel here between that bird and me. I spent years, more or less inside civilization’s paradigm, venturing out of society’s cultural cage from time to time. Now, I venture out more frequently, and can’t imagine giving up this freedom to return. Frankly, though, it is a toss up. There is also a freedom of safety and comfort within the status quo. Leaving the status quo behind invites an uncomfortable sense of the unknown. Which is the greater freedom? One offers freedom to feel safe and comfortable, the other offers the freedom to feel awe and as chapter 15 says, Tentative, as if fording a river in winter, Hesitant, as if in fear of his neighbors.
Like the bird, I could never return to the freedom of my former safe and comfortable cage. I doubt anyone could. On the other hand, I could never recommend someone giving up their cage either. We must go with whatever circumstances throw our way. Like the bird, we leave the cage when we can no longer stay. To stay or leave, that is the question. As it happens, to paraphrase chapter 2, Staying and leaving produce each other.
Thinking clouds consciousness 2797
I sat looking out over the ocean this crisp morning. I had finished my morning routine of yoga, calligraphy in the sand and tai chi, so I could just sit in the sand and let my mind think on itself. What stood out today was how deeply consciousness is separate from thinking. This may be a radical view. Indeed, many define consciousness as thinking, which implies that non-human animals are not conscious. That’s crazy!
First, to review:
Consciousness is the foundation of intuitive knowing for all animals. Chapter 71’s, To know yet to think that one does not know is best is important because it indicates a distinction between knowing and thinking. We tend to feel our thoughts are more important than our consciousness (1), and thus end up erroneously believing what we think is true and real. We wind up taking consciousness, the source, for granted.
Plain consciousness is impartial and unexciting. In contrast, there is nothing boring about feeling certain that our thoughts and judgments are true and reliable. As it happens, our emotions are giving us this subjective sense of truth and certainty. The stronger the emotion, the wider the gulf between what we think is real, and what is truly real. Emotion produces an illusion of truth, so to speak.
Survival instincts lay at the foundation of consciousness and from there direct thought. In particular, emotion steers the direction our thoughts take, and consciousness provides the space for thoughts to play out. When circumstances trigger emotions, our thoughts mirror those ruffled emotional feathers and invite us to dwell on the event. These thoughts then re-stimulate emotion and often set off a vicious circle, i.e., thought ð emotion ð thought ð emotion, etc. We maintain the stressful emotional imbalance long after the stimulus that ignited the initial emotion ends. (See What are the roots of thought?, p.602).
Time versus the timeless now
Future, present and past are figments of imagination. We think these are real because we think what we think is real. I see ‘time’ as simply a timeless continuum of consciousness. Past, present and future are but projections of emotion, particularly our desires and worries, which gives us the illusion of time we experience. The clocks and calendars of civilization only reinforce that illusion and separate us further from what, without mind chatter, feels like a timeless now. As chapter 56 hints, This is known as mysterious sameness.
(1) Observing the birds on the beach helps me escape the trap of thinking. I imagine that is one of the prime benefits, besides companionship, that pet owners enjoy. For some reason I especially love that little long beaked bird. One of its kind is always there poking around in the sand looking for food.
Balancing Difference with Similarity 2057
Noticing differences greatly assists survival… up to the point of diminishing returns, especially for a thinking animal like us. Even so, the naïve acceptance of difference as a true portrayal of reality would not have been a problem for our hunter-gatherer ancestors, given their truly down to earth circumstances. (photo: a non-neurotic nitpicking conversation)
Conversely, our naive acceptance of difference as a true portrayal of reality causes anxiety, given the less down to earth nature of civilization. Civilization, by taming the wilderness, removes many natural demands that would otherwise counterbalance anxiety. Before we know it, we become neurotic nitpickers in one way or another.
Chapter 56 proposes a way to mitigate the ‘difference bias’ that so easily swamps cognition and ramps up stress: Block the openings; Shut the doors. Blunt the sharpness; Untangle the knots; Soften the glare; Let your wheels move only along old ruts. This is known as mysterious sameness.
It helps to know where we are on the bell curve of balanced awareness, i.e. between devoting too much or too little credence to differences. As with maintaining physical balance, noticing when we near the tipping point is crucial. Chapter 64 observes, Deal with a thing while it is still nothing. That requires warily watching the mind. As chapter 71 ends, It is by being alive to difficulty that one can avoid it. The sage meets with no difficulty. It is because he is alive to it that he meets with no difficulty. The difficulty here is our inborn tendency to focus excessively on differences and seldom on similarities. That’s because noticing difference carries a much greater evolutionary / survival value for creatures living in the wild.
To top this off, desire (need + thought) exacerbates this imbalance by inducing us to gloss over differences at times, and yet make mountains out of molehills of difference at other times. Our mind and its thoughts trap us. No wonder chapter 71 cautions, Thinking that one knows will lead to difficulty.
Tao As Emergent Property 7735
Generally, emergence occurs when something has a trait that its parts don’t have individually. The emergent property exists only when its parts interact in a combined whole. In a Taoist version of this, the ‘simple’ forms the basis upon which the ‘complex’ emerges. Here, I see each layer of existence as an emergent property modeled on something more primal. This is similar to the Greek roots for the word archetype: archein = original or old, typos = pattern, model, or type. Chapter 56’s, This is known as mysterious sameness alludes to this relationship somewhat. (photo: emergent termite cathedral)
It can be helpful to consider ideas and ideals as emergent properties of deeper phenomena as you explore downward layer by primordial layer. The idea and ideal of balance is especially interesting. Balance is a virtuous ideal, not only in human affairs, but also in Nature overall. As I see it, Nature’s first law is the “will” to uphold the ideal of balance. It is the way of Nature.
Everywhere I look, I feel Nature’s heartbeat as it ebbs then flows, waxes then wanes, around its balance ideal. Each individual thing, be it an atom, a mountain, a cloud, a mouse or a person, strives to maintain what is for each the ideal balance or counterbalance at the moment. That is so important, I’ll repeat it: Each thing in existence does what it does to balance or counterbalance where it is at each moment.
Nature does not speak about this law, this ideal. I know this is obvious, but it’s useful to point out. The words ideal and balance are themselves emergent properties symbolizing a silent primordial reality which we observe and label. In other words, Nature’s unspoken ideal of balance unavoidably spawns in thinking animals the words, “ideal” and “balance”.
The Emergent Layers of Reality graphic (left) is my clumsy attempt to illustrate this layering idea. See the next page for a better view of these layers. Correlations (p.572) helps get to the bottom of this emergent-layered reality. The layers can be read in a clockwise manner. View these as layers built one upon the other. Begin at the bottom, ‘energy –>appears… TIME –> VANISHES’, and work upward to the topmost, ‘ego–> rejects… ID –> ACCEPTS’. Needless to say, this must be done with your subtlest Taoist eye on the lookout for mysterious sameness and mystery.
Intrinsic vs. Learned Morality
Noteworthy is the fact that Nature’s ideal is neither moral nor immoral. The ideal is balance and from that emerges ideals of morality, unspoken but common in most social animals. Morality, in its simplest unspoken form, is simply behavior that facilitates balanced group interaction and survival. Therefore, from an emergent property’s standpoint, balance is the underlying ideal from which morality in social animals emerges. Only in humans does this simple morality emerge as culturally learned and often hypocritical ideals. (See Belief: Are We Just Fooling Ourselves?, p.591, and Ethics: Do They Work Anymore?, p.594.)
Political and Religious Ideals
History shows how human culture, and the beliefs and ideals that validate it, fluidly adapts to changing circumstances — most especially those of economic necessity. Currently, democracy and capitalism are governing ideals that suit this particular time and set of conditions. In other words, these models are emergent properties of this era’s circumstances, just as autocracy or slavery was at one time. Deeper still and most enduring are the religious ideals each culture adopts to give its population a spiritual hub around which to unite to maintain sufficient hope, balance, and harmony.
Some, if not all, religious ideals appear inefficient and irrational to any non-believer, at least on the surface. They are high maintenance and can consume much emotional energy. However, these drawbacks disappear when seen as simply symptomatic of an existing deeper high maintenance imbalance. This imbalance naturally spawns an outer array of counterbalancing religious ideals. Of course, this begs the question, what accounts for the imbalance in the first place?
Balance rocks the emergent cradle
Civilization’s primary objective is to optimize human comfort and security. Tool use, from the stone axe onward, has done this by giving us an edge over life in the wild. If you doubt this, consider for a moment life without electricity, then life without iron, and finally life without stone tools. Without tools, we would live a simple hard life in the wild. (Emergent Snowflakes)
As with all animals, we instinctively seek comfort and security. In the wild, natural circumstances push back on this drive, leaving an animal more or less balanced. Our successful quest to maximize comfort and security through tool use allows us to avoid much of this natural self-balancing pushback.
The unintended consequence of bypassing Mother Nature’s pushback is that it leaves us in a state of perpetual imbalance. This drives us to compensate in innumerable ways — music, diet, exercise, politics, drugs, sports, warfare, posting on blogs, and religion of course, come to mind.
Nevertheless, thought, and the naming that thought embodies, is the primary tool that has enabled all the other tools. The power and success of thought must boost the overall cognitive certainty we feel, and this arrogance of certainty only serves to add to our difficulties. As chapter 71 warns, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
What is it that we don’t know, yet think we know? Chapter 32 gives us a strong hint beginning with, The way is for ever nameless and ending with, As soon as there are names one ought to know that it is time to stop. Knowing when to stop one can be free from danger. Sure, thinking enables us to figure things out, invent tools, and survive beyond our ancestors’ wildest dreams. The danger lies in the collateral damage we suffer by not knowing when to stop. We carve up Nature’s whole in an ever-increasing array of bits and pieces — knowledge and information. This is not the kind of knowledge to which chapter 16 refers,
Our ignorance makes us feel more disconnected, and that sense of disconnection drives us to innovate even more. It’s a vicious circle where greater innovations create an even deeper sense of disconnection and primal insecurity (1).
Returning to Balance
I see Taoist thought as an emergent property emerging from the circumstances in which humanity will increasingly find itself. A Taoist point of view offers a path unbridled by naming and innovation, and offers a way back toward the roots of cognitive balance. As chapter 16 begins,
Again, I see balance as being the bottom layer, the founding principle, the model, the least common denominator, the ebb and flow cycle, and the primary pattern of emergent existence. Whew! That’s a mouthful. No matter how I look at life, I always come back to balance as a key principle driving the whole shebang. For me, the Taoist point of view offers the easiest way to sense that.
(1) Primal insecurity is another word for fear. Not your ordinary fear, mind you, but rather a deep-rooted sense of the void, loss, death, and entropy. See, What is the root of thought?, p.602.
What Shapes How You Think? 6566
Google [Does Your Language Shape How You Think?] for research that speaks to my recent post Thinking Clouds Consciousness (p.119). This offers interesting details underlying this question, although, in my view this is a no-brainer. (the tower of babel by pieter brueghel the elder (1563)
Clearly, language and thinking are inextricably linked… It takes one to do the other. If you can, flip off the language switch in your mind. Well? When I do that, I’m unable to think. Only pure perception remains. Chapter 20 describes this well, My mind is that of a fool – how blank — and peaceful too, at least when it’s blank! Sure, the senses still function – sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste – and I’d add one more, a diffuse light of consciousness. Although you could argue, this ‘light’ is just the overall sum sensation induced by the five senses. Alternatively, perhaps it is what remains when cognition holds firmly to stillness as chapter 16 puts it.
As the Biblical Tower of Babel suggests, language causes issues
Language, instilled in us from infancy, occupies a vast portion of our awareness. Language filters and interprets the ‘what is’ of reality, and leaves us feeling we truly know reality. We trust what we think and end up with biased judgments. Yet, that is just the dipolar nature of language. Language’s ‘blacks and whites’ are easier to mentally manipulate than fuzzy grey in-betweens — the Shadowy, indistinct, Indistinct and shadowy, as chapter 21 implies. We take the ‘black and white’ path of least resistance and let most of the fuzzy in-between fade from awareness.
The article quotes linguist Benjamin Whorf as saying, “Native American languages impose on their speakers a picture of reality that is totally different from ours, so their speakers would simply not be able to understand some of our most basic concepts, like the flow of time or the distinction between objects (like “stone”) and actions (like “fall”).”
While true to some degree, this fails to account for how language arises from, and links to, primal human emotion. We all share the same emotional base — whether ancient Cro-Magnon or modern day city slicker, male or female, young or old. The impetus behind language is social connection with communication coming in a distant second. All that we need in order to have language feel fulfilling is that speaker and listener feel they are heard, recognized and accepted. From the primate standpoint, that is merely grooming with language, so to speak. Simply put, communication is something of a charade; social connection is the underlying reality.
All social animals have their means of social connection.
We big-brained apes use language as a principle means of social connection. Just as the nit-picking grooming that apes practice never gets rid of all the nits, language never fully succeeds in communicating. It just gives us the illusion that it does so we can feel connected. I assume our deep trust in language arises largely from our need for social connection. To feel connected to our group we need to believe (i.e., trust, support, tout) its culture’s groupthink.
This benefit has a price: The more we trust language’s truth—that names and words are real in their own right—the less we can perceive anything outside that box of names. Our belief in ‘word reality’ hinders our ability to see a broader uncategorized and unfiltered reality, although the arts help with that somewhat.
A crucial lesson I taught my home-schooled kids was that things are never as they seem on the surface. Instead, we are mostly seeing only a reflection of ourselves — our needs and fears. Fortunately, just acknowledging this house of mirrors is usually enough to give us a few moments to pause and reconsider what we think we see and know. This acknowledgment decreases our need to know precisely what is going on, and helps take what seems real with more grains of salt.
Thought bubbles up from emotion.
Thinking is an emergent property (p.121) of feeling, which in turn flows from the shadowy, silent mystery of innate biology. Feeling drives thinking, which means feeling is much broader and deeper than what thinking can encompass. We are at loss for words when it comes to our deepest experiences. Indeed, experience lies beyond what words can pigeonhole. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.)
Words are just the tip of the iceberg of consciousness. This is a good example of chapter 70’s, My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. Even though we can intellectually acknowledge and understand an issue, in real life we easily react otherwise emotionally. Pressing emotions stir up and steer our thoughts to line up with the emotion. Emotion rules the roost of cognition and its understandings.
Digging down into meaning
In my early 20’s I had free time on a job site in Vietnam, so I took up learning Chinese characters. After a year, I’d learned a few thousand and could understand the gist of many articles in Chinese newspapers. Even so, I never was actually reading them in Chinese. I understood the characters in their English translation. In other words, I was reading English written in another script. Naturally, I forgot most everything after a few decades.
About 10 years ago, I returned to study Chinese, this time more deeply, more seriously. While in Asia, I had learned to speak a number of languages at a market or pidgin level. I picked them up more like a child does, listening and speaking, trial and error, without any awareness of process. This time around with Chinese, I was curious to investigate my actual learning process in real time. What was happening exactly?
The emotional underpinning of word meaning stood out especially strong. This indicates that words, thoughts, and language are actually emotional experiences. The more I have a feeling of the meaning and not a translation of English feeling, the more I truly know the living language — in this case Chinese. Understanding then is not so much a cognitive experience as an emotional one. No wonder the Tao Te Ching has such a dim view of names and words.
The bottom line
One of humanity’s strongest emotions, if not the strongest, is the social imperative of feeling connected to our group. Language is fundamentally an emotional experience, which means that communication is more about an emotional connection than any true mutual cognitive understanding.
Skullduggery is rampant in nature 2311
Google [Nature’s recourse: How plants and animals fight back] to see how plants and animals fight back when mutual arrangements between them go sour.
Here’s a short excerpt…
Nature has a shifty side. Bees cheat flowers. Flowers cheat bees. Fish cheat other fish, and so on. The more biologists look, the more skullduggery turns up.
In this sense, cheating means pretty much what it does among people, says evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers of VU University Amsterdam: One party exploits another, taking more than its fair share or happily reaping benefits without paying the costs. “There is always that one person that orders the most expensive meal on the menu and then insists on splitting the bill evenly,” Kiers says.
Examples of nature’s skullduggery support the view that an unspoken morality exists in nature and serves the same purpose ethical codes do in human culture. Our Ethics (p.594), and the religions that embody them, are simply emergent phenomena (see Tao as Emergent Property, p.121). This suggests that there is no chance that a ‘peace on earth and good will to all men’ ideal future will ever occur. Such ideals are societal hoodwinks needed to help large populations in civilization feel as connected as possible. Simply put, a shared cultural story is essential to bond together what are otherwise actual strangers. These cultural stories also tout an erroneous ability to be responsible and choose a path of virtue. (See Free Will, p.587, and Use Non-Responsibility, p.258)
Not surprisingly, cultural stories based on an ideal, rather than on nature, come with a cost. Nature’s reality never matches our expectation, and so we push to improve matters. Naturally, any path of competition with nature eventually delivers the opposite. Ironically, the human condition may be worse off due to our desire to improve its condition. Every solution leaves behind in its wake a series of unforeseen unintended consequences. For that reason, I regard all problems as natural constants. That means all solutions are impermanent “goods hard to come by”; as chapter 64 puts it, Therefore the sage desires not to desire, and does not value goods which are hard to come by. Of course, I frequently fail and desire solutions anyway. No problem, as that problem is simply another natural constant.
Exquisite Balance 3685
I never ever use the word exquisite, but this morning while standing on my head I thought, “How exquisite this moment of perfect balance feels”.
I went on to consider other facets of life such as working, eating, speaking, and shopping. In all cases, balance is possible, but is often only partial and so seldom feels exquisite. Why so rare? It is such a wonderful sensation!
Impartiality and balance share similar qualities, and so chapter 16 suggest why balance and impartiality are rare experiences.
Balance and impartiality come about when we lean neither one way nor the other. Need (desire) and fear (worry) undermine this exquisite middle path constantly, albeit, naturally. Nature’s evolution has no interest in nurturing impartiality and balance. This is Nature’s primary hoodwink. As chapter 65 points out, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. The reason why the people are difficult to govern is that they are too clever. In the end, what is more “of old” than Mother Nature?
Our need to survive and the fear of perceived threats always keep us leaning one way or the other. Need pulls us toward what is favorable and fear pushes us away from what is not. Such instincts bias us from birth and play themselves out until death. Chapter 32’s counsel, One ought to know that it is time to stop. Knowing when to stop one can be free from danger suggest a way to increase our chances at exquisite balance in all aspects of life, from eating and speaking, to yoga, to… you name it! The best solution I’ve found is to be continuously aware that this tug-of-war is happening at all times. Chapter 37 then shows us the next step, And if I cease to desire and remain still, The empire will be at peace of its own accord… And voilà, the exquisite balance I treasure reappears.
Of course, there in lies the problem of balance and impartiality. You have to experience exquisite balance to appreciate its wonder. However, balance requires us to calm desire down and remain rather still, which seems only possible to the degree we yearn for that exquisite experience. This ends up being a Catch 22 (i.e., the circumstance that denies a solution). Our yearnings get in our way. Nature’s bio-hoodwink (p.11, p.100) keeps us chasing after our pots of gold at the end of our rainbows (1). The illusion we feel is that once we get the gold, balance and peace will be ours. Of course, the gold vanishes the moment we claim it, and off we go chasing after the next pot of gold.
To be fair, the illusions that drive our yearning are essential to survival. This means the most balance we can pull off is an ‘imbalanced balance’ between the unavoidable illusions necessary for survival, and a degree of impartiality essential for sanity. In short, aim for imperfect perfection. 😉
(1) This may account for the unique value of activities practiced over a lifetime. For me this has been Yoga, Shakuhachi, and Tai Chi. They all embody the principle of short-term pain, long-term pleasure, and as the decades roll by, I witness more and more of the long-term pleasure side. Alas, following the short-term pain, long-term pleasure path, rather than the short-term pleasure, long-term pain path of life is difficult. Pleasure is one of life’s prime motivating forces, and so the short-term pleasure side tips the scales. It doesn’t help that civilization’s raison d‘etre is progress that favors increasing human comfort and security.
The less I think, the more I know 4408
The less I think, the more I know sounds a little odd. It parallels that equally peculiar line in chapter 56, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know. If anything ever begged for elucidation, this does! (photo: blue sky & clouds)
The problem with thought lies in the preconceptions necessary to think and speak. This puts up a wall of understandings that hinders us from considering anything beyond that wall. This wall of knowledge requires relying on preconceptions—words and names—instilled into our awareness from infancy.
Seeing the World through a Blue Filter
Words and names act as filters. Just imagine if your parents attached a permanent blue colored filter to your eyes in infancy. The world you would see throughout your life would have a blue tint. Because you would never experience the world without the blue filter, you would not know the range of other colors out there nor even a color called blue. In other words, you can only know you are seeing a color if you experience it contrasted with another color. In short, contrast ≈ information ≈ contrast ≈ information…
You would understand the world was blue, even while unaware of the word blue or that you were seeing through a blue filter. Only your parents would know everything you saw was tinted blue. In this same way, the framework of language is a real impediment to seeing the world as it actually is. We see it through our language filter, and this easily chokes off a sense of anything beyond that filter.
Alcohol and drugs can jar that filter a bit, especially the hallucinogenic ones, which is one reason some use them. Nevertheless, these just substitute one filter for another — the drug filter. On the plus side, such drugs can jar our preconception’s filter and open up other angles of awareness. On the down side, it can unhinge any mind especially dependent on the normal filter. That’s why drugs can threaten the stability of civilization’s norms.
The Taoist worldview simply attempts to weaken the normal filter – words and names. Some example include: Therefore the sage keeps to the deed that consists in taking no action and practices the teaching that uses no words #2; Hesitant, he does not utter words lightly #17; To use words but rarely is to be natural #23; The teaching that uses no words #43; Straightforward words seem paradoxical #78; Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good #81; and of course, The name that can be named is not the constant name #1. Chapter 71 then doubles down on all this with, To know yet to think that one does not know is best.
I can understand why civilization would not jump on a Taoist bandwagon. Populations need everyone to be on the same cultural page. That means a culture’s people need to share a belief in the validity of their myths, traditions, music, art, food, clothes, etc. Indeed, I can’t think of any exception — the more conformity the better for unity. The common ground of language, words and names, tie all these matters together. Civilization needs its people marching to beat of the same drum — a high entropy state (1) of minimum information and maximum uniformity. That just doesn’t sit well with a free spirit, does it? Yet, on the other hand, it increases the sense of an egalitarian tribal unity.
(1) Entropy (The third law of thermodynamics) is a useful and perhaps odd way of understanding this situation. Contrast between individual bits is what makes information. Such a state of distinctness or individuality is a low entropy state. There is a universal pull on lower entropy states to increase in entropy, become more homogeneous, uniform. As entropy increases, the situation becomes more stable.
A native language is a way of increasing entropy and thus stability. Other ways a culture’s people increase entropy is by eating the same foods, wearing the same clothing styles, and of course, practicing the same religion! All these increase cultural uniformity and stability.
Hard science can offer deeper insights into life. For example, ponder how entropy provides a fundamental way of explaining the vigor behind revolutionary movements and free spirited rebellious teenagers. After that, consider what Using Yin and Yang to Pop Preconceptions does as far as entropy is concerned; do Correlations increase it, or decrease it? (See p.572.)
The Spirit of Yoga 9867
2019 Postscript: This is the 2010 PRINCIPLES update for the yoga book I wrote in 1979. At that time, I was focused on the problems that arise out of a belief in free will. In 2017, I finally realized the natural roots of this belief and most everything else that haunted me up until then. (See The Tradeoff, p.549.) The Tradeoff hits closer to the core of yoga so I replaced this PRINCIPLES update in my yoga book with it. That said, these PRINCIPLES might still hold water for some. (photo: working title and draft cover)
PRINCIPLES
Ideal Free Will
In my initial yoga manual (1979), I vigorously touted free will. I was a firm believer! In the mid 80’s I began to seriously question this belief, and began earnestly searching for evidence of free will. To date, I find nothing in human behavior that cannot be explained by the simple biological push / pull forces of fear and need; fear pushes us away, need pulls us toward. I suspect free will is more wishful thinking than fact. It seems that I just needed to believe in free will. Why?
Conflicting needs or fears were the problem, and free will promised a solution. If, as it now appears, free will is no more than a promise, what can I do? Ironically, I’ve find hope lies in knowing that the strongest need or fear I feel at any given moment determines what I do, or don’t do. Paradoxically, this makes free will, need, and fear almost synonymous. In short, need and fear determine what I want, and what I worry about in life, and which then drive the free choices I make in life.
Actual Free Will
Happily, the resolution of conflicting needs or fears depends largely upon me being mindful of what I truly want out of life. And what is that? Honestly, I’ve always known what I want deep down. We all have, intuitively anyway. It is just that short-term desires and worries keep distracting us. We forget again and again, turning over one new leaf after another as we wander and stumble down life’s very short road.
Prioritizing desires counteracts this distraction by diminishing desire’s and worry’s impact on us. In doing this, we are effectively desiring not to desire. As chapter 64 puts it, Therefore the sage desires not to desire, and does not value goods which are hard to come by. Buddha said much the same in his Fourth Noble Truth, There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty.
Watch Your Self
If I had to sum up the secret of yoga, I’d say it all comes down to being watchful… mindful of what I truly want out of life. In a yoga posture, this means watching your body, mind, and emotion moment to moment. Are you pushing too hard, (too ‘ha’), or taking it too easy (too ‘tha’)? All you need do is watch for this imbalance, and lean the other way to rebalance, i.e., achieve equal parts of ‘ha’ and ‘tha’, i.e., hatha yoga.
Watching oneself honestly couldn’t be easier or more straightforward. This is a level playing field, perhaps the only one in life… No knowledge, skill, teaching, or innate talent is required. Yet, as chapter 70 says, Our words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. Okay, that may be an over-statement, but not by much. Living in watchful self-honesty is most difficult.
Why? Because every innate advantage we have has its downside. I can’t emphasize this enough; every plus we enjoy has a minus we suffer. Worse, what we think is true obstructs seeing what is actually so. We fool ourselves. As chapter 71 advises, To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
Balance
Individually, we are on both sides of balance’s happy medium — over-doing some areas, under-doing other areas. Clearly, balance lies in under-doing the former and over-doing the latter. Fortunately, despite fears to the contrary, there’s little chance of overcompensating in either direction. Why?
The areas where we tend to under-do or over-do are actually symptomatic of our deep innate nature. That means, unlike the tip of an iceberg, it changes little. Sure, we may think we can change, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg speaking. Like free will, the ideal of true change is more likely a case of wishful thinking.
Is it Karma?
Our innate nature is like an iceberg below the water line, massive and unseen. As it bobs and tilts one direction, we react by over-doing or under-doing in the opposite direction to counterbalance. Deeper down our primal nature may itself be counterbalancing still deeper currents. Who knows? It’s a little murky down there.
This whole balancing process may represent a kernel of truth in the myth of Karma — not a cause and effect chain of Karmic past and future, but of karmic layers of cause and effect… moment to moment. Another kernel of truth here is that this myth may be a consequence of people noticing the effects of genetics over time. Karma was a story that explained things at the time.
One practical consequence of seeing life this way is that you soon realize all your perceptions and actions are merely reflections of yourself — your genetics and circumstances. In other words, what you perceive or do ‘out there’ is actually symptomatic of your own needs and fears, loves and hates, deep down ‘in here’, right now.
Self-honesty floods awareness; the judge becomes the judged. Judging books by their covers becomes increasingly difficult when you realize that you are just perceiving symptoms of a deep, less definable other side. Such a blurring of distinction — mysterious sameness as the Tao Te Ching #56 puts it — can really help you avoid being knocked off balance by self-serving judgments and biases.
Thinking beats the drum
Of human emotions, desire is the one with which all religions take issue. As chapter 46 has it, “There is no crime greater than having too many desires; There is no disaster greater than not being content.
However, I say desire is not the real problem by itself. Viewed more closely, desire seems to be an amalgamation of thinking and innate emotion, i.e., gut need and fear. Absent thought, only our innate emotion, the need and fear, would move us just as it does for all other animals. Need, and its source spring fear, is the driving force behind all action. Without this, we’re dead — literally. It is desire, the cognitive veneer of need, about which we could and should have misgivings. Thinking beats the drum of emotion, easily making neurotic mountains out of the healthy molehills of need and fear.
Just look at the world, from political and religious extremists at one end, to the neurotic quirks, opinions, and biases that are common to everyone at the other end. All illustrate the consequences of trusting that our thoughts truly reflect reality. Conversely, when we take our thoughts with a grain of salt, it becomes easier to calm down and preserve emotional equilibrium.
Certainly, this is a tough nut to crack. Those primal emotions of need and fear drive thinking. To make matters worse, thinking feeds back into and reinforces emotion. It is a vicious cycle. Nonetheless, knowing this occurs concurrently and constantly as I’m thinking, helps me distrust thinking, even as I’m thinking. This lack of faith in thought weakens its ability to feed into and re-enforce my emotion.
Civilization’s price tag
Civilization succeeds because it provides the means to achieve our goals and satisfy our desires. To meet this end, civilization must side-step Nature’s wild ruthless side — a side which happens to help keep life in balance. As chapter 5 admits, Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs. It is not surprising that our nearly obsessive avoidance of Nature’s uncomfortable side increases our difficulty maintaining balance. No wonder we easily swing from one extreme to the other. Civilization’s continual one-sided pursuit of safety and comfort comes with unforeseen and sorrowful consequences. We only think we’ve conquered nature; the negative consequences of civilization prove otherwise. We must pay Mother Nature’s price one way or the other.
I have a motto to help me counteract civilization’s bias toward safety and comfort and keep me more grounded: “Short term pain; [leads to] long term pleasure. Short term pleasure; [leads to] long term pain”. Civilization biases towards the latter. Balance lies in accepting the former. Striving for a better balance between pleasure and pain is a cornerstone of yoga.
What is the Spirit of Yoga?
Chapter 1 hints at how we should explore any final answer to questions about the spirit of yoga. To paraphrase, The yoga possible to think, runs counter to the constant yoga. I hope the issues I’ve raised here give some clues about the spirit of yoga. Now, back to the practical side of yoga.
When you do yoga postures with the issues of balance I raise above in mind, you will be doing authentic yoga no matter how stiff, weak, or far from the ideal form, you may be. Conversely, doing yoga without that balance intention is not yoga, no matter how much it looks like yoga. It is merely exercise, which isn’t bad — it’s just not yoga. Naturally, no one else will know. Only you can know when you are too ‘ha’, or too ‘tha’. Only you can fear your imbalance and feel the need to tilt yourself in the other direction towards balance and what you truly want.
Note: If you are doing or would like to do yoga, google [Hatha Yoga The Essential Dynamics] or see https://www.centertao.org/yoga/ for links to the book and links to download FREE sections of the book covering the first few dozen beginning yoga postures.
Children Know What Adults Forget 3925
What in particular do children know that adults forget? For some clues, google [Kids face up to disgust surprisingly late]. Consider this excerpt from Science News:
Kids viewed images on a computer screen of adults displaying the six basic emotional expressions. The kids’ task was to assign faces to boxes at the bottom of the screen that had been designated for specific emotions, such as an “angry” box. The boxes were tagged with written labels for older children; the researchers read the expression names to younger subjects.
At age 2, children’s accuracy was limited to putting happy faces in a “happy” box. Toddlers treated all negative emotional expressions as being angry.
Shortly after age 3, an appreciation of sad faces emerged. About a year later, kids could accurately identify angry faces and had generally stopped putting faces with other negative expressions into the angry box. Correct designations of other facial expressions soon followed, with comprehension of disgusted faces appearing last.
Kids get it! Whatever pleases us attracts us; whatever pains us repels us. That is true for all animals, isn’t it? Certainly, dogs, ants, and paramecium share this same attraction vs. aversion dynamic. Happy faces result when we are pleased. Unhappy faces result when we are not. These are the two sides of Nature, the iconic yin vs. yang — the good vs. bad, beauty vs. ugly, love vs. hate. This dynamic drives and directs all living beings throughout life.
As young children, before thinking complicates our intuition, we see the world simply and more like other animals. I suspect fear guides our journey from here into adulthood sophistication. As we come out from under the protective wing of our parents, we increasingly face the unknown, somewhat as chapter 15 describes,
We shore our psyche up by cognitively severing experience into bits and pieces—names and ideas. In a sense, we offset our deep insecurity by dividing and conquering nature via knowledge. We admire the clever among us who excel at this, and overlook the downsides. As chapter 18, observes, When cleverness emerges, There is great hypocrisy. The inherent great hypocrisy reveals that this doesn’t actually boost true security. In fact, our journey only ends when we arrive back at the beginning, as chapter 10 suggests, When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, Are you capable of not knowing anything? Names and words allow us to miss the forest for the trees by making imaginary mountains out of reality’s molehills. Little wonder this fails to work in the long run.
It’s ironic how children know when they are playing games and that games are pretend. Children use adults as an anchoring point of reference to help them see their game as a game. Adults have no superior adult to serve this anchoring function. As a result, adults forget they are playing the game of life. This is likely one reason we invented “God” and other high status role models that culture esteems and we follow, e.g., sages, gurus, movie stars, athletes, statesmen, heroes, kings.
Is chapter 65 candidly referring to those cultural elites and role models when it notes… Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them? It would appear that this hoodwinking only increases the game of life’s illusions as we adopt culture’s taboos, traditions, and myths. Chapter 19 pushes back on any notion that our cultural elites add real value to the people, albeit, perhaps somewhat tongue in cheek.
Science, Religion, Truth 6491
It is striking how obvious, yet subtle, the relationship between science, religion, and truth is. This could be an example of chapter 71’s, My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. There are profound spiritual implications in core scientific principles. Why then the battle between religion and science? Consider the clearly partisan aspects of religion vis-à-vis the impartial spiritual truth from which religions spring. The conflict I see are battles between partisans of both tribes — religion and science. These adherents are religious minded or science minded in name mostly.
Disconnection and Reconnection
The spiritual aim of religion is to give people a sense of reconnection. Indeed, the Latin root of religion, religare (“to reconnect,”) says it all — the prefix re “again” + ligare “bind, connect”. That is what science promises as well. There is an important distinction between these two paths of reconnection. Religion draws on feeling and faith; science draws on thinking and experiment. While both require devotion, feeling and faith are more primal and thus religion offers a far easier path for reconnection for most people.
As we left our ancient hunter-gatherer tribal lifestyle and became civilized, we lost the intimate sense of connection that fosters a sense of well being and self-security. Religion helps fill that void. That people are religious, or science minded, in name only says much about our tribal nature. It’s no wonder that keen devotion is the easiest way to feel connection… from puppy love to you name it.
Yet, neither religion nor science fulfills its connection promise. If either did, both could live and let live. The need to contend with an opponent is a clear symptom of an insecurity fueled by a failure to feel fully connected. Naturally, we began feeling our sense of disconnection long before civilization arose. Language began dominating human awareness tens of thousands of years earlier. This increasingly disconnected us from the contemporaneous moment-to-moment quiet simplicity that other animals experience. Now, ironically, I am going to use language to religare science, religion, and truth.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics is Spiritual Truth
I don’t suppose I gave entropy much thought other than as a cornerstone of classical physics, i.e., The Second Law of Thermodynamics. While reading a Science News report, A New View of Gravity, I realized the natural link between the humble spiritual roots of religion and the essence of science. The link between entropy and gravity makes a solid case, although I’d have trouble explaining why. Fortunately, a simpler case is possible to make.
An example of increasing entropy is burning coal. When burning coal, you are returning carbon to a simpler mysterious sameness-like state. Returning the carbon back into a lump of coal would require energy to reorganize it, so to speak. The input of energy is what made the coal originally, i.e., CO2 + sunlight + plant life + tectonic forces (+ time) = coal. When chapter 80 says return to the use of the knotted rope, this sounds like a call to increase entropy in our approach to life… Simplify!
Language, and the information it contains, is a low entropy state. Increasing entropy would mean decreasing information. Chapter 10 speaks to this also, When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, are you capable of not knowing anything? Complete entropy results in a complete loss of information. This is what the Tao Te Ching refers to as, mysterious sameness, nothing, stillness, emptiness, the void, silence. It is odd using entropy to illustrate Taoist principles. I expect the increasing information overload in the centuries ahead will make the Taoist entropic worldview ever more appealing—balancing. Let’s face it, sanity lies in disordered humble simplicity.
It is interesting how language, as a low entropy system, has the opposite effect on large groups of people. Language provides a high entropy common ground that removes barriers among any multitude of strangers (i.e., low entropy individuals) who speak the same language. In short, a common language helps strangers (in essence) to connect—unity, a state of high entropy.
A shared language reduces spontaneity and individuality by pulling everyone into mutual high entropy common sense. That allows people to create and maintain a low entropy organization—civilization. At the same time, language has the opposite result of decreasing entropy in the mind of each individual thinker! No wonder life is mystifying at times.
Interestingly, chapter 40 parallels high entropy… Turning back is how the way moves; Weakness is the means the way employs. The myriad creatures in the world are born from Something, and Something from Nothing.
The Tao Te Ching helps us escape the low entropy nature of language and its ordered domination of our mind. That helps one see the world more as a baby again. Correlations also help increase entropy of language to the point approaching what I call cognitive singularity—a mental black hole. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.)
Newton’s Laws of Motion are also Spiritual Truth.
My first experience with connecting spiritual truth with laws of science was years ago while living in Japan. I’ve forgotten now how I came to be thinking about classical science in the first place, only that I was pondering the action vs. reaction aspects of a rocket.
I recall being blown away when I realized how Newton’s third law, For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, applies to life overall. I don’t recall exactly how I linked it to life. In any case, I see my experience of life as symptomatic of underlying biological forces. This parallels Newton’s Law of Motion. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” corresponds to how my actions on the ‘outside’ are counterbalancing reactions to my ‘inside’ reality. This action-reaction law is universal, yet it’s only appreciated as a mechanical law. I imagine many other scientific insights remain as untapped resources for spiritual understanding. That’s understandable for the spiritual side of science is far more subtle and non-provable in empirically testable ways. By the way, I also see more relevance to spiritual truth in the other two laws (google [Newton’s laws of motion]).
Change we can believe in? 2501
Many people are disappointed with President Obama. This is a good example of how easily our expectations sow the seeds of our disappointments in life.
Mature character boils down to how gracefully we can accept a reality that doesn’t match our expectations. Children get their hopes up for one outcome, and when life goes another way, they whine about it. This is what we expect from children, but adults? This shows how little difference there is between children and adults. In truth, we’re all just large children struggling to be adults. Frankly, it takes much longer than a lifetime to reach true adulthood.
The public’s expectation of social change was terribly naive and doomed from the start. Society is like a huge ship with Captain Inertia at the helm. No wonder we say “The ship of state”. Turning a large ship around is a slow gradual process, as is social change. Seen up close, this ship of state is more an illusion than reality. The so-called state is really a horde of people, just as a beehive is really a horde of bees. The state is the people; the people are the state, and change is glacial.
Speaking of glacial, when the ship hits an iceberg, change is sudden. The ship sinks. I suppose the parallel to this in society is revolution. When the horde changes course, the state must follow. The events of the last few years sure look like the great ship of state has hit an iceberg. Revolution is in the air. Obama promised a civilized revolution… “Change we can believe in”. Now the Tea Party promises a more radical revolution… “Throw the bums out”. Then of course, there is the economic revolution that hit a few years ago. All this comes across as the natural and inevitable consequence of the contemporary “Get it now; pay for it later” approach to life. The horde has reached a dead end and desperately needs a course correction.
The “Get it now; pay for it later” approach to life flouts Nature’s most basic tenet… Living things work and earn their way for what they get. Struggle followed by reward. Modern civilization manages to outwit natural law with its “Get first; pay later” innovation. Nature rules in the end as chapter 16 suggests, Woe to him who willfully innovates, while ignorant of the constant. Payment—unpleasant and unexpected—always comes due. It’s as predictable as night and day to anyone who has a proper sense of awe. Otherwise, as chapter 72 notes, When the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them.
Fear is the Bottom Line 5582
There is much more to fear than meets the eye. We often associate the symptoms of fear (i.e., the outer reactions fear instigates) as the fear itself. These reactions span a range from ‘flight’ to ‘fight’, although screaming and fleeing are the images that usually come to mind. Actually, pure fear is profoundly more subtle and universal.
It helps to consider some words that correlate to fear. For example, fear ≈ silence ≈ death ≈ entropy ≈ peace ≈ nothing. Now consider the following correlation counterparts, need ≈ sound ≈ life ≈ negentropy ≈ war ≈ something. Note: Read the ≈ sign as ‘correlates to’.
We can view such polar parts in a proportion relationship. This can deepen and broaden the meaning of fear and its synonym-like and antonym-like parts. For example, need is to fear as sound is to silence. We can display this simply as:
We can show all the words this way:
Put another way: From FEAR, SILENCE, DEATH, ENTROPY, PEACE, AND NOTHING, arise (in due course) need, sound, life, negentropy, war, something.
Difference vs. Mysterious sameness
Language has a way of distorting how we think, mainly by permitting us to mistake symptoms for causes. This curtails any deep consideration of the subtle underlying connections. As a result, we over-react to the differences that jump out at us instead of noticing possible similarities. Such blindness to similarities allows fear to drive short-term fixes that often create problematic unintended consequences. Happily, Correlations, p.565, can help untangle the knots and soften the glare of differences, which paves the way to mysterious sameness, as chapter 56 calls it.
This next set of Correlations shows the dynamic circular relationship existing between these opposites. First, notice the subtle relationship between the words on the top lines: need -> seeks; sound -> stirs; life -> fills; negentropy -> tightens; and so on? How about the bottom lines: FEAR -> HIDES; SILENCE -> STILLS; DEATH -> EMPTIES; ENTROPY -> LOOSENS; and so on? (Note, the bottom line reads from right to left.)
Next, read each boxed set of four Correlations together. For example, “Need seeks; FEAR HIDES”, “Sound stirs, SILENCE STILLS”, and so on. (Again: They read in a clockwise direction, the top line from left to right, the bottom line from right to left.)
Can you feel the subtle circular link between the set of four words in each box above? Now try switching the verb pairs. For example, “Need stirs, FEAR STILLS”, “Sound lives, SILENCE DIES”, “Life seeks, DEATH HIDES”, and so on. Some make more common sense than others do. The less sensible ones invite deep intuitive deliberation.
Through the Yin Yang Lens
Yin and Yang are our thinking mind’s last stop on the road to chapter 56’s, This is known as mysterious sameness. In other words, they are the simplest, most direct way to discern difference before ceasing to differentiate. Next comes, Correlations (p.565). Correlations do require diligent thought, yet severely limit the risk of dreaming up clever rationalizations. Such sophisticated thought only enables clever people to rationalize their needs and fears. As chapter 18 has it, When cleverness emerges There is great hypocrisy.
This rationalization process goes something like this. We feel strong primal emotions: need, fear, anger, envy, etc. These feelings initiate thoughts that mirror those feelings. If you feel anger, you’re likely to think angry thoughts. If you feel a need for something, you’re likely to think up all the reasons why you should satisfy the need. These thoughts feed back into and reinforce the initial emotions that got the thought-ball rolling. This makes it difficult to be impartial and self-honest enough to make headway, as chapter 16 notes…
Pleasure’s the Bait…
Buddha said in his second truth, “Pleasure is the bait; the result is pain”. It is one of Nature’s finest hoodwinks. Pleasure attracts living things toward that which benefits survival. On the other hand, seeing beneath the attractive surface often reveals the hook you may want to avoid. This wisdom is also a survival advantage. (See How the Hoodwink Hooks, p.100)
Valuing life for the experience, with a bit less regard for the pleasure or pain of the experience, gives one a survival advantage. Wariness of pleasure—the driver of life’s actions—even as instinct clamors for immediate satisfaction, is naturally difficult. “A peace that is ever the same”, as the Bhagavad Gita puts it, is only possible by increasing impartiality in regards to pleasure and pain. With a greater “Take it or leave it” attitude, life flows a bit smoother. You suffer when its time comes, and you enjoy when its time comes. As the old Zen saying put it, “In winter I shiver; in summer I sweat”.
A helpful rule I recognized years ago goes like this: Short-term pleasure (leads to) long-term pain. Short-term pain (leads to) long-term pleasure. A good parallel is the handling of guns. If you assume the gun is always loaded you will be more careful and avoid shooting yourself. Likewise, if you assume short-term pleasure easily leads to long-term pain, you’ll be more careful and more likely to avoid being ‘hooked’. Obviously not all short-term pleasure leads to long-term pain, or vice versa. Each person must investigate their own life to know where, when, and how much this rule applies to them. In any case, knowing how Nature works helps us know how to deal with Her.
A Symptom’s Point Of View 2938
A symptom’s point of view does more than anything I’ve found to carry out chapter 4’s counsel… Subdue its sharpness, separate its confusion, Soften its brightness, be the same as its dust. (photo: is this weirdly ugly or awesomely beautiful?)
The symptom’s point of view is about managing how we judge the world. The innate way of judging the world is actually a reflection of the needs and fears of the person (or other animal) judging. Of course, this occurs sub-cognitively. People aren’t generally self-reflective enough to know this as they pass judgment on the world. For example, if I’m afraid of snakes, I’m likely to judge snaky things as weird and ugly, or perhaps on a positive note, awesome and beautiful!
Then again, fear and need can often link indirectly to the judgments we make. For example, judging rich people “bad”, doesn’t necessarily mean one fears them, or needs money. Nevertheless, rich people represent some tangential issue that resides in a critic’s personal fear or need. Often, our fairness instinct triggers the negative bias toward the rich, (google [Unfair Trade: Monkeys demand equitable exchanges]). Such instinctive emotion overwhelms any wish we have for making fair and impartial judgments. Yet, there is a way around this instinct-driven dilemma.
Simply asking, “Why is this (you name it) the way it is” before passing either a positive or negative verdict helps avoid falling into a subjective bias-driven trap. For example, when I see someone behaving inappropriately, I ask, “What does he need or fear that drives him to such behavior?” Pausing to mull this over helps deflect the drama of judgment and ensuing conflict. This allows my need and fear to avoid contending with another’s need and fear. Chapter 8’s, It is because it does not contend that it is never at fault describes the liberating benefit. What’s more, viewing life this way reveals hidden facets of life that I’d otherwise miss noticing.
What is evil?
The symptom’s-point-of-view offers another way to interpret the proverb, “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. Our sense of evil crops up when life doesn’t match how we feel life ‘should be’, and those ‘should be’ ideals simply arise out of our own needs and fears. Conversely, nature ‘in the wild’ isn’t evil, although, as chapter 5 observes, Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs. (photo: see, hear, and speak no evil)
Pondering the circumstances behind troubling issues helps us avoid making snap judgments. Instead, we have a chance to explore an ever-expanding, ever-deepening web of circumstances that created these issues in the first place. That eventually leaves the mind nearly empty and, as chapter 4 describes it, Deep like the ancestor of every-thing. The urge to “judge a book by its cover” is all but impossible as we become more aware of what is actually naturally so. See See No Evil, p.210.
The Nutty Things We Do 3370
While pulling myself into an odd yoga shape this morning, I thought, this is nuts! No normal animal on the planet would do this. In fact, no other animal does most of the things our species does. Working, resting, and engaging in the basic biological functions is all that we have in common with other species. Yet, we even go out of our way embellishing those aspects! Just consider those high-end fancy bathrooms out there.
The common view is to see all this as being what makes us special, superior, and advanced… “Higher” beings we think. Looking at this from a symptoms point of view (p.141) helps avoid such pat ourselves on the back biases.
For example, my yoga work is simply a convenient, efficient way for me to compensate for the lack of nature’s pushback. Nature is always pushing back on living creatures in the wild, preventing them from willfully innovating (#16) to the point of imbalance. When doing yoga in India, I noticed how it was only the wealthy Indians, by and large, who had the time, inclination, and need to do yoga. The lower classes had their hands full with basic survival.
All cultural taboos and ethical proscriptions are symptomatic of our effort to find balance. Namely, we avidly conform to taboos and proscriptions as a means to counterbalance the instability and disconnection wrought by civilization… especially its overwhelming use of tools and language. The resulting disconnection from the natural forces other animals experience creates varying degrees of physiological, sociological and psychological imbalance. Unfortunately, our efforts never truly restore balance and so an “improved” set of taboos and proscriptions eventually comes along. Oddly, all this goes on without us ever having any sense of why or even of the problem.
A natural predisposition to take the easy way influences all our life’s activities. In the wild, this seldom leads to difficulties. As chapter 5 puts it, Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs. Nature’s ruthlessness is always pushing back on the natural urge to avoid difficulty. Civilized life strips away as many nature-induced difficulties as possible. However, the original instinct to take the easy way remains part of our DNA. As a result, we swing dreadfully out of balance.
To compensate, we often pursue challenging activities in an attempt to appease a natural inclination to feel life meaningful and balanced. Like a pendulum willfully riding the waves of fear and need, we swing one way and the other, constantly seeking the happier way. There is nothing actually superior or advanced about us. All we are doing is struggling to maintain enough balance on the one hand, to compensate for our extreme success at avoiding Mother Nature’s wild side.
To be sure, this is not a flattering view of our species. We prefer the positive stories we’ve created for ourselves, such as God created us in His image and the like. Does our self-aggrandizing view serve us? In other words, does living a lie serve us better than self-honesty? Well, I opt for the latter! As chapter 16 observes, Impartiality to kingliness, Kingliness to heaven, Heaven to the way, The way to perpetuity. I find that taking the effort to consider life from a symptoms point of view (p.141), drawing on self-honesty as it does, takes a huge step in that direction.
John Cleese, A Taoist? 5085
John Cleese has given some very witty talks on creativity in which he comes off as a de facto Taoist, or as I like to say, a small ‘t’ taoist. Well, I suppose anyone with contrarian views is potentially a de facto ‘t’aoist. (photo: john cleese)
To get the most from this post, google this short video [youtube john cleese blindspot]on the blind spot. The most striking part comes toward the end when he describes the Blind Spot, which I feel parallels the Peter Principle. (For more, google [John Cleese on Creativity (video from a training)].)
The Dunning–Kruger effect
Actually, a blind spot, scotoma, is an obscuration of the visual field. John Cleese borrows the term to describe a kind of cognitive bias. Wikipedia has an academic entry that parallels this somewhat. Here is a short excerpt.
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability as much higher than it really is. Dunning and Kruger attributed this bias to a metacognitive incapacity, on the part of those with low ability, to recognize their ineptitude and evaluate their competence accurately. Their research also suggests corollaries: high-ability individuals may underestimate their relative competence and may erroneously assume that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others.
The Blind Spot
John Cleese’s idea of backing off in order to move forward, and the humorous way he talks about the “blind spot”, parallels core Taoist principles.
For example, his comments about the “blind spot” are another way of addressing chapter 71’s, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. His take on this also parallels chapter 70’s My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice.
What causes this “blind spot”, and why does “sleeping on it” work, are questions that crop up. The word agenda comes immediately to mind. An agenda blinds me to the big picture. The whole point of an agenda is to narrow the focus of life to a linear plan safely inside-the-box. To sleep on it, I naturally must relax the urgent aspect of my agenda. That distance often allows me to wake up seeing a broader outside-the-box way around the current problem. Sleep makes it easier to see the forest through the trees.
The next question that comes to mind is what initiates my agenda in the first place? Clearly, fear and need play a central role. These primal emotions fuel any agenda arising from my desires and ideals — the thinking side of need(1). Next, ensuing thoughts tend to block out or otherwise skew perception to favor these emotions – and voila! I end up in an ‘emotion fuels thought -> thought fuels emotion’ vicious circle with its inherent blind spots.
How do I know I have a blind spot? Any stimuli that directly affects my agenda, hidden or not, will produce symptoms. One of the most evident symptoms is anger, or its counterpart escape, i.e., fight or flight. Any sign of either ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ is a symptom of a probable blind spot and helps reveal my agenda. This is where the courage of self-honesty can come to my rescue. Fortunately, as chapter 63 notes, Difficult things in the world must have their beginnings in the easy. The easy beginning, in this case, is simply accepting that anger is a symptom of my blind spot, and therefore important, if I actually value being true to myself.
Seeing beyond my blind spot is only half the journey. I also have what I’d call a “crippled spot”. How do I now practice what I preach, as it were? Emotion creates the blind spot, yet ironically, I draw on emotion to propel me past it. This parallels Buddha’s Eight Fold Path: First comes seeing my possible blind spot (Right Comprehension). Next comes remembering my possible blind spot (Right Resolution, Right Thought), and finally comes the emotional will to live in accord with what I know (Right Effort, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living).
Emotion is what veers my life into blind spots, yet emotion is what pushes me to strive diligently to follow the way. As chapter 59 says, Following the way from the start he may be said to accumulate an abundance of virtue. Just to be clear however, chapter 38 cautions me, A man of the highest virtue does not keep to virtue and that is why he has virtue. Thus, making emotion (desire, need, fear, worry) the villain is as shortsighted as turning a blind eye to their negative influence on my life. The “good” and “bad” always go hand in hand.
(1) Viewed more closely, desire seems to be an amalgamation of instinctive emotion — gut need — and thinking. Without that thinking side, spontaneous need would move us just as it does for all other animals. Need, and its source spring fear, is a primal driving force in life. Without it, we’re dead — literally. Any misgivings we have need to focus on the thinking side of desire. Thinking beats the drum of emotion, easily making mountains out of the molehills of need and fear.
My Battle With Tobacco 7116
Researcher say nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. Perhaps, but then I only know the nicotine side of this. My story has many twists and turns which come to an ironic end. If you’re in a hurry for the Taoist aspect, skim some and skip to the ending, The Long Journey’s End.
I began smoking when I came down with strep throat while in the Air Force. The sergeant told me that smoking would help with the pain, and it did. That I took him up on the offer was ironic for I was seriously into yoga at the time: eating vegetarian, doing asanas, and what now seems to me like goofy cleansing practices, i.e., shatkarma (1). (photo: 1961, in the usaf barracks beginning yoga)
Fast forward a few years to wintertime in Perth, Australia, riding a motorcycle and smoking roll-my-owns. I’d ride to work in the morning and would have to wait until my fingers thawed enough to roll one. It was then I promised myself that I’d quit on my 21st birthday, and I did without batting an eye. My will power was at its zenith… Downhill was where my will power would head, only to reach rock bottom in the Sahara desert seven years later — but that’s another story. (perth, australia 1963, taking “artistic” license)
My vow to quit worked perfectly that first time. I knew I would have my last cigarette when I reached twenty-one as I had promised myself. Even so, I took up smoking again about a year later while staying with hill tribe people in Thailand. They smoked their homegrown tobacco in cool, long stem pipes. How could I resist. I easily quit again… only to take up rolling-my-own again a few years later using a tasty local-grown Vietnamese tobacco. After returning to the more peaceful surroundings of Thailand and Malaya, I came across a pleasant and somewhat sweet cigarette rolled in banana leaves (I believe). They were so good that when I boarded a ship for Japan, I abruptly quit smoking again rather than switch to commercial tobacco. Somehow, quitting was still as easy as starting again.
I began smoking again in Sweden over a bottle of wine shared with a new Swedish girl friend who offered me a cigarette. Drinking and smoking go so well together… relapsing is easy! Yet, I doubt that I was truly hooked even then. Cigarettes were so expensive in Sweden that I didn’t really make it a habit there. Beside, we were saving our money to hitchhike south to West Africa come winter.
The next time I remember taking up smoking was some years later during a rough patch in my marriage with Ingela (the same Swedish girl). We patched things up, quit our jobs in Japan, and traveled West back toward Sweden. On the way, we stopped in India to study yoga at Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, still smoking I think.
When we reached Sweden, I decided to quit smoking yet again. This time turned out to be an ordeal! I finally decided to take myself to the point of revulsion and create an aversion. That had worked for whiskey. I drank so much the first time that just the odor would be enough to send shivers down my spine for decades. The day came and I smoked one cigarette after the other until I’d polished off a whole pack. I looked and felt like I was going to die for a while. Indeed, Ingela nearly called for an ambulance. Well, I recovered and it worked for about a week! I had finally become utterly addicted to tobacco. Interesting that it took so long to hook me fully, and from then on, I continued to struggle with it. For a while, I’d limit myself to only smoking butts which I found on the ground. Perhaps that was the last straw in our marriage. Ingela could take no more of my weird, eccentric, unconventional nature.
Traveling through South America with Leslie, my future and final wife, I limited myself to buying one cigarette at a time from local folks. We soon returned to USA to settle down, at which time I started a garden and began to grow my own tobacco. Smoking my own homegrown was the best. Yet, I really did want to quit. I tried various gimmicks, the aversion thing, throwing my pipe into the lake, making “contracts” with Leslie, i.e., she wanted to lose weight, I wanted to stop smoking. (ecuador 1980, hiding behind a puff of smoke)
The Long Journey’s End
Finally, I just came to the end of my rope. I accepted that I was destined to be a life long smoker. I gave up all notions of ever quitting. I’d even begun to give up the notion that I had any free will to choose (p.587) anything at all in life. I finally began to see that visceral needs and fears, and nothing more, always appeared to drive my actions. Doubting free choice certainly made utter acceptance of my smoker’s fate easy, if not seemingly inevitable. (at home 1987, with son luke smoking my home grown tobacco)
Chapter 22 may best illustrate the oddest facet of this story — the Taoist element:
Within a week of complete submission to my destiny as a smoker, I quit smoking. Of course, I’d quit smoking before, and in recent decades painfully so. This time quitting was completely and uniquely passive; my addiction just fell away from me like water off a duck’s back. I had finally taken the lower position; I’d stopped battling with myself over conflicting needs, i.e, I want to quit vs. I need to smoke. As chapter 61 says,
Using stillness, I had overcome the male. I had adopted the lower position and the battle ended. This signaled the end of my journey. My total submission allowed the dust of the battle between my needs and fears to settle. I could see what I truly wanted of life – not the battle, not the quitting per se, but rather peaceful self-honesty. If that meant smoking, so be it; it that meant not smoking, so be it.
Chapter 36 hints at the evolution of this,
Deep down more than anything, I didn’t want to be a slave to the addiction. The only way I could free myself was through total surrender to the addiction. The process of life can be most baffling which brings me back around to Chapter 1 and the question: “To be a slave or to be free?”
(1) I can’t remember why I was drawn to or even knew about yoga. Yoga in those days was not common. I do remember picking up a yoga book in a Denver bookstore.
Beyond Spooky 12631
The November issue of Science News, Beyond Spooky, was dedicated to “quantum weirdness” (1). I love this side of physics. This “weirdness” may be how it is possible, despite nature’s bio-hoodwink (p.11), to sense more than just the tip-of-the-iceberg of reality. Biology requires living things to perceive reality in a way that promotes survival and evolution. I can’t imagine any biological reason why any living thing would be able to perceive more than that, but living things can and do, as humans demonstrate. I suspect all living things do at some level.
I can see why biology needs to make it difficult for life to perceive anything but what is necessary for survival. The indistinct and shadowy side of reality conceals itself behind the bio-hoodwink’s effect on living things. Frankly, an ability to know, and especially feel, the quantum non-locality connecting ALL things would weaken any competitive instincts driving living things to survive. We’d all easily personify chapter 64’s, Therefore the sage desires not to desire, And does not value goods which are hard to come by. That’s not how nature works. That sounds good only because we innately do mostly the opposite, and yet we are able to catch glimpses of this non-local universality.
As it happens, science enables us to perceive how nature works enough to learn how to use stones to crack nuts, to harness fire, to work with clay, to fly to the moon… and now it allows us to begin to perceive shadows of nature’s whole despite the bio-hoodwink. How? Is it not because, we are part-and-parcel of nature’s whole (2).
Google [Like fate of cat, quantum debate is still unresolved] by the Editor in Chief, Tom Siegfried for links to the quantum entanglement articles. I’ll paste the introduction here.
In the tapestry of 20th century physics, virtually every major thread is entangled with the name of Albert Einstein. He was most famous for the theory of relativity, of course, which rewrote Newton’s laws and set modern theoretical cosmology in motion. But Einstein also played a major role in the origins of quantum theory and in perceiving its weird implications — including entanglement, a mystery named by Erwin Schrödinger in a paper based on an experiment imagined by Einstein.
Entanglement is now one of the hottest research fields in physics. It is pursued not only for insights into the nature of reality, but also for developing new technologies, as Laura Sanders notes in a special section marking the 75th anniversary of Einstein’s entanglement paper (and another quantum legend, Schrödinger’s half-dead, half-alive cat).
Despite his contributions to quantum theory, Einstein didn’t like it. He believed that its weirdness indicated an incomplete theory that accounted for observed phenomena but was silent on invisible elements of reality that produced the weirdness. As I describe in this issue, Einstein clashed with Niels Bohr, who found it meaningless to ascribe reality to anything unobservable. Bohr outdebated Einstein, but adherents to Einstein’s views remain vocal today.
Today’s debate sometimes gets acrimonious. It was not that way with Einstein and Bohr – their disagreement did not erode their deep mutual respect. Their conflicting ideas simply reflected differences in their worldviews, shaped by their personalities and scientific backgrounds. Einstein valued simplicity and clarity; Bohr embraced ambiguity. Einstein was a loner, working for the most part in isolation; Bohr surrounded himself with the brightest physicists of the day at his Copenhagen institute. Einstein’s initial scientific success came from finding unities in phenomena – matter’s identity with energy, for instance. Bohr explained the atom by emphasizing the incompatibility of classical and quantum physics.
For Bohr, quantum mysteries such as the dual wave-and-particle nature of light reflected the richness of a complicated universe. Einstein wanted a simpler, unified theory from which complexity would emerge logically, sans weirdness. Physicists have pursued Einstein’s goal within a quantum framework, without much success. It’s unclear whether future progress will come from avoiding quantum weirdness, or by making it even weirder.
The first article is Clash of the Quantum Titans. I’ll paste here a few choice passages that caught my eye and stirred my commentary:
At the heart of these disputes is the very nature of reality itself, and whether quantum physics is the last word on how to describe it. Zeilinger, of the University of Vienna, advocates the standard quantum view of reality’s fuzziness. “It turns out that the notion of a reality ‘out there’ existing prior to our observation … is not correct in all situations,” he points out.
Yet some physicists cling to the prejudice that cause-and-effect determinism will someday be returned to its privileged status, and physics will restore objectivity to reality.
“I basically understand why people have this position,” Zeilinger responds. “But the evidence is overwhelming that this approach would not succeed.”
Physicists who hold fast to cause-and-effect determinism demonstrate the power of nature’s hoodwink. We are neurologically set up to see things that way, which makes non-locality so mind-blowing. The Taoist view expressed in chapter 1, These two are the same, but diverge in name as they issue forth, and chapter 2, Thus Something and Nothing produce each other (3), slams the door shut on cause-and-effect. Cause-and-effect offers a linear view of reality, while produce each other offers a more circular one, so to speak. One that is more consistent with quantum weirdness. It is intriguing how people millennia ago, with only intuition guiding them, could realize what modern scientists with high tech instrumentation can now verify. Having verification certainly appears to help us see through nature’s hoodwink.
“The particles and fields are very, very crude statistical descriptions,” Hooft says. “Those particles and those fields are not true representatives of what’s really going on.”
Zeilinger, on the other hand, does not expect the future to return physics to the past. It is more likely, he suggested at the Turin conference, that an advanced theory going beyond today’s quantum mechanics will be even more counterintuitive.
“At the end of the day,” he says, “the situation is such that when we ever succeed — and I think we will succeed to build a new theory even beyond quantum physics — when we have the new theory, people who attack quantum theory today … would love to have quantum mechanics back.”
The Taoist world-view seems to go “even beyond quantum physics”. Why? Because it acknowledges the essential role of Nothing and weakness that chapter 40 notes. Up to now science only allows itself to deal with the something side of reality. This is necessary now, but eventually science must seriously recognize the other side of the coin—Nothing.
The other article to google is [Everyday Entanglement: Physicists take quantum weirdness out of the lab]. I’ll paste a few choice excerpts and my comments.
The first revolution peaked when Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger introduced the term entanglement (a translation of the German Verschränkung) in a 1935 paper, inspired by a thought experiment proposed the same year by Albert Einstein and collaborators Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen. The thought experiment demonstrated that when two objects interact in a particular way, quantum physics requires them to become connected, or entangled, so that measuring a property of one instantly reveals the value of that property for the other, no matter how far away it is.
“No reasonable definition of reality” could permit two objects to be mysteriously entwined across great distances, Einstein and his collaborators complained in Physical Review (SNL: 5/11/35, p. 300). There must be more to reality, Einstein believed, than quantum theory described. But rather than undermining quantum physics, the EPR paper, as it became known, became fodder for other scientists who showed that this unreasonable connection was in fact real. If quantum rules applied in everyday life, as soon as Peyton saw his quantum coin land in Seattle, he would know the outcome of Eli’s toss — even if Eli’s game were across the country or on the moon.
The entwining between objects across great distances supports the Oneness of which many religions speak. This parallels chapter 32’s the uncarved block when it says, only when it is cut are there names. As soon as there are names one ought to know that it is time to stop. Nature’s hoodwink can’t totally conceal a sense of Oneness (non-local reality) from an impartial consciousness. The problem is that cutting the uncarved block inherently biases perception, making impartial awareness nigh impossible. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565).
Yet despite all the progress, there remains a deep mystery at the core of entanglement. “I want to be able to tell a story,” Gisin says, “and I cannot tell you a story of how nature manages the trick.”
Perhaps telling that story requires using a teaching that uses no words, as chapter 43 puts it. Is the nature of how we think standing in the way?
“Most of us, at least in the year 2010, are prepared to live with the weird properties of quantum mechanics at the level of single atoms or electrons,” Leggett says. “Most people are much less happy to live with it at the level of Schrödinger’s cat.”
Like the heft of NFL players, the size of entangled objects is steadily creeping upward. The superconductors entangled by Martinis’ team are large enough to see with the naked eye. And a blob of thousands of photons and a centimeter-long crystal have, in separate experiments, been entangled with a single photon.
The entanglement occurring on a real world scale disturbs some scientists. This reminds me of how the Catholic Church freaked out on evidence that the earth revolved around the Sun. Historically speaking, that was like yesterday. Science is just at the dawn of knowing the world as it really may be, at least materially.
With all the grand promise that entanglement has for changing the way information is handled, the biggest question around it — why it happens — remains unanswered. It’s easy to explain why an egg changes as it fries and why a car runs, Gisin says. Even though scientists can measure it, at its heart, the disconcerting quantum effect remains a mystery. “There is simply no story in spacetime that can tell us how this happens,” he says
Science rests on a foundation of provable facts. This creates an irresolvable problem if a deeper truth lies in what chapter 14 calls, the image that is without substance. In a sense, the question is the answer. This entangled way to see the mystery becomes a way to resolve it. In the end, chapter 10 brings us back to reality… When your discernment penetrates the four quarters are you capable of not knowing anything?
(1) Google [The Nonlocal, Entangled, Conscious Universe – Menas Kafatos]. See also, http://www.sciencenews.org/article/fate-cat-quantum-debate-still-unresolved#stories
(2) How can one ever see beyond the biological hoodwink? My guess is that quantum entanglement influences consciousness at the synapse level. If so, our most subtle perceptions must be entangled with ALL. This would affect people in numerous ways and could account for some of the “weirdness” found in human cognition.
(3) Interestingly, the “observer effect” in quantum physics seems to parallel chapter 2’s complementary view of opposites.
Only here, physics describes these opposites as wave vs. particle, i.e., wave vs. particle correlate to yin vs. yang, Nothing vs. Something, etc. Briefly, a particle cannot manifest in reality—that is, ordinary space-time as we know it—until we observe it. Until observed, it is both a wave and a particle… profound sameness. Quantum physics calls this observation affect phenomenon “collapse of the wave function” or the “observer effect.” In Taoist terms, this means that when we observe and categorize one aspect of nature we disclose, or perhaps more accurately create, its opposite. Does this feel nonsensical? Luckily, there is no need to ‘understand’ this; simply trusting your perceptions less is more than enough. Again, as chapter 71 advises, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
Small ‘t’ Taoists 1763
I got to thinking over yesterday’s Beyond Spooky (p.149) post. In particular, I was wondering what effect, if any; the capitalization of proper names has on Western thought. One thing I appreciate about Chinese characters is the lack of capitalization. The character 道 (dào or tao) means road, way, path; channel, course; way, path; doctrine, principle; Taoism, Taoist; superstitious sect; line; say, talk, speak; think, suppose. However, the only way to distinguish between road and capital ‘T’ Taoism is through context, not capitalization. By design, capitalization skews perception toward elitism — or at least does nothing to counteract it.
I think of myself as a small ‘t’ Taoist, but my computer automatically changes the small ‘t’ that I type to a capital T. Thinking of myself as a small ‘t’ rather than a capital ‘T’ Taoist feels more egalitarian, impartial, and connected to the whole. In other words, less tribal and more in line with chapter 67…
Without capitalization, the way resembles nothing out of the ordinary. With capitalization, The Way lends an air of distinction and promotes a wall of difference. This is just the opposite of vast and resembles nothing.
Such walls only heighten the perceived difference between groups, be they political, religious, ethnic, sports, nation-states, etc. While such tribal associations are innate and natural, walls only hinder comprehension of chapter 56’s This is known as mysterious sameness. As chapter 20 puts it, Vulgar people are clear. I alone am drowsy. Vulgar people are alert. I alone am muddled.
Love 3426
Soon after we met, my future to be wife said, “I love you”. That moment had all the ideal romantic overtones one could ask for… us out in the forest, a moonlit summer’s night. Being the bubble-busting bum I am, I replied with something like, “What do you mean by love? What’s love?” Frankly, the word had lost its allure after my ex-wife dumped me the year before (1). This word has piqued my curiosity again, now that my sons are dating. The word love offers a good example of the wobbly nature of words… and language over all.
Many words are synonymous with love. The most synonymous, in my view, are the simple words need and like. I can say I love, like or need ice cream, sunny days, you, and everyone. Each of these words, like, need, and love work equally well. Not surprisingly, my thesaurus doesn’t see it that way.
Generally, more passion (emotion) is associated with love than with like or need. This shows how unstable, if not outright contradictory, language can be. It enables us to rationalize life anyway we wish. Seeing love and need as fundamentally meaning the same thing makes this more difficult to do. It brings the whole issue down to need, and need’s origin—fear, the bedrock of emotion.
I know love conveys a special meaning of which we are all fond. In the special meaning we sow the seeds of hypocrisy, however well intentioned we may be. To say love is simply the wolf of need in sheep’s clothing sounds cynical at first. We often use the word to convey a special meaning, all the way from our love of God and God loves us, down to love of friends and family. This is where the inconsistencies enter in.
Paraphrasing chapter 1 helps reconcile matters… The love that can be spoken of is not the constant love. By this definition, true love is non-directional and indefinable. Conversely, without the profound context of impartiality, love actually refers to some aspect of need.
Consider these Correlation pairs(2). The active, or yang, are on top; the passive, or yin, are on the bottom. The word love, as it is often used, correlates more to the active side; truer love would correlate more to the passive side. These can be read in a clockwise direction. For example, the first set reads thus: need rushes love; love waits need. The next set reads: life takes death; death gives life. To make sense of these connections, it probably helps to have your mind like that of a fool – how blank!, as chapter 20 puts it.
It may help to ponder the qualities that the active yang words share with each other. Now, compare all this with the qualities that the passive yin words share with each other.
Need (active / yang) ≈rush≈life≈take≈new≈stirs≈war ≈bias≈something≈fill≈energy≈burn≈dream≈excite.
Love (passive / yin) ≈waits≈death≈give≈old≈calm≈peace ≈impartial≈nothing≈empty≈time≈quench≈reality≈bore.
(1) I was totally attached, or loyal, depending on how you look at it. I doubt I’d have ever left her. Thankfully, she had the good sense to know we were not the match made in heaven I’d talked myself into believing we were.
(2) If you’re new to Correlations, these posts may help:
Using Yin and Yang to Pop Preconceptions, p.572.
Tao As Emergent Property, p.121.
Fear Is The Bottom Line, p.139.
Learning What You Know, p.112.
What Is The Tao Actually, p.39.
Think What You Believe? Believe What You Think?, p.37.
Correlation’s Prime Directive, p.28.
Grinding Out Correlations, p.26.
Wandering Mind Is Unhappy Mind 6978
Google [Many unhappy returns for wandering minds] for research that supports watchfulness, as I call it. Left-brain science and right-brain Taoist thought are my two best resources for avoiding the Dunning–Kruger effect (p.144). Together they offer points of view from opposite ends of the awareness spectrum. Each balances the other. Alone, either one can mislead. Better yet, having an eye on both keeps my mind from wandering too far afield.
I sometime wonder why I’m a stickler for watchfulness, i.e., paying attention, mindfulness, seeing what I’ve not seen, being moment to moment. Certainly, the typical spiritual reasons are overly idealistic for me.
My practical rationale has long been that watchfulness is a core survival asset for all life. Any prey’s wandering awareness is its predator’s windfall. Likewise, any predator’s wandering awareness is its prey’s windfall. Although in truth, I haven’t really advocated watchfulness because of this. So why have I felt watchfulness as vital for as long as I can remember? Interestingly, this research helps show how nature entices my mind to value watchfulness. Obviously, paying attention focuses my wandering mind and that makes me feel happier.
Survival can also benefit from a lack of watchfulness, besides the advantages mentioned above for predator and prey. Wandering awareness is a source spring of creativity. Simply put, I only see what I haven’t seen by taking my eye off the ball. This allows my mind’s gaze to wander outside its box. Therefore, I imagine life’s goal is finding an optimal balance between focused and wandering awareness. Indeed, finding an optimal balance across all aspects of life must be the true definition of health. This pursuit of optimal balance must also account for the bewildering array of diversity we see throughout nature.
The fact that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind may be one reason why we are strongly drawn to music, in the listening as well as the playing. Rhythm holds our attention, almost hypnotically at times. To this beat, add a melody ‘trail’ to hold our attention and the mind has a surefire path to follow in order to avoid its unhappy wandering. While this isn’t the most romantic rationale for our love of music, it could be closer to the truth. As chapter 81 hints, Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful.
When I finally returned to this country to settle down, I listened to lots of talk radio. At the time, I thought I was just reacquainting myself with this culture after being absent for so many years. Looking back, I can see how it also kept me feeling happier (I’ve never been one for listening to music). These days, my mind engages with the moment much more, intuitively watching to spot new connections… and writing down some of what I stumble upon. I suppose a growing curiosity to catch a glimpse of what chapter 56 calls mysterious sameness keeps me interested and happy minded.
Importantly, I don’t “choose” to use my mind this way. It happens naturally and this research may explain why. It is how my mind can avoid wandering around in the void feeling bored or lonely. Come to think of it, the yearning to notice connections may play a large role in every activity humans engage in: music, games, science, literature, gossip, sex… you name it!
A wandering mind is really a lost, empty mind. It is a mind wandering around looking for any way to avoid the void. The reason it’s less than happy is because life is less meaningful when awareness is wandering around, essentially looking for something meaningful. Sure, an empty mind aware of the flowing moment feels meaningful, but only very briefly. When that awareness wanes, as it naturally must, meaningfulness ebbs and mind wanders off looking for another meaningful engagement. The process of a meditative life is feeling the meaningful flowing moment, then wandering away, then returning—a cyclic ebbing and flowing (1). How long each cycle lasts depends on one’s innate personality. Google [One Head, Two Brains NPR].
Overall, this awareness issue is certainly not subject to our control, i.e., free will (p.587), despite our beliefs and wishes to the contrary! Our difficulty as a species arises from our ignorance of how thoroughly nature controls everything. We only feel we are in control, and I’m sure all animals feel likewise. The universal drive to control, which all animals share, then cause us to think and believe (p.591) we have control. As chapter 71 warns, To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. To compound matters, we have an illusion of free will that I assume originates in the ego, i.e., the “illusion of self” (see Buddha’s 2nd Noble Truth, p.604). Thankfully, science is steadily revealing the animal we are.
(1) I notice a synergy between the two sides of awareness. The clear side articulates, yet can’t see beyond the thinkable — the trees. The wandering side can see beyond what is thinkable — the forest that is Murky like muddy water as chapter 15 notes. They are complementary — clear and muddy. They work together well as long as we don’t expect one to walk in the other’s shoes.
Wandering Mind Is Unhappy Mind
A wandering mind often stumbles downhill emotionally. People spend nearly half their waking lives thinking about stuff other than what they’re actually doing, and these imaginary rambles frequently feel bad, according to a new study that surveyed volunteers at random times via their iPhones.
People’s minds wander at least 30 percent of the time during all activities except sex, say graduate student Matthew Killingsworth and psychologist Daniel Gilbert, both of Harvard University. Individuals feel considerably worse when their minds wander to unpleasant or neutral topics, as opposed to focusing on current pursuits, Killingsworth and Gilbert report in the Nov. 12 Science.
These new findings jibe with philosophical and religious teachings that assert happiness is found by living in-the-moment and learning to resist mind wandering, Killingsworth says.
Mind wandering serves useful purposes, he acknowledges, such as providing a way to reflect on past actions, plan for the future and imagine possible consequences of important decisions. “We may tend to reflect on things that went poorly or are a cause for worry,” Killingsworth proposes. “That’s not a recipe for happiness, even if it’s necessary.”
In his new study, people’s minds actually wandered more often to pleasant topics than to unpleasant or neutral topics. But those reveries offered no measurable mood boost over thinking about tasks at hand, the researchers found.
It’s important to note that the new data apply only in the short run, comments psychologist Jonathan Schooler of the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Positive flights of fancy may lead to creative problem solving and planning that makes people happier down the road,” he speculates.
[C]Illusions, Everywhere I Think 2512
I was thinking today about how readily we accept the reality of optical illusions over reasoning illusions. Certainly, the optical illusions are easier to spot. I imagine reason based illusions are not easy to notice because we have such deep-seated faith in what we think.
Why do we trust our thinking sixth sense so deeply? From a symptoms point of view (p.141), we trust thought as deeply as we do simply because we need to. That is obvious I suppose, although it is curious how easy it is to overlook the obvious.
Ironically, our thinking sense (cognition) is likely our most unreliable sense. For one thing, the five primary senses receive their input directly. For thought, the input is derivative. In other words, thought relies on preconceptions — names, words, and a native language — to shape its interpretation of direct sensory input. This input, woven into thought by our native language, becomes the myths, expectations, biases and aesthetics (1) that our native culture inculcates in us from infancy.
Our framework of thought relies on the secondary knowledge of names and words. For example, the word “tree” and the object it symbolizes are light-years apart to anyone who deeply feels an actual tree, i.e., Tat Tvam Asi, and compares that to an imaginary symbolic “tree”. Yet, words hold more weight. Words allow us to funnel existential reality down into comfortable and manageable stereotypes.
Despite the second-hand reality of thought, this sixth sense is our top survival trait. Our cognitive ability to operate in a virtual reality enables us to invent tools for every purpose, and tools have lifted us to the top of the food chain. Alas, our sixth sense is often too much of a good thing. As chapter 32 cautions us, Only when it is cut are there names. As soon as there are names, one ought to know that it is time to stop. Knowing when to stop one can be free from danger.
Ironically, by funneling reality down into stereotypes we divorce ourselves from an extemporaneous experience of reality. This disconnect drives us to trust our stereotypical virtual reality even more. It’s crazy! No wonder chapter 71 warns, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
(1) Chapter 2 reveals the defective character of our biases and aesthetics, The whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only the ugly; the whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad.
Belief in Nothing is Dangerous 5110
YouTube [Tucson: Descent Into Madness] for the 60 Minutes documentary about a shooting in Arizona. It offers insight into what drives a person to such violence. The perpetrator was Jared Loughner. Excerpts from an interview of two of Jared’s friends are at the end of this post.
What caught my attention was when his friends said how “Jared literally believes in nothing, nothingness”, and that “He was obsessed with how words were meaningless”. That comes awfully close to how I’d describe a Taoist. Indeed, that describes me, albeit without that worrisome “literally believes in nothing” and “obsessed with how words were meaningless”. It sounds like he didn’t have anything to counterbalance his emptiness. This reminds me of chapter 72’s, When the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them. Somehow, Jared’s mind fell into Taoist-like perceptions that he couldn’t handle emotionally. Evidently, stumbling into “nothingness” without the stabilizing influence of a Tao Te Ching-like context creates destructive forces.
Finding life meaning when the conventional forms of meaning begin to wither away requires three treasures mentioned in chapter 67, The first is known as compassion, The second is known as frugality, The third is known as not daring to take the lead in the empire. These anchor intention and counterbalance one’s loss of faith in civilization’s often-arbitrary principles and values.
A symptoms point of view (p.141) tells me that we cling to things and ideas because we need the sense of connection this provides. Thus, nothing could be worse than feeling this need without enough faith in something in which to cling. “Believing in nothingness” is the worst of both worlds. That would drive any mind into lonely isolation — madness.
Indeed, years ago I worried for a time whether sharing my unorthodox views might really disturb some people’s mind by ripping away their beliefs. I was relieved to find that I never could affect anyone’s outlook, at least for more than a few moments. We hold on to our worldview tenaciously… for dear life in fact! Yet, Jared shows why I was concerned. Obviously, Jared had no stable worldview to keep him connected and grounded. Why?
I assume neither nature (his genetics) nor nurture (his childhood circumstances) could provide the wherewithal to cope in the modern civilized world. Indeed, human cognition exacerbates the nature and nurture dynamics for all of us. Chapter 71’s warning, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty applies to our species because we merely shape our understanding to match our current visceral sense of reality. A contemporary example of this is the Islamic terrorist who kills in the name of Allah. They are “Muslim” in name only. Their visceral reality is a desperate, disconnected hell from which arises their brutal misunderstanding of Islam. Jared was a kind of “Taoist” in name only.
(See also I understand, but do I know?, p.70, Learning What You Know, p.112, and You Know, p.203, for more on Taoist cognition issues.)
From the 60 Minutes interview with Jared’s friends
“I was afraid I was going to wake up and find and see his name in an obituary in a couple of days,” Bryce Tierney, a close friend of Jared Loughner, told Pelley (the 60 Minutes’ interviewer).
”Up until he was about 19 or 20 he was always, you know, pretty enthusiastic, pretty passionate. He was always quiet but you could see that there was that passion in him. He did care, he was happy. He was always an observer and especially around the time he started getting mentally ill.”
Tierney and Conway say that’s because their friend was slipping into insanity and it was showing up in the poetry he wrote. “I started seeing heavy influence of just chaos and just non-connective patterning in his, in his poetry. Just ranting or mixing of ideas,” Conway explained.
”Did you ask him what he was driving at, what he was thinking?” Pelley asked. “Oh, yeah,” Conway replied. “And I told him, I was like, ‘Like, because I read it and I just don’t find, I find nothing. It’s like nothingness to me and he was like, ‘Exactly!’ You know, that’s where the meaning is. “People are gonna say he doesn’t believe in anything but it’s not that he doesn’t believe in anything he literally believes in nothing, nothingness.”
Tierney and Conway told “60 Minutes” Loughner was interested in a philosophy called nihilism; it essentially says life is meaningless. They say he was obsessed with the film “Waking Life” in which a man walks through his dreams listening to various philosophies.
A character in the film echoes something at the center of Loughner’s apparent delusions: that big government and media conspire to silence the average guy. To protest his lack of voice, the character in the film sets himself on fire.
Loughner told his friends reality has no more substance than dreams. “He was obsessed with how words were meaningless, you know, you could say ‘This is a cup.’ And he’d be like, ‘Is it a cup or is it a pool? Is it a shark? Is it, you know, an airplane?’ You know?” Conway said.
Playing With Dolls 2774
I’ve been amused for years by society’s attempts to blame culture for things that are obviously biological. This is the old nature vs. nurture debate. Naturally, I could never convince others that nature was at least 50% responsible by reasoned debate alone. I suppose those who blame nurture and culture most vociferously, do so because that promises feasible ways to fix societal problems. They believe that once they educate the misguided, everyone will be able to live happily ever after. On the other hand, if nature is responsible, then we are out of the loop and seemingly left helpless at the whim of Mother Nature (1).
It cheers me up whenever scientific research digs up evidence that helps settle the issue. The Science News article, Female chimps play with dolls, pushes back on blaming a supposedly male chauvinist culture for gender inequality. Here is an excerpt: (For more, google [Female chimps play with dolls].)
“Although play choices of young chimps showed no evidence of being directly influenced by older chimps, young females tended to carry sticks in a manner suggestive of doll use and play-mothering,” Wrangham says. (Child-bearing females never played with sticks and thus didn’t model such behavior for younger chimps.)
“These new data suggest that sex differences in how children play may go way back in our evolutionary lineage and predate socialization in human cultures,”
Certainly, culture plays a role. The style of the dolls girls play with will vary from culture to culture. Even so, the bottom line is nature. Our primal genetic makeup lays the foundation — the mold — upon which cultural idiosyncrasies form. The emergent property idea is a useful way to picture this natural process expressed in culture. (See Tao as Emergent Property, p.121.)
A person born 15,000 years ago with the genetic ‘balls’ to head toward the rising Sun could have been the first to discover America. A person with the same genetic makeup, a clone if you will, born today could become the first to land on Mars. Culture determines the ‘look’ (the body) of one’s actions; natural genetics determines the ‘feel’ (the spirit) of one’s actions. One caveat: Stressful nurturing during childhood can affect emotional development negatively. For example, an aboriginal kid with the same genetic makeup as an urban street thug, or a Jared Loughner, yet spared the chaos and disconnection of a modern cultural environment growing up, would naturally turn out strikingly different.
(1) The wish to avoid feeling helpless is probably one major reason that belief in free will is so irresistible. I was only able to accept the likely absence of free will as I became more comfortable with feeling helpless. I imagine embracing Buddha’s Noble Truths (p.604) played a role too.
Why God? 6887
Why God? I have not heard this question asked much… if at all. Debate focuses mostly on whose God is true, the nature of God, or does God even exist. I suppose asking “Why do we believe in God” is a zoological inquiry of sorts. That is the place to begin… After all, we are animals first. (PHOTO: JUNGLE CHURCH IN MALAYA)
I’ve long regarded the God idea as an emergent property (p.121) of our social need for leadership, i.e., an alpha male. Most, if not all, social animals have some member serving this unifying role. Being thinking apes, it is natural to imagine the existence of an alpha-leader God in his alpha-home Heaven. As social apes, we also enjoy gathering to share in the believing experience. Google [Science Connected at church, happy with life] for research on this.
Here are a few excerpts that caught my eye…
Researchers have long noted that religious people report higher levels of happiness and well-being than nonreligious folk. Lim and Putnam offer a rare glimpse, based on telephone surveys of a national sample of 1,915 adults in 2006 and 2007, of how religion improves quality of life. “Our evidence shows that it is not really going to church and listening to sermons or praying that makes people happier, but making church-based friends and building social networks there,” Lim says.
What’s more, spiritual aspects of religion do little to further well-being, the researchers say. Neither survey participants who “personally experience the presence of God” nor those who often “personally feel God’s love in life” report more well-being than people who do not. Volunteers who do and don’t believe in God or heaven with absolute certainty display comparable satisfaction with their lives.
Being on the same page of belief enhances the feeling of mutual connection.
One-third of participants who had a strong religious identity and three to five close friends in their congregation reported being “extremely satisfied” with their lives, a figure that rose to nearly 40 percent for those with 11 or more such friends. The researchers defined “extremely satisfied” as a rating of 10 on a life-satisfaction scale ranging from one to 10.
In contrast, one-fifth of churchgoers who had three to five congregational friends but didn’t identify strongly with their faith reported extreme life satisfaction. The same figure applied to nonreligious people whose friends were not part of congregations.
So, the stronger the sense of connection between folks, the more satisfied they feel. Sharing a strong religious identity intensifies the sense of connection.
Private religious practices, such as praying and holding religious services at home, also show no link to greater life satisfaction, the new report finds.
Lim emphasizes that, according to survey data, spirituality and theology bolster well-being only for people who build friendships at church.
This tells me that sharing a common identity is the essential feature, not “spirituality” per se. Shared belief in something — anything — is the glue that connects us, whether it’s politics, sports, food, music… you name it. Nevertheless, a church-like setting offers a means of social connection somewhat similar to a hunter-gatherer tribe. In those prehistoric times, people shared their entire lives, from birth to death, with several dozen people. The exceptional degree of socio-emotional security this offered died out as civilization took over the human experience. We unwittingly traded emotional comfort and security for increasing material comfort and security. Clearly, from a Symptoms Point of View, church and religion are merely symptoms of this loss, and our effort to compensate as best we can.
In addition, there is much archaeological evidence of human spirituality in the Middle Paleolithic, 200,000 years before civilization took hold. Curiously, no other animal appears to rely upon spirituality. What is the difference between other animals and us? Thought! Thinking creates a dilemma of which chapter 71 speaks, To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Belief is simply thinking that one knows. Language has overtaken the human mind so extensively as to disconnect us from the moment-to-moment experience-of-being that other animals enjoy. Spirituality simply reflects our attempt to compensate for this disconnection.
Okay, so why don’t I attend church? I lack sufficient belief. I do remember believing in God as a child, but I don’t recall when or why I dropped the belief. Years later, while hitchhiking across the Sahara Desert, I reached a faithless rock bottom. I even wished I could be a true believer like other people. Chapter 33 observes, He who perseveres is a man of purpose, and fortunately, I persevered. Indeed, perseverance and belief are all we have to make a meaningless life feel meaningful… and social connection, of course.
UPDATE 2020: Google [Why do we miss the rituals put on hold by the pandemic?] for more. Here is a brief summary of this research on ritual and synchronized activity that help bond people.
Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski observed fishermen in New Guinea in 1915. He noticed that when they stuck to the safe and reliable lagoon, they described their successes and failures in terms of skill and knowledge. However, when venturing into deeper waters, they practiced rituals such as chanting in synchrony during the journey… acts Malinowski collectively referred to as “magic.” “We find magic wherever the elements of chance and accident, and the emotional play between hope and fear, have a wide and extensive range. We do not find magic whenever the pursuit is certain, reliable and well under control of rational methods,” Malinowski wrote in 1948.
Recent studies suggest that individual ritual, such as reciting prayers, helps. But even individual rituals carry a social component. Researchers largely concur that the power of rituals rests within a larger social fabric. Rituals “are created by groups, and individuals inherit them,” Certain synchronized activities such as singing and dancing together are particularly good at amplifying group cohesion and generosity. In both sectarian and non-sectarian activities, synchrony is a potent social catalyst.
Anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse notes two basic kinds of ritual. One he calls “imagistic” rituals that fuse people together through intense moments and painful rites of passage, such as tattoos and walking on fire. The other being “doctrinal” rituals that characterize modern-day life — religious services and various rites of passage. This second type evolved as societies grew complex with the emergence of agriculture. While not binding as tightly as imagistic rituals, doctrinal rituals enable group members to both identify and unite those in their larger group and spot and police social deviants.
Water in Mind 4941
This morning’s early light and hazy sky brought back memories of arriving at Bokor Hillstation Casino in Cambodia. Light has a nostalgic effect on me as music has for many people. It must be genetic for my mother was also that way. Merely looking up into the sky can transport me back to primordial times, but that’s another story.
This was prewar Cambodia in 1964, a time of peace and enough remaining French influence to find good French bread, albeit with a few weevils baked in(1), and flan, my favorite sweet. Folks in Phnom Penh told me about a high mountain resort cool enough to grow strawberries. Cambodia was a former French colony, so baguettes and flan were for sale everywhere. Having strawberries on the side would be a special treat.
I left Phnom Penh for that cool mountain resort and reached its turn-off in the late afternoon. I left the main road and continued hitch hiking toward the resort. Hitchhiking around Cambodia was slow going in those days. It wasn’t that I didn’t get rides; it was because there were so few cars on the road. That day I probably passed up rides since I usually spent a few hours just walking along the road before sticking out my thumb. Hitchhiking in those days was not a tradition in many areas of the world, so I had to wave my hand, or do whatever, to draw attention.
Passing up any rides that day was a mistake. I had thought that at least some traffic would be going to a resort! Not one car passed which left me walking up that mountain road all night, and working up a real thirst in the process. I could hear water babbling every time the road crossed a brook. Normally I would have just hiked down off the road to quench my thirst. However, that night was the blackest I’d ever experienced outside of spelunking — it was deep cave darkness. Clouds concealed the starlight and moonlight if there was any. To top things off, this was deep in the jungle far from towns and I had no flashlight (2). This was a perfect storm for making this day memorable.
I reached the Casino at daybreak. I immediately saw why no one would have been going to this “resort” that night, or any other night. The photo above is recent, but it looks much as it did fifty years ago. It looked just about abandoned, but I do vaguely remember eating something there. I don’t remember walking back down, so I must have gotten a ride. My my, it feels so long ago.
Before the jungle with water, there was the desert with none
The only other time I experienced such intense thirst was with a few friends of mine on a four-day hike over the Catalina Mountains near Tucson Arizona. I spent much of my teenage years hiking those mountains and desert foothills around Tucson, and don’t recall ever taking water with me. I’d always find some spring, creek, puddle, or cactus to quench my thirst.
This time was different. Our difficulty began when we overtopped the mountain and began trekking across the hot flat waterless plain on the other side. Looking back, it seems like youthful folly to hike an unknown area in the desert without water. But hey, isn’t that normal for the season of youth?
A Philosophical Side to Water
I can’t let a whole post go by without an observation, now can I. Water has long been a fitting spiritual metaphor. Here’s an angle which I’ve never seen used…
Thought is like water flowing into bottomless space — the silent and void. To paraphrase chapter 5, Much thought leads inevitably to silence. Better to hold fast to the void. This sounds good in principle. As it happens, the brain has a mind of its own so thoughts can’t help but trickle down into its neural spaces. After all, nature abhors a vacuum. Space, whether it’s empty shelves, open fields, or trillions of synapses, just attracts stuff. They estimate the brain to have upwards of 1,000 trillion synapses, so the process of the mind filling up this synaptic space may be what produces the illusion of time itself. Indeed, when I cease to think, for the short time I’m able, time stands still. This is what I sense as an eternal moment.
(1) Abundant French bread was not something I expected to see in S.E. Asia. I first ran across it when I entered Laos. Laos, along with Cambodia and Vietnam were ex-French colonies, hence the French bread. As I was eating my newfound food-prize, I noticed small black bee-bee size things. I wondered if they were raisins baked into the bread, but soon I realized they were weevils. No problem, just don’t look too closely while eating. These days that helps when eating from the garden; when aphids and such are out of sight, they are out of mind.
(2) A flashlight would have been frivolous weight to carry. In those traveling days, I carried all I had in one small shoulder bag. Traveling light was worth it! I suppose material things are easier to drop by the wayside than mental things. Fortunately, the Tao Te Ching helps me drop some of that mind stuff as well.
The Story Trumps Truth 4844
Viewing life impartially is one of the least stimulating yet most pleasing experiences I know. Biased views, on the other hand, are chock full of emotional tension, highs and lows, loves and hates —exciting yet stressful! Likewise, a good story is exciting, where as plain truth is often boring. While this is evident, Correlations (1) helps me look deeper into how and why any story usually trumps the truth. We love the angles a story highlights. Honestly, without this bias there is no story.
Mea Culpa
Bias is essentially any viewpoint that highlights differences and downplays similarities, i.e., the mysterious sameness to which chapter 56 refers. Of course, bias is a matter of degree, but it begins with the very words language uses to label differences. Uh-oh, surely that includes me right now. Ironically, I must use word bias to depict ways to avoid bias. I suppose chapter 18’s When cleverness emerges there is great hypocrisy exemplifies this characteristic of language. Well, that’s humbling.
No wonder chapter 56 says, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know, chapter 23 says, To use words but rarely is to be natural, and chapter 5 says, Much speech leads inevitably to silence. Better to hold fast to the void. Now, with this necessary confession out of the way, I can proceed with my “truthful” story.
Fearsome Truth
Tracing life experience over the last 50 years to its existential roots has been an odd journey. It’s like tracking a long river upstream searching for its headwaters. Presently I find fear to be at life’s headwaters. (See Fear Is The Bottom Line, p.139.) Yet, is it really the source? After all, I used to see need as being at life’s headwaters. In any case, both fear and need play key roles in why the story trumps the truth, as a few Correlations (1) may demonstrate.
Need -> Effects
===== =====
Causes <- Fear
This Correlation proportion can be read in a circular clockwise direction, like so: Need effects fear, fear causes need. This may require some peripheral vision and intuitive feel to understand. Step back, relax and let it sink in for a moment. Note: Fear is not the cries of terror we see in frightening circumstances. Such effects are a symptom of fear. Fear, at the headwaters of life, correlates to the empty, still, silent, dark, dead, the yin complement of yang. This passive realm is the underlying origin of need… and any actions that needs trigger.
It is interesting how truth correlates to fear, i.e., truth ≈ void ≈ stillness ≈ dark ≈ death ≈ silence ≈ nothing ≈ fear, and so on. This means illusion correlates to need, i.e., illusion ≈ full ≈ action ≈ bright ≈ life ≈ sound ≈ something ≈ need. Note: In my view, truth correlates to reality. Substitute reality for truth and reread this paragraph. Do you notice anything interesting? Consider these Correlations as relative, not absolute. Thus, for example, death is more similar to reality just as life is more similar to illusion, comparatively speaking.
The murky logic of Correlations (1) indicates that truth causes need. I suppose that makes no sense… at least at first. Nevertheless, hang on; there’s more.
The Story We Want To Hear
Illusion -> Effects
====== =====
Causes <- Truth
Reading this Correlation set gives: illusion effects truth, truth causes illusion. How can truth cause illusion? Consider this as a parallel to the old saying, “behind every myth is a grain of truth”. Illusion overshadows truth, until there is no more than a grain of truth left in the illusion.
We love the story over the truth because the story provides just enough grains of truth without the bewildering, fear inducing and mind blowing whole truth… the totality! Each need or fear you feel corresponds to a slice of truth worthy of looking into. Alas, looking into one’s bottomless truth-pit of fear and need is not that pleasant. It can correspond to shooting the messenger, i.e., the act of lashing out at the blameless bearer of bad news. We hate looking at or listening to what we don’t want to see or hear.
Conversely, the stories we like are the ones that support our biases and tell us what we want to hear. While mostly fluff, the stories we feel comfortable with retain just enough truth to make them credible. Yet, we can’t escape the truth in the end; to paraphrase chapter 5, Truth, like Heaven and Earth, is ruthless, and treats the myriad creatures as straw dogs.
(1) Correlations is the best tool I’ve found for closing in on truth with a minimum of story bias. (See Using Yin and Yang to Pop Preconceptions, p.527)
If you’re new to Correlations, these posts may also help:
Tao As Emergent Property, p.121.
Fear Is The Bottom Line, p.139.
Learning What You Know, p.111.
What Is The Tao Actually, p.39.
Think What You Believe? Believe What You Think?, p.37.
Correlations Prime Directive, p.28.
Grinding Out Correlations, p.26.
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie 8606
I often mention the benefit of watching out for similarity. The more literal translation of chapter 56 puts it this way,
Focusing on differences, while often stimulating, is not as satisfying long-term. Certainly, discerning differences enhances survival… up to a point. For example, being able to distinguish a snake from a crooked stick is a survival advantage. On the other hand, imagining mountains of difference out of actual molehills of similarity is clearly counterproductive and stressful. Google [Love Makes You Increasingly Ignorant of Your Partner ABC] for research on human relationships. This research offers evidence of the wisdom to let molehills remain molehills, or as they say, “Let sleeping dogs lie”.
BASEL, Switzerland — Long-lasting marriages may thrive on love, compromise, and increasing ignorance about one another. Couples married for an average of 40 years know less about one another’s food, movie and kitchen-design preferences than do partners who have been married or in committed relationships for a year or two, a new study finds.
The subtitle of the Science News’ article on this is “Young couples are better than long-term partners at discerning each other’s preferences”. This may indicate cultural bias is creeping into this research right from the start. If you think it is better to discern things more sharply, that biases your view in that direction as these excerpts go on to show:
The psychologists observed this counter-intuitive pattern in 38 young couples aged 19 to 32, and 20 older couples aged 62 to 78. “That wasn’t what we expected to find, but this evidence lends support to a hypothesis that accuracy in predicting each other’s preferences decreases over the course of a relationship despite greater time and opportunity to learn about each other’s likes and dislikes,”
In long relationships, partners may also come to perceive an unduly large amount of similarity between themselves, the scientists add. Members of long-term relationships often attributed their own food, movie and design preferences to partners who had different opinions.
In the case of food, taste perception suffers as people get older, Hertwig notes, which could make it more difficult for long-term partners to keep track of each others’ increasingly inconsistent food likes and dislikes.
It’s also possible that older couples in the new study come from a generation in which men and women generally knew less about each other to begin with than couples do today, Hertwig says.
What’s more, long-term partners may be especially apt to tell “white lies” to each other in order to keep the relationship running smoothly, thus diluting their knowledge of one another.
Despite their relative disadvantage in predicting partners’ preferences, long-term couples reported more satisfaction with their relationships than did younger couples.
The following letter to the editor points to some of what the researchers overlooked:
As usual, there is another angle to consider. After reading Getting to not know you (SN: 11/6/10, p. 16), I felt the researchers’ assumptions were incomplete. So I asked my wife of 42 years what her favorite color was. Her response was just as I expected: “I don’t have a favorite color,” she said, “only a range of colors.” This was true for me also. Thus, I think that one factor is not that couples get to know each other less the longer they’ve been together, it is that over the years they experience more and more things, and their likes and dislikes are more complicated than when they were young. Each partner then is less likely to know what the other likes because the other has no simple answer.
Frankly, I would say it’s not “more complicated”, it is just less sharp. As we get older, we become more adept at knowing nothing as chapter 10 hints, When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, are you capable of not knowing anything? As one’s life winds down, chapter 56’s soften the brightness, be the same as dust comes more naturally. Admittedly though, explaining that can get “complicated”. The article, Getting to not know you, while accurate in facts, lacks perspective, and without that, we go around in circles.
Too much of a good thing, or not?
The Science News’ article, Making Nuanced Memories, offers another angle on the bias of better as it relates to memory. Here are a few excerpts, some of which may encourage you to adopt a healthier life style:
Researchers are discovering ways that people could encourage fresh neurons to grow, through diet and lifestyle. One day soon, medical science might offer ways to enhance memory and protect the brain from erosion that comes with age — a goal so fundamental to human existence that the ancient Greeks even worshiped a goddess of memory…
For memory to be accurate, the brain doesn’t record just an image but the entire context, says Raymond Kesner, a psychology professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “If you try to remember a story, time and place will always be important”…
Stark and others are now trying to understand why short-term memories become more difficult to capture as people get older, even among adults who remain mentally sharp into their later years. In older tissue, the newborn nerve cells appear to require greater contrasts among images and experiences before reacting and capturing a memory. As people age, Stark says, “we seem to be less good about details and specifics”…
Brain food
But researchers are also exploring ways to keep newborn neurons of old age as numerous and eager as those formed in younger years. First, scientists are identifying influences that, in animal studies, appear to decrease neurogenesis in the dentate — including stress, alcohol consumption and a high-fat diet. In addition to the enemies of neurogenesis, researchers have identified habits that protect and nurture all vintages of brain cells, including physical activity and some common components of plants…
While exercise encourages new nerve cells, a healthy diet may help keep more of those cells, and even mature cells, in top form. Research is steadily revealing compounds in fruits, vegetables and herbs that appear to enhance the survival of neurons new and old. Among the apparent brain foods: the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish such as salmon and sardines, flavonoids found in non-green vegetables and berries, and curcumin, a common component of curry. Van Praag has found that epicatechin, in green tea and chocolate, doesn’t promote the birth of neurons directly but does encourage existing neurons to sprout more connections to neighbors, improving memory. The effect is particularly strong when combined with exercise…
This article observes that the better our memory, the keener we can discern things. Clearly, the ability to make sharp distinctions is a huge survival advantage. The stated goal here is to improve this ability in older brains. That’s fine on the face of it. However, do we ever stop and ask whether we’ve arrived at too much of a good thing. Indeed, I feel we passed that point long ago. As chapter 32 says, As soon as there are names, One ought to know that it is time to stop. Perhaps our attraction to alcohol may arise from a need to turn down memory’s glare.
‘What Is Naturally So’
If challenged, few could really pin down what natural is. There are many superficial definitions of natural, some are commercial like natural food, and others are spiritual like natural healing. These imply that a non-natural reality exists. Try right now to define natural without an implied non-natural opposite side. Difficult, yes? There is transcendent beauty in the natural that has no opposite. Chapter 1 hints at this,
Frankly, we resist or reject what is naturally so if it doesn’t match our ideal of better. This better is nothing more than a projection of our self-interests. These articles exemplify our natural desire for a better memory. However, feeling any transcendent beauty of ‘what is naturally so’ can only happen when we loosen our grip on the ideals of how better any situation could or should be. As chapter 64 advices, Therefore the sage desires not to desire, or chapter 19, Have little thought of self and as few desires as possible. Well, it sounds good in theory anyway!
When Is Attachment Good?
The Tao Te Ching hints that at least some attachment is always good. As chapter 1 allows, Always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations. It helps to consider how desire and attachment relate. I consider desire to be like the glue of attachment. Although beneath it all lays the foundation—need and fear. (See Fear Is The Bottom Line, p.139, Reward, Fear & Need, p.181, and Fear Rules, p.186.)
Attachment and desire have bad reputations in some quarters. True, these easily cause imbalance. Yet, lack of desire and any resulting non-attachment can also be precarious when this goes too far. After all, life and attachment go hand in hand. They correlate (p.572): life ≈ attachment, death ≈ detachment.
life -> attaches
===== ======
detaches <- death
Reading the correlated version of this is interesting: Life attaches death; Death detaches life. Saying that death detaches life is obvious. Saying life attaches death is more subtle. Consider chapter 50’s, There are those who value life and as a result move into the realm of death, and these number three in ten. Why is this so? Because they set to much store by life.
Chapter 1’s, Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observe its secrets, hints at what we overlook when desire and attachment take over life. Overall, desire and attachment tend to cause us more headaches, as chapter 46 hints: There is no crime greater than having too many desires. Non-attachment, or as chapter19 puts it, Have little thought of self and as few desires as possible is a useful counterbalancing aspiration when we are overweight with desires and attachment to things or beliefs.
Interestingly, so much desire and attachment has fallen by the wayside as I’ve aged that I increasingly find myself on the too-few side of this coin. Sure enough, allowing yourself to have desires (1) is as difficult as ridding yourself of desires once was. As gentle as it sounds, the chapter 1’s call to allow yourself to have desires is no more realistic than ‘free willing’ yourself to have desires… or indeed rid yourself of them!
This is what I call Nature’s justice. It makes the whole idea of chapter 64’s Therefore the sage desires not to desire seem nonsensical. In other words, I desire not to be full only when I feel stuffed. This is like a brown-haired person and a blond-haired person longing for the hair color of the other. The beauty of the Tao Te Ching is that it is balanced non sense — “Rid yourself of desires” yet “Allow yourself to have desires”.
(1) Lau’s interpretation, “Allow yourself to have desires…” can be a little misleading. The literal Chinese is more like this: Hence, normally without desire so as to observe its wonder. Normally have desire so as to observe its fate.
I never had a problem allowing myself to have desire in the sense of giving myself permission. To the contrary, I’ve often gone overboard in the allowing department. The literal Chinese has a simpler matter-of-factness to it. Simply saying, “Normally have desires” avoids some of the moral and free will connotation that saying “allow desires” can evoke.
So, You Want Enlightenment, Eh? 8202 `$`
There are two phases of enlightenment. One is a sudden flash of knowing, the Zen Satori, as the Japanese call it. I suppose most people experience a degree of this at least sometime in their life. I mean, one’s bastion of belief is bound to crack a bit and let in the light of darkness (玄 xuán) at some point in one’s life.
The other phase is a rarer impartial ‘unbounded knowing’. Impartiality opens the window of awareness wider. The wider this window, the more awe-full the view, and the more essential impartiality becomes to preserving equanimity. Indeed, without impartiality, seeing the ‘big picture’ is emotionally dreadful. This can be a virtuous circle. Impartiality opens the eyes and opening eyes necessitates increasing impartiality. The more literal translation of Chapter 16’s hints at this…
The Zen Satori’s sudden flash of knowing may kick-start ‘unbounded knowing’. It helps get the ball rolling. The Bhagavad Gita describes the challenging nature of such ‘unbounded knowing’. This dialog is between two characters, the noble warrior Arjuna and Krishna (a Hindu deity corresponding to Jesus Christ).
Arjuna asks, “If thou thinkest, O my Lord, that it can be seen by me, show me, O God of Yoga, the glory of thine own Supreme Being”.
Then Krishna says, “See now the whole universe with all things that move and move not, and whatever thy soul may yearn to see. See it all as One in me.”
Krishna allows Arjuna to see what all fear to see, “I am all‑powerful Time which destroys all things.”
After Krishna reveals all, Arjuna freaks out and says, “In a vision I have seen what no man has seen before: I rejoice in exultation, and yet my heart trembles with fear. Have mercy upon me, Lord of gods, Refuge of the whole universe: show me again thine own human form.”
Krishna replies, “By my grace and my wondrous power I have shown to thee, Arjuna, this form supreme made of light, which is the Infinite, the All: mine own form from the beginning, never seen by man before.”
After Krishna returns Arjuna to normal vision, Arjuna says, “When I see thy gentle human face, Krishna, I return to my own nature, and my heart has peace”.
As we see, everything has its price, including “enlightenment”. By filtering what we see, belief helps us avoid seeing the “all-powerful Time which destroys all things”. We only see what we are looking for, and belief largely determines what we look for. ‘Ignorance is bliss’ is the price we pay for any beliefs we cherish.
How do you feel about enlightenment now?
If ignorance is no longer blissful, enlightenment may seem to be the only path forward in life. Not surprisingly, promised paths to enlightenment are more cultural hoodwink than not. As chapter 65 confides, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them.
Such hoodwinks offer safe harbors of belief that promise enlightenment, or other versions of salvation, but in fact deliver safety and sanity. Moving beyond this safety net requires nearly rising beyond oneself as chapter 16 puts it. I find it helps greatly to know the difference between, believing what I see and seeing what I believe. The former is an experience common to all life. Names and thought are not required. The latter requires names and thought, and thus uniquely human— as far as I know.
For example, when I see the Sun rise, I believe that experience. I can say I believe the Sun rises in the morning because I see it happen every day. If it stopped rising in the morning, then I would believe the Sun had stopped rising every day. This so-called belief follows experience. It states the evident, and when that changes so does belief. Thinking is not a prerequisite, so even calling this a belief is inaccurate. It feels like the essence of science.
What is uniquely human is the intangible mental world we inhabit alongside the concrete physical one. For example, a belief that the Greek Sun God, Helios, rises from the ocean at dawn each day in the East and rides in his chariot, pulled by four horses — Pyrois, Eos, Aethon and Phlegon — through the sky to descend at night in the West, doesn’t depend on experience. This belief originates and manifests itself in the imagination, tradition, education, fear, and so on. Here, you need to think to believe, and believe what you think.
So, how can we know whether we are believing what we see, or seeing what we believe? For one thing, the former tends to be a more balanced view. For example, seeing an imperfect perfection is closer to impartially seeing ‘what is’, and not simply a projection of your own needs or fears. Chapter 2 spells out nicely what a balanced view can look like:
It is because it lays claim to no merit
That its merit never deserts it.
Like all animals, we have an innate difficulty actually seeing life impartially. To do so would be unnatural. Like all animals, we are biologically set up to notice differences more than similarities — it’s survival 101. (See Balancing Difference With Similarity, p.120.) Indeed, sensing distinction is how the nervous system’s neurons function. It is distinction, not similarity, which stimulates neurons. Having perception so skewed to see differences makes us innately biased and very un-enlightened. For humans, unlike other animals, this causes us difficulty. As chapter 71 cautions, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Actually, it is more serious than that, as the more literal translation reveals, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. This explains why we, unlike other animals, feel a need for salvation, be that Enlightenment, being born again, doing drugs, getting drunk, or whatever!
Chapter 56’s reference to Mysterious sameness is useful for it shows us a way to transcend this difficulty — this disease — to a certain extent provided we truly want that. I find regarding everything I see as merely a symptom of some deeper underlying forces usually points me in that direction and gives me a better chance of channeling what chapter 14 calls the thread running through the way.
Finally, along with this talk of enlightenment it’s essential to recognize that enlightenment doesn’t make us less human. It doesn’t change us, our DNA, or the emotions than flow from DNA’s instruction set. Our core emotions and our original nature remain unaffected. Enlightenment simply and essentially neutralizes who we think we are, and in doing so returns us closer to our original nature. Chapter 16 describes it beautifully:
Returning to one’s original nature doesn’t mean life becomes blissful ease. That ideal, like the myth of Santa Claus, is only helpful to those who need it. In truth, difficulty and ease are inextricably linked. The difficult and the easy complement each other as chapter 2 puts it. Thus, as chapter 73 confides, even the sage treats some things as difficult.
Democracy as Myth 3877
All social species need their ‘alpha-male’ for governance even if that’s the queen of a beehive. Being a more complex than bees, human governance is multi-layered and hierarchical to varying degrees. Indeed, the more sophisticated the culture/civilization, the more layers—the more hierarchical. Conversely, our ancestor hunter-gatherers had few, if any, layers — no courts, parliaments, congresses, or special interest clubs.
This suggests a root reason why governing bodies always under deliver for their society’s common good, yet easily over deliver on things like the military, for example. Alas, it appears to be simply because those who lust for the power to govern—the ‘alpha-males’—are innately more hierarchical than egalitarian. Their hierarchical drive easily overwhelms egalitarian sensibilities, which will repeatedly leave the multitude ‘worker bees’ shortchanged. It wasn’t always like this however. For the when, how, and why, see The Tradeoff.
Just as a pyramid needs its base, civilization’s social hierarchy relies on the support of the governed masses. A viable government must have the Mandate of Heaven (1), as the Chinese put it. Viewed from a symptoms point of view (p.141), the particular governing system that a society adopts essentially reflects the inherent needs of that society. Nonetheless, many believe that democracy is the source of modern progress and freedom, which puts the cart before the horse. Instead, democracy is the kind of governance that is most conducive for this current era’s circumstances. Democracy is a story reflecting the needs of current economic reality rather than any genuine reality in its own right. As conditions vary, civilization’s political systems will adapt to suit.
Whether a governance system is benevolent or ruthless has little to do with whether it’s democratic. Let’s not forget, under the United State’s democratic system, we had slavery, exterminated Indians, and despoiled the environment. Moreover, citizens with the loudest mouths or the fattest wallets dominate our free speech.
In the end, it is all about power. The big dog ‘alpha-male’ is the leader of the hierarchical pack, and shows it by accumulating power and/or wealth. Civilizations have other sophisticated ways to express power, but wealth is certainly primary. In some cultures, religion, ideology, and/or the military also play a power role.
Many bemoan this power aspect and the discrepancy between what we say and what we do… ideals vs. reality. Accepting how circumstances actually are versus the story we yearn to believe is extremely challenging, especially when there are truly no quick fixes. (See The Story Trumps Truth, p.167.)
Speaking of power and wealth
More wealth increases one’s overall survival odds. Thus, any chance to gain more wealth tempts many to act rashly, which makes the stock market a perfect training ground for Taoist thought. There is nothing quite as effective as putting one’s wealth where one’s mouth is. As chapter 16 literally puts it, Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results. (See Tao Views of the Dow, p.2.)
I began experimenting with the stock market during the 2009 crash. I’ve found it to be an effective way to actually apply and test Taoist theory to real world practice. The stock market offered immediate visceral feedback as I attempted to put into practice what chapter 43 describes as The teaching that uses no words, the benefit of resorting to no action, these are beyond the understanding of all but a very few in the world.
(1) The Mandate of Heaven (天命) meant that heaven, as the embodiment of the cosmic natural order, would authorize only an effective and just person to be emperor of China. I see this more simply as whatever happens, happens naturally. Indeed, as chapter 5 notes, Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs
He Who Conquers Self 4551
The details of Buddha’s Four Noble Truths (p.604) vary somewhat depending on the source. I recently dug up the source for the most succinct and useful version that I found in Thailand long ago. At that time, I had a problem with how the Third Noble Truth was stated and so I changed a few words. Rereading the original source makes me want to reassess why I revised it back then.
The original says, “He who conquers self will be free from lust. He no longer craves and the flames of desire find no material to feed upon, thus they are extinguished.”
I changed the “conquers self” to “surrenders self”. I was immersed in the Bhagavad-Gita at the time, which advocates surrender, e.g., “no man can be a Yogi who surrenders not his earthly will”. Perhaps the idea of conquering self felt too aggressive.
As it happens, I thought back several years ago on my change and changed it back to my recollection of the original, “He who extinguishes self will be free from lust….” Now I see the original phrase is conquers self.
I see an oddly unworkable side to all this. The Second Noble Truth ends with… The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in the net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain. How is one to apply the Third Truth, which begins with He who conquers self will be free from lust, when self is an illusion to begin with. If something isn’t real, what does conquering it mean in practice? It certainly isn’t the same as conquering a physical enemy attacking you.
Another oddity is how the Third Truth continues with; He no longer craves and the flame of desire finds no material to feed upon. Thus it will be extinguished. However, the Second Truth begins by saying: The cause of suffering is lust. The surrounding world affects sensation and begets a craving thirst that clamors for immediate satisfaction. Thirst (need) gets the cleaving ball rolling in the first place! Yet conquering self allegedly frees you from thirst — the flame of desire. This feels unnatural. After all, need (thirst, hunger, lust, desire, etc) is the biological push behind survival itself.
So briefly, I ‘conquer’ this dilemma by remaining keenly aware that my needs, desires, fears, and worries all drive my “illusion of self”. The self-illusion (ego) has difficulty holding up against such watchful clarity. Conquering self then comes down to just maintaining enough perspective to avoid some of the tricks biology pulls on me — the bio-hoodwink (1). In other words, the more aware I am of how biology is pulling my strings, the less convincing the illusion becomes. Conquering self is really a matter of seeing how the trick plays out. Once I clearly know how a trick works, its illusion can no longer grip me as tightly. (See It’s Like Magic, p.17.) When the “illusion of self” can no longer captivate me, I’ve conquered it, or at least I’ve established a truce.
One final thought on Buddha’s Third Truth. If I were to rephrase it, I’d put it this way: “He who conquers, surrenders, and comprehends self will be free from lust. He no longer craves and the flames of desire find no material to feed upon, thus they are extinguished.” The conquering comes first as you wage battle with yourself to get your act together. Next comes the surrendering when you realize that conquering your self is not possible, at least in the normal wage war sense of the word. Finally, seeing what is actually taking place, and comprehending how a bio-hoodwink is always pulling strings diminishes the “illusion of self” enough to return to one’s roots and simply be who you innately are.
(1) Bio-hoodwink: I coined this term for the trick biology plays on perception. (See Peeking in on Nature’s Hoodwink, p.11.) Chapter 65 says: Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. The oldest of old, when it comes to living things in nature, is the biological process of life, hoodwinks, and all.
For example, a bio-hoodwink tells the brain that the richer the food, and the more you eat of it, the better. This was the case in the wild before we cleverly devised ways around natural limitations in order to make food as rich and plentiful as we wished. Alas, the bio-hoodwink is inherited DNA and out of sync with our clever yet ignorant innovations. The only counter-measure we have against this is understanding, which explains why Buddha put Right Comprehension at the head of his Eight Fold Path.
Reward, Fear & Need 7109
Google [Emotion, Cognition, and Mental State Representation Salzman] for research, reported in the Science News’ article, Cerebral Delights, which identifies primary neurological links between fear and need. Perhaps science will eventually discover most everything that is discoverable (1).
I have felt for several years that fear stood at the headwaters of all emotions, including those related to need. Additionally, what fear and need mean is less straightforward than often thought. Therefore, before diving into this, I should clarify my sense of these words, especially need. For this, please see What are the roots of thought? (p.602) to review my caveats concerning need and fear.
Learning to speak Thai first deepened my understanding of need. I picked up the Thai language the easy way – living among non-English speaking Thai folks. A particularly striking difference in thinking between my Western upbringing and the Thai culture was in the use and meaning of the word want and need. I was accustomed to think need, want, and desire were different. For instance, I may want that yacht; however, do I really need it? By contrast, Thai’s, at least at the peasant level, don’t perceive a sharp distinction between need, want, and desire. The synonymic nature of these words made sense to me, as did their Buddhist worldview.
Regarding need, want, and desire as virtual synonyms applies to this research. All of these connect deeply to our pursuit of pleasure. Similarly, fear, worry, and insecurity link deeply to our avoidance of pain. Consider these contrasting words: need vs. fear; pleasure vs. pain; attraction vs. repulsion. While we’re at it, why not include love vs. hate; beauty vs. ugly; and good vs. bad. Do you see how all these words correlate?
Need ≈ pleasure ≈ attraction≈ love ≈ beauty≈ good
——- ———– —— ————- —————————
Fear ≈ pain ≈ repulsion ≈ hate ≈ ugly ≈ bad
Now let’s dive in…
I am happy to see some objective scientific evidence linking need with fear since my research is quite literally just the opposite — a thoroughly subjective experience. Mine is a murky research environment, yet in some ways, it can be the only effective way to examine life deeply. After all, before we know it life is over and we return to the great Nothing, whereas science crawls along for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, fooling ourselves is all too easily, so I welcome any supporting evidence. I’ll paste the most pertinent passages below. (For the Science News report, google [Amygdala Science News Feb 26,2011 PDF].)
The amygdala, a part of the brain known for its role in fear, also helps people spot rewards — and go after them.
For years the amygdala has been regarded primarily as the brain’s center for fear. Scores of studies have shown that it is essential both for perceiving fear and expressing it.
In recent years, though, a surge of new research has expanded scientists’ view of the amygdala’s importance. It turns out that the amygdala helps shape behavior in response to all sorts of stimuli, bad and good. It plays a role not only in aversion to fright, but also in pursuit of pleasure.
Studies of the brain’s anatomy reveal good reasons for the amygdala’s power: It is very well connected. In humans and other primates, the amygdala is linked through a complex network of cells to brain regions involved in all five senses. Signals about everything you encounter are passed from the brain’s sensory processing areas directly to the amygdala. And the amygdala shares elaborate communications channels with the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s control center for planning and decision making.
Its strategic location allows the amygdala to act as a spotlight, calling attention to sensory input that is new, exciting and important. In this way, it helps predict the timing and location of potential dangers, helping you dodge many of the things you dread. But those same connections also help you acquire the good things in life, by identifying and assessing rewards such as food, sex and other delights.
Though much more is known about its fear job, researchers are now vigorously gathering evidence about how the amygdala evaluates information and events for their reward potential. Recent studies offer clues to how the amygdala assigns value to rewards and adjusts that value as circumstances change. Other work provides insights into how the amygdala links actions and rewards, suggesting that the amygdala plays a role in goal-directed behavior. Still others are finding out how neural circuits in the highly connected human amygdala work with other brain structures to recognize good things and find ways to get them.
Toward the end of the article the following appears. It reminds us of how fuzzy the view can become the closer you get. The main point here is how important the amygdala is for assigning an emotional value, with the primary focus on pleasure and fear. In other words, we feel a need of pleasure and a fear of pain.
Rudebeck and his group trained monkeys to play a computer game in which they assessed the value of different rewards. The animals were shown two different pictures and allowed to choose between them. One picture brought a large juice reward, and the other brought a much smaller amount of juice. The animals chose the picture associated with the larger reward more than 98 percent of the time.
After turning off the amygdala in some animals, the scientists used single-cell recordings to listen in on brain cell chatter in the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. To the team’s surprise, the monkeys still chose the picture with the “best” outcome on pretty much every trial, just as they had done with a working amygdala.
Though the animals continued choosing in the same manner, the scientists found that fewer neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex changed their firing rate in response to an expected reward. When looking at the animals’ emotional responses — as measured by pupil diameter and heart rate — researchers found that monkeys without a working amygdala didn’t react to a reward in the typical way, Rudebeck says. “They seemed to have no idea of what reward was, despite the fact that they could still choose perfectly well.”
The findings, reported at the neuroscience meeting, suggest that the brain uses various mechanisms to calculate how much something is worth. While the amygdala may be important for assigning an emotional value, Rudebeck says, it may not be the “be-all and end-all” in valuing objects.
(1) Of course, the most important thing from a Taoist point of view is nothing, which is beyond the scope of science. With nothing, there is nothing to grasp. Fear and nothing are closely related, so anything science finds about the nature of fear may tell us something about nothing, if we read between the lines anyway. Still, I feel chapter 40 sums it up well…
Nothing’s Certain but Death and… 5570
They say that nothing is certain but death and taxes. I’d add to that the certainty of spending! The ongoing debate over spending, taxes, and the debt problems that this country faces is a good example of chapter 70’s, My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. Note: I think of “My words” as being those Mother Nature would speak is she could, so I regard the Tao Te Ching as a spokesman for Mother Nature.
In arguments I hear, each side fails to step back to see the problem broadly enough. Yes, I know. That’s how Mother Nature intends it, i.e., need and fear focuses animals—humans included—narrowly in their moment, which blind them to perceiving future unintended consequences.
First, YouTube [60 Minutes: Are US corporate taxes rates too high], which deals with one aspect of this issue. It shows why some old approaches don’t work well in a global market place.
Our politicians still operate from a point of view that is not only fanciful, but also now obsolete. One reason is probably because they and the electorate have long seen this country as the leader of the free world and the “best” country earth has ever seen. Such views, shared by both left and right, only exasperate our inability to understand.
With Debt, Lactic Acid Builds Up
It helps to frame the tax, spend, and dept issue in another context. An animal’s body is confronted with an analogous debt problem. Indeed, the fundamentals are the same. Note, I’m relying on old memory, so forgive any minor technical slip-ups.
When the body works vigorously beyond a certain point, it builds up an oxygen deficit. Metabolism shifts to anaerobic processes to keep muscle working as long as it can. The metabolic debt produces toxins that you feel the next day as aching muscles.
Likewise, when the government lacks sufficient ‘oxygen’ to run a balanced ‘metabolic’ budget it borrows on itself and prints money. The ensuing national debt produces ‘toxins’ that take various forms: inflation, war, revolution, poverty, collapsing economy. In short: There are no free lunches in nature!
Clearly, if you want to get more work out of your body, you must exercise regularly to build the fine blood vessels that can deliver enough oxygen during those times of increasing demand. Similarly, if the people want government to do more, they’d be wise to first build up the necessary resources. Our current folly lies in the widespread unwillingness to prepare adequately, and yet we still expect widespread benefits to continue. Clearly, the population and their politicians as a whole are unwilling to face the situation and prepare. Adopting a rational tax code would be a good start.
Solving the Debt Problem Naturally
In the body’s case, the wise thing to do is give enough time and effort to build the physical resources necessary to meet the demands. To always demand extra from your body, and pay later with pain, or worse, heart attack and death, is shortsighted and irresponsible. First ask, is the stress you expect your body to labor under truly necessary and beneficial in the long-term? If so, then it is better to stop in time and add resources before demanding more from it. As chapter 9 advises, Rather than fill it to the brim by keeping it upright, better to have stopped in time.
The most practical, natural approach to our budgetary problems is to stop sucking up all the oxygen. Like they say, “When you realize you’re in a hole, stop digging”. The natural way to get out of debt is to stop spending. Then, build up the resources needed for desired expenditures. This strictly pay-as-you-go way is the de fault process throughout nature. Modern economics has found clever shortsighted ways to circumvent this and get away without paying up front. Sure, having those in authority eating up too much in taxes, as chapter 74 says, is unwise because it cripples economic incentive. However, spending more than you have is even worse. Simply put, nothing could be more out of natural balance than spending more than you earn… at least long-term.
Need + Thinking = Desire… and Ignorance
I see emotion driving both parties in this debate to do the “right” thing. The conservative side, at least theoretically, is more in line with nature: earn before you spend they preach — sadly their words are cheap. The liberal side pushes for doing the right thing for the poor, the kids, the elderly, but fails to accept the necessity of ceasing to spend first. They want to solve the problem by raising taxes in a country where the majority of the population is against raising taxes, yet ironically expecting more benefits. Like the tax code and other cultural inconsistencies, this is completely irrational. There are no short cuts in nature. Spending for what the majority are not willing to pay for up-front is disaster-prone in the long-term. As I see it, such short-term pleasure leads to long-term pain. (See p.11, p.141.)
All the same, this is natural. After all, we only think we are a rational and sapient species. Our behavior shows that we are animals that have simply evolved cognitively too fast for our own good, i.e., our emotions haven’t kept up with our intellect. First Mother Nature tried out the big body-small brain model with the dinosaurs. Now she’s trying out the big brain-small body model with our species, and our ignorant intelligence is an unintended consequence. Of course, with evolution every consequence is unintended, isn’t it? Only time will tell how it all turns out.
Fear Rules 3982
The 2011 disasters in Japan triggered much anxiety among some people in America. This is curious considering how far removed we are from that experience. Thinking easily exaggerates (or minimizes) reality and makes matters feel even worse than they actually are, or vice versa. Media only adds to this by feeding our fears and needs. The mind’s ability to skew our perception of reality definitely sets us apart from other animals. (photo: Japan’s earthquake and tsunami 2011)
Worry makes it worse
Of course, it’s different for people actually experiencing disaster. Theirs is a visceral sense: feeling of shock, loss, discomfort, and fear directly resulting from a physical experience. Any animal, including us, would feel this way faced with similar circumstances. Where we part company with the animals is in imagined fear of loss and discomfort, which causes worry and stress.
I was surprised to hear about a friend, arriving from Japan, who had her sandwich confiscated by US customs due to radiation fears. Such irrational, not scientifically supportable fear of radiation also resulted in panic purchasing of potassium iodide by some Californians. Once I would have just thought, “Those idiots”. Now I recognize it is all of us… “We idiots”, which is humbling. Our self-image is very much out-of-sync with the animal we truly are.
Curiously, whenever we feel doubt, the mind invariably imagines the worst case to be the probable one. This must be an innate failsafe—“Better safe than sorry” — emotional bias. Naturally, the worst case is usually not the case! My mother’s state of mind whenever her cat failed to return home at night exemplifies this. She would fret and worry that he’d been run over or what not. Every time he’d return home the next morning. Yet, every next time he’d stay out, she would always imagine the worst. I’d remind her of how he’d always return, and how he was undoubtedly “out on the town”. Nevertheless, evidence and reason were impotent; emotion rules the day. (photo: grandma and child)
Don’t worry, plan wisely
On the other hand, it is equally striking how consistently we ignore real worst-case probabilities that lie just beyond the horizon. An obvious example is the overly optimistic way we approach life. Our decrepit years lie ahead, yet many fail to take heed and prepare body and soul. The same lack of preparation occurs in countless other matters when there are no stimuli stirring us to act. Climate change and the national debt are two clear examples. We need a shocking event to trigger genuine concern, and when it happens, we invariably panic and overreact. Ironically, we believe humans are exceptionally rational. Certainly, we think and talk as if we were, yet we behave very irrationally, just as all animals do. Clearly then, belief is what we wish to be; behavior is what we are.
Fear is the master puppeteer
I’ve long underestimated the deep impact that emotions, especially fear, have upon our lives. Not anymore! Fear is the master puppeteer. The Bhagavad Gita has words on fear that once inspired me greatly. For example:
2:38 Prepare for war with peace in thy soul. Be in peace in pleasure and pain, in gain and in loss, in victory or in the loss of a battle. In this peace there is no sin.
2:39 This is the wisdom of Sankhya ‑ the vision of the Eternal. Hear now the wisdom of Yoga, path of the Eternal and freedom from bondage.
2:40 No step is lost on this path, and no dangers are found. And even a little progress is freedom from fear.
I realize now that “freedom from fear” would be going against nature. Fear is the energy source for life itself, and so these three verses represent an example of chapter 64’s, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. Thus, I find that true “progress” would be simply realizing that fear propels the thinking, which can easily creates needless worry and stress. (photo: ‘fear’ pulls most of the strings)
It’s Time We Changed Our Name 4753
It’s time we changed our species’ name from “Homo sapiens” to something else. “Homo sociâlis”, would be my best Linnaeus guess. We are not the great “wise” or “knowing” animal that we claim to be. We are instead more profoundly social than we may realize. Research reported in the Science News article, In-laws transformed early human society, supports this. (Google [Co-Residence Patterns in Hunter-Gatherer Societies Academia].) Naturally, I could quibble with some of their hypotheses, but the basic premise is sound, and besides the research backs up my suspicions! Therefore, I have nothing to add other than to reply later to a comment made by Mr. Guitchounts who specializes in neuroscience. I assume that accounts for him championing human cognitive prowess.
Here is the most pertinent portion of the article:
Give it up for in-laws. Those much-maligned meddlers helped spur an ancient social revolution that propelled human groups from savannas to cities, a new study suggests.
That conclusion stems from an analysis of genealogical and marital data indicating that, among modern hunter-gatherers, monogamous sexual unions between men and women from neighboring groups create networks of in-laws that spawn widespread cooperation and cultural learning, says a team led by anthropologist Kim Hill of Arizona State University in Tempe. Social groups organized in this way distinguish humans from other primates, Hill and his colleagues propose in the March 11 Science.
“Alliances between foraging groups are facilitated because unrelated males all associate with the same female, who may be their daughter, sister, wife, mother or daughter-in-law,” Hill says. “By friendly association with her, males begin to associate with each other.”
A social system of this type, which encourages collaboration among genetically unrelated individuals, originated approximately two million years ago as human ancestors began to hunt and gather foods that youngsters could not obtain for themselves, Hill hypothesizes. In this situation, females would have had an incentive to seek mates willing to stick around and provide food for offspring.
In contrast, female chimps mate with many partners. Males in adjacent chimp groups try to kill each other on sight, making cooperation between communities impossible.
“Differences in social structures, not necessarily cognitive advances, allowed our species to cross the barrier to cumulative cultural evolution,” remarks anthropologist Joseph Henrich of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. In this process, cultural inventions become increasingly complex from one generation to the next.
Three social features characterize hunter-gatherer societies and are unique to humans, the researchers conclude. First, both men and women are as likely to stay in the bands they were born into as to move to new bands to find marriage partners. Second, adult brothers and sisters frequently reside together, along with lots of in-laws. Third, a majority of band members are genetically unrelated.
In a comment published in the same issue of Science, anthropologist Bernard Chapais of the University of Montreal argues that this monogamy-based social structure encourages males to circulate freely among bands in which they have kin and in-laws. Cultural innovations and traditions thus spread rapidly and unite bands into larger social units called tribes, Chapais proposes.
Cultural learning among hunter-gatherers led to the rise of agriculture around 10,000 BCE and the ensuing formation of states and complex institutions, Hill hypothesizes.
My response to a comment posted on this research on the Science News website.
Grigori Guitchounts says, “This is hardly impressive in terms of importance and scientific credibility.” That sounds like he’s defending human cognitive ability. I guess if you don’t like the research results, it is tempting to downplay the implications.
We are not objective when it comes to judging ourselves. Obviously, that is natural. Like all other animals, our perceptions are species-centric. Still, it’s a shame we can’t see that better than we do. If we could, we might be more circumspect in our judgments, and even improve our chances for self-understanding.
I’ve long suspected that the principle reason for our dominance on the planet was due to our social instincts much more than our intelligence. Yet, because we are Homo sapiens, our cognitive prowess skews any self-evaluation we make. The judge is judging the judged… it’s laughable.
This article goes a long way to uncovering the deeper reasons why we’ve ended up where we are today. Sure, the brain, the thumb, the upright posture all played a role, but not as profound as the social aspect — teamwork is humanity’s magic sauce.
The Truth About Lies 4502
First, please YouTube [CBS The Truth about Lies]. In two short minutes it delightfully demonstrates how many things most people believe turn out not to be true. It is sobering and humbling to see how blind and deaf we can be. It is remarkable how easily belief (p.591) walks all over clear and irrefutable evidence. What accounts for belief’s power (1)?
From a symptoms point of view, it is clear that we hold on tightly to belief because we need to. That is probably obvious, but drilling down into what appears obvious can be enlightening. What hunger do we experience so deeply that belief in something can satiate us?
We are a social species with a strong need to belong. The question is, how social and how needy. Examples of our social need are so pervasive that I failed to appreciate how all encompassing this was most of my life. It is like sand on the beach… the grains easily go unnoticed. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. My last post, It’s Time We Changed Our Name (p.187), covers recent research that looks into our social needs, this under-appreciated side of human nature. I suspect that our social hunger surpasses all others, including food and sex. Of course, food and sex also feed our social hunger, but only briefly.
For life’s long haul, religious and political belief provides a solid lasting sense of social belonging and security — for true believers anyway. From this point of view, religion’s broad and lasting appeal makes complete sense. It is not actually the content of the belief itself, but the fact that all the followers of a religion (or political ideal) share the same belief. That is the tie that binds people! How well a belief satisfies our social hunger determines how faithful we hold to it and who else adopts it.
The process of believing comes about through daily experiencing our native culture from infancy onward. It really amounts to cultural brainwashing when you think about it. Here, however, the brainwashers — our parents, teachers, and cultural leaders — are themselves brainwashed.
As our cultural story becomes a deeply held belief, it delivers us a deepening sense of emotional connection that feeds our social need to belong. In infancy, our parents satiate our needs for a secure emotional connection. As we mature, our beliefs embed themselves deeply enough to become our pseudo parents, as it were. In adulthood, we belong to our tribe’s belief, our tribe’s belief belongs to us, and the tribal story becomes a multigenerational self-perpetuating cycle.
It is a wonder anyone can ever truly think for themselves! I imagine one reason we can is that belief is actually only a figment of our imagination, no matter how true or real we feel it to be. That makes belief vulnerable to alternate stories. The desperate need to keep cultural beliefs immutable suggests why ardent believers burn heretics at the stake, both literally and now figuratively.
The proof lies in our belief pudding
Merely expressing a belief we hold faithfully becomes its own proof in the eyes of the believer. The more passionately we hold a belief, the more solid and true that proof feels. Keeping this proof contained and irrefutable within the fortress of our mind is irresistible. On the other hand, empirical evidence is impartial and impersonal, and so lacks the sense of proof that belief conveys. Add to this, the social connection that a shared belief imparts, and it is rather surprising that any empirical outside-the-box thinking can survive in the face of such groupthink pressures.
In fact, mainstream culture has only recently become tolerant of empirical science, and even then, probably only superficially. It wasn’t long ago that the Inquisition (1633) found Galileo “vehemently suspect of heresy”, forced to recant, and kept him under house arrest for the rest of his life. Most people find the uncertainty of not knowing too unnerving, the cognitive discipline of science (from Latin: scientia meaning “knowledge”) too unrewarding, and so faithfully rely upon belief to know the ‘truth’. This worked well enough up until recent centuries. Now, with technology and science serving as the backbone of modern civilization it is much more problematic, even dangerous. Yet, I suspect our fondness for trusting belief will prevail. After all, neurobiology is pulling our cognitive strings.
(1) As it happens, a recent post addressed this issue from a somewhat different angle. If you’re still curious about “Truth”, see The Story Trumps Truth, p.167.
It’s Simply Nature’s Way 2497
The Pope’s reference to suffering struck me. (Google [Pope Benedict stumped by Japanese girl’s question about suffering inflicted by the Tsunami].) Briefly, a young girl asked him, “Why do children have to be so sad?” Benedict admitted: “I also have the same questions: why is it this way? Why do you have to suffer so much while others live in ease?”
This illustrates a strikingly incomplete aspect of the Christian worldview. How does a believer reconcile the inconsistency of a God that favors humans, from Adam and Eve up to us today, and the ruthless reality of nature? As chapter 5 put it, Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs. Not surprisingly, Christians can’t bridge this gap, and must always fall back on faith. The passion seen in Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions is almost certainly symptomatic of this underlying quandary. It reminds me of what “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” alludes to, i.e., underlying insecurity drives a bold facade. . (See Are you out of touch with nature?, p.50)
As a Taoist, I would tell the young girl that this is simply nature’s way. There is no reward or punishment, no evil or good, no sin or salvation in nature. Those are human myths. If she were familiar with biology, I’d also add that we have a fairness social instinct from which these myths arise in the first place (1).
When lightening strikes an animal outside, it is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Likewise, when a Tsunami strikes people living by the sea, they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’d also offer her Buddha’s Four Noble Truths (p.604) to finish on a positive note. Ever since my kids were toddlers I’ve stressed those truths, and they never had any difficulty understanding them. Even the youngest child can easily verify these truths—or at least the first two—through experience. The point here is that expecting no difficulty will always end in difficulty. As chapter 71 says,
(1) In the end, all our stories are emergent properties arising out of instinct, including this one here I’m sure. The remarkable breadth and power of the Taoist story lies in the fact that it is based on what chapter 40 calls Nothing, whatever that is 😉
In Praise Of Nothing 3738
Google [Out of the Fabric: Are space and time fundamental – Science News] for a hint at something I never thought I’d live to see. I’ve always thought that science would take forever to incorporate the irreducible and immeasurable side of reality that the Tao Te Ching observes.
The following quotes were particularly striking. For scientists to suggest that even time is an emergent property is welcome and unexpected. Then again, I don’t suppose it should be. After all, we are still at the toddler stage of our species evolution, with many more millennia ahead to figure it all out… or perhaps, realize that only ‘the question’ is real.
Seiberg, though, believes time and space will both go down the cosmic drain together. “My personal prejudice is that these objections and questions are not obstacles to emergent time,” Seiberg writes. “Instead, they should be viewed as challenges and perhaps even clues to the answers.”
More intriguingly, he observes, space and time’s ultimate status in nature may have something to say about the practice of science. Much of modern science is based on the concept of reductionism — explaining large-scale phenomena from laws operating at smaller scales. That notion will eventually break down if there’s a smallest scale below which space no longer exists.
“Therefore, once we understand how spacetime emerges, we could still look for more basic fundamental laws, but these laws will not operate at shorter distances,” he writes. “This follows from the simple fact that the notion of ‘shorter distances’ will no longer make sense. This might mean the end of standard reductionism.” And the beginning of a new view of not only space and time, but of science itself.
Mass, energy, space, and time are the somethings of existence. They are the bottom line of what is biologically perceptible to human senses. However, this is possible in only a very narrow sensory range. The tools of science allow us to perceive much more: ultra sound, infrared, nuclear decay, galaxies and molecules. These somethings, along with any future somethings that new theories and tools of science uncover, are still something that the Tao Te Ching refers to literally. For example:
Thus Something and Nothing produce each other. #2
Thus what we gain is Something, yet it is by virtue of Nothing that this can be put to use. #11
The myriad creatures in the world are born from Something, and Something from Nothing.#40
With a wave of your mind’s wand, wipe away all the somethings, both conceivable and inconceivable, and what are you left with? Nothing! In the end, nothing feels a lot like the constant way. Conversely, any something that can be named is not the constant way as chapter 1 put it. Understanding the nature of nothing is certainly a peculiar challenge. Chapter 70 hints at this…
Our biology biases us. Nothing is mysterious, or is it? Words fail. Nothing fails to receive the awe it deserves because we can’t touch, see, taste, smell, hear, or possess Nothing. Nothing is simply nothing, while the somethings of life are really something, especially if they are something rare and valuable. Conversely, to paraphrase chapter 70, Therefore Nothing, while clad in homespun, conceals within itself a priceless piece of jade.
While this article suggests the end of standard reductionism, will that change anything? After all, most people have an even harder time with Taoist views than with standard scientific ones. At least with science there is something on which to grasp, and that invariably makes us feel more secure and comfortable.
Don’t trust anyone under 60 6417
The Science News’ article, Don’t trust any elephant under 60, reveals factors elephants use to choose a leader. (Google [Leadership in elephants: the adaptive value of age].) Surely, their criterion applies to all animals including people. Our choices for what to look for in a leader runs the gamut, as this excerpt from the Science News’ article puts it:
“There is an interesting trade-off here, which certainly applies to humans and maybe elephants as well,” van Vugt says. “The group might want a young, fit and aggressive leader to defend the group — the Schwarzenegger type — but at the same time might want an older, more experienced leader — the Merkel type — to make an accurate assessment of the dangers in the situation.”
Though the article doesn’t say so explicitly, it infers that the elder female elephants hold the most sway in the herd. Elephant society is mostly matriarchal. Up until recently, we were more like elephants in our choice for a trustworthy leader. In hunter-gatherer times, the elders knew where the water holes were in times of drought and where other sources of food were in times of shortage. They knew more because they had experienced the ebb and flow of life longer. Experience was the source of knowledge.
Agriculture turned the tide
With the dawn of agriculture (c. 10,000 BCE), we began shifting away from our age-old nomadic way of life where elder knowledge was most valued. The settled life of agriculture favored “young, fit, and aggressive” intelligence over life experience. Brainpower was more suitable for agricultural, industrial, and technological progress. Ever since that shift, cognitive know-how over experiential know-why-when-where has become the most esteemed form of knowledge — especially in the last few centuries!
By valuing intelligence over wisdom, we are turning into a cultural of idiot savants to an extent, with each of us idiots filling some niche or other. (See Why Do Idiot Savants Run Things? ) This extends from science and technology at one end of expertise to sports and arts at the other end. Then there are all the other niches in between, whether lawyers, doctors or assembly line workers, to name a few. Specialization is the way life and modern economies function. Everyone today has a more or less specialized niche to fill, leaving each with some sense of separation. The principle risk in this is the increasing focus we have on short-term gains. Unlike elephants, we are effectively choosing the “young, fit, and aggressive” to lead the way. Chapter 16’s admonition woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant is even more relevant now than when it was first written down some 2500 years ago.
In time the tide will turn again
For decades I wondered how our species would ever get out of the overall mess we find ourselves in. I could only imagine we would evolve in some discrete way to bring us into a better balance with nature. Our path, born of our desire for ever-increasing progress, has to be a dead end evolutionarily speaking. However, after learning more about the conditions required for genetic evolution (e.g., genetic bottleneck), that scenario seems very unlikely. That brought me to look elsewhere for humanity’s salvation.
About a decade ago, it occurred to me that humanity’s salvation lies in the fact that the median age of the population is steadily increasing. (See “There may be a silver lining” at the bottom of Ethics: Do They Work Anymore?, p.594.) As the centuries roll by, life expectancy will continue to increase. Life is a learning process; the longer you live, the better your chances of acquiring wisdom. It’s true for elephants; it’s true for us. As chapter 51 says, Circumstances bring them to maturity. Sure, that’s no guarantee. How much one learns depends on the quality of the student. Nevertheless, the odds improve overall.
In addition, as global living standards rise, the birth rate declines. Altogether, this means the global median age is bound to rise even more rapidly. Today the median age in the USA is about 37. When they signed the Declaration of Independence two centuries ago, the median age was just 16 and not much different from the time of Christ. Interestingly, much of Africa is now at this stage, but bolstered by advances in medicine and public health, that should rise rapidly.
Is there a silver lining or not?
Surprisingly, when I mention this silver lining idea, people remain skeptical. I ask them whether they are wiser now than in their youth. Invariably, they say yes and yet don’t seem able to extend that process, in principle, to humanity as a whole. This is likely due to our innate bias to think the worst when in doubt. It could also be symptomatic of ego bias… we feel we can grow wiser in time, yet doubt others can. In addition, it takes wisdom to recognize wisdom. In other words, “It takes one to know one”, so maybe it is still too early to broach this theory.
In any case, this silver lining shift will happen gradually in a two-steps forward, one-step backwards process because the “young, fit and aggressive” will always be pushing for progress. In addition, humanity is at the very beginning of this shift. After all, the median age hadn’t changed much from the first civilizations up to a few hundred years ago with the advent of better sanitation and medical breakthroughs.
It is ironic that our species’ salvation will come about through our species ‘sins’. I mean, it is only by the willful innovation of science and technology that we can increase our species lifespan enough to find the wisdom to not willfully innovate while ignorant of the constant (#16). Rather than endlessly pursue progress, more people will know it is better to have stopped in time, as chapter 9 puts it. Elephants need only reach 60. Humans, being a more ‘intelligent’ species, may need to reach twice that age before being able to appreciate what chapter 43 hints…
Who knows, perhaps we’ll even be able to…
So, I’d like to ask… 8131
A Centertao member asked me if I had any advice for a 30 year old. Right away, too much came to my mind for that question! I had to sleep on it awhile. Interestingly, not thinking about a tricky issue is often the best way to resolve it. Not thinking doesn’t mean disregarding it, but instead tucking it away in the intuitive deep mind. This helps the mind circumvent belief, its own weakest feature. (photo: both paths look the same, but…)
Finally, something bubbled up worthy of the question. Overall, nothing feels more important to me than understanding, or as Buddha put it, Right Comprehension. While stressing the importance of understanding seems obvious, it is not as simple as it sounds.
As I’ve said before, true understanding may only be possible for that which you already intuitively know (See I understand, but do I know?, p.70). Intuitive knowing comes with maturity and not from any external particulars, per se. As chapter 51 notes, Circumstances bring them to maturity. Knowing flows from inside out, not from the outside in. If I’m correct, how can we ever teach or learn from each other? Naturally, there’s more to this.
Consider how methodically our culture conditions us from birth onward, albeit usually in gentle ways. As a result, much of what we think, and ostensibly know, originates from preconceptions that our culture induces us to believe are true and real. Now, if our life experience plays out along the lines of this cultural indoctrination, life usually goes smoothly enough. However, faced to understand anything outside our cultural conditioning is another matter. Venturing into this murkiness is challenging, and thus few willingly look closely into their “dark” unknown. Chapter 5’s suggestion, Much speech leads inevitably to silence. Better to hold fast to the void, doesn’t alleviate the matter either.
Actually, we all know anyway!
Nevertheless, we can’t help but sense the emptiness beneath us. Chapter 56’s, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know and This is known as mysterious sameness suggests this. While all life experiences the mystery, only humans have names with which to think about it. We can’t help but try to explain, describe, or interpret the emptiness residing at the heart of mysterious sameness. Yet, the mystery remains and in the end one arrives back at the beginning as chapter 10 observes, When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, Are you capable of not knowing anything?
Along the way, we cultivate a sense of self and pseudo security as we pursue the paths for which we feel some affinity… religion, art, sports, business, science, and so on. Our trouble always begins when we feel sure we know. As chapter 71 warns, To think that one knows will lead to difficulty. I regard our need for certainty as a symptom of our deep innate sense of insecurity. The answers, which our beliefs offer, feed this anxious need. (See Belief: Are We Just Fooling Ourselves?, p.591)
Honestly though, a search for answers is what drives me to ponder life, death, and everything in between, and write about it. Nevertheless, having some certainty relieve my innate insecurity won’t mess me up as long as I know and remember the difficulty that any need for certainty entails. As chapter 71 goes on to say, It is by being alive to difficulty that one can avoid it.
If we’re not “alive to difficulty”, we end up putting all our eggs in one cognitive basket, which creates a blindness akin to the Dunning–Kruger effect (see p.144). This puts what we might otherwise realize beyond our mind’s eye. Put another way, thinking enables us to focus on the trees and this blinds us to the forest. This is not to say thinking is bad; it is just more dangerous than we imagine. It is analogous to placing a loaded gun without a safety switch in the hands of a monkey. Much of our problem stems from not realizing that we, like all animals, are supposed to feel insecure — fearful. Fear guides survival. Dulling fear by persistently thinking that we know is not different in principle from refining foods to enhance our eating pleasure at the expense of nutritional value. Both quickly are instances of what chapter 16 warns, Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant. Both come back to bite us.
We’re too clever for our own good
Finding enough humility to acknowledge that thinking we know leads to difficulty helps avoid thinking ourselves into a corner. This is an important step toward understanding what chapter 43 says is beyond the understanding of all but a very few in the world. This is difficult and rare because we cling so firmly to whatever we believe in order to maintain our self-identity. As Buddha put it, “The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things”. Naturally, “things” here are both material and mental objects. The passionate grip we have on our beliefs is a major give away.
Buddha had it right in his Eight Fold Path. (See Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, p.604.) While each fold affects the other, notice which fold comes first — Right Comprehension! As this deepens over time, our actions follow naturally—inexorably. What else can we do? Plainly, action arises out of knowing. The notion of free willingly doing anything puts the cart before the horse. (See Free Will: Fact or Wishful Thinking?, p.587) This may partly explain the Taoist call to ‘action-less action’. Chapter 43 sums it up well:
There is hope, isn’t there?
Any need or fear (desire or worry) we currently feel drives our thoughts and actions. Thus, our awareness is reflective, i.e., understanding trails behind emotion and the reactions it triggers. We react to events first and ask questions later, so to speak. So what hope is there? Chapter 15 suggests the approach to life required to slow reaction time:
This humble approach nurtures balance. Mind you, it’s okay to lose balance. That’s only human! However, it is important to recognize when one does. Here are some telltale signs I use to warn me when I’m losing balance:
[ Any strong emotion, sense of attraction or aversion, like or dislike, need or fear tells me that whatever I think I am seeing is actually a reflection of that emotion. It’s not that ‘out there’… it’s this ‘in here’!
[ Any perception that makes differences appear significant is probably making mountains out of what are at least probable molehills. Remaining alive to the relative nature of judgment helps me avoid taking a cognitive wrong turn and ending up in the ditch.
[ Any impatience that drives me to resolve a situation immediately is probably rash. Get it done now, fix it ‘yesterday’ are good indications of this. Going with my impetuous flow frequently signals a looming disaster. Count to ten, take a deep breath, take a nap, and sleep on it. (photo: which path leads where?)
In summary: which path shall it be?
The importance of Right Comprehension lies in how it helps us with the choices we face with each day and even each moment throughout life. “Do I want to feel happy or a sense of well being?” A first glance these appear synonymous. They aren’t as I define those words. Happiness is more up beat, stimulating, fun, pleasurable, being high on life. Somewhat conversely, well-being is even, cool and calm, down-to-earth, impartial, balanced. In other words, we chase after happiness; we come home to well-being.
In some ways, Buddha’s view of life comes down to a choice between happiness and well-being. Distinguishing the difference in the heat of the moment requires some presence of mind to be sure, which is only possible if you genuinely want it. If you do, Buddha’s Four Noble Truths (p.604) offers a most coherent path to well-being.
Thoughts and Ducks Quacking 4120
I spent a lot of the day picking weeds. Nothing beats having enough free time to sit in the warm sun picking weeds. Even better, I’m heeding chapter 64’s, Deal with a thing while it is still nothing; Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in. Occasionally, our ducks come to where I’m weeding, chattering away and foraging for a tasty morsel before moving on. It got me wondering…
A duck’s quacking chatter is its vocal expression of emotion. Having been around them for years, I can pick out their moods: excited, content, curious, afraid, hungry, feeling kinship. They are Indian Runners, an extremely social breed.
I’ve come across quite a few people who can’t tolerate such “humanizing” of animals in general, and birds or “lesser” creatures in particular. Of course, they wouldn’t be reading this book anyway, so I needn’t justify my view… at least so far.
I realized today, in a simpler earthy way, that human thought is the equivalent expression of emotion for us. That includes any speech or writing that thought churns out. Ducks quack their emotion, dogs bark their emotion, and humans think and speak their emotion — and so on throughout the animal kingdom.
Physical actions are also key ways emotion expresses itself. The difference is that quacking and thinking take much less physical effort and so reverberate more easily throughout awareness than other more physical actions (work, hobby, sport, art, etc.). But wait, there’s more…
The one thing that stirs up emotion more than anything is apprehension of the unknown or unsettling situations. When a hawk flies through the area, the black birds go nuts, and this sets off some real commotion among the ducks. I doubt they know it’s a hawk, they just sense something is wrong. The unknown has reared its fearsome head. Conversely, in the typical morning stillness with the world feeling known, the ducks waddle about quietly in their moment-to-moment.
The one thing that stirs up more emotion than most in me has always been the unknown. Does she love me, does she not? Will I miss my flight; lose my job; is it cancer? Not only do I experience the unsettling emptiness of the unknown, I see it in everyone and everywhere I look. Fear of the unknown is another experience we share with ducks. Indeed, fear is universal. But wait, there’s more…
The more is this:
Seeing a direct connection between emotion, thinking, and speaking offers a straightforward way to understand what chapter 56 means by, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know.(1) Stirring emotion triggers us to think and speak, and ducks to quack. Such emotion overwhelms the ‘cool’ impartial phase of perception that alone is capable of perceiving what chapter 1 describes as… These two are the same, But diverge in name as they issue forth. Being the same they are called mysteries… Indeed, as chapter 56 sums it up, This is known as mysterious sameness. Thus, one who speaks does not know doesn’t refer to a lack of knowing something, but instead, a lack of knowing nothing.
On the other hand, emotion cools when, as chapter 16 puts it, I do my utmost to attain emptiness; I hold firmly to stillness. The myriad creatures all rise together and I watch their return. The teaming creatures all return to their separate roots. Here, there is no emotional energy to drive quacking, thinking or speaking. Here, even the unknown is known, and so I can just be a quiet duck.
(1) Chapter 56 says, “One who speaks does not know”. This is not some admonition such as, “Verily I say, ye shall not think, speak or quack”. In other words, the thinking, speaking and quacking are merely symptoms, not causes. Conversely, trusting your thoughts to be true establishes thought as fundamental in its own right instead of simply a symptom of a deeper reality. Trusting what you think to be true leads to difficulty, as chapter 71 cautions, Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. For a long time I assumed chapter 56 was saying that speaking and thinking were a liability somehow, perhaps because it implied not knowing. Happily, I see this more impartially now.
An Improper Sense of Awe 4964
I marvel at how seriously some people take prophets of doom. Still, I do understand the apprehension. Certainly, my own apocalyptic sense of life probably accounts for my serious side.
True believers in Western religions, i.e., a Judeo-Christian-Islamic worldview, have the end of times Judgment Day (1) to worry about. Being a Taoist lets me off that hook. In fact, Eastern worldviews have no doomsday grand finale, and so offer a view that is closer to natural processes.
Fear
All the same, a certain apocalyptic sense of life, rooted in innate fear, is something all humans feel. This manifests itself in various ways and while not as catastrophic as end of times scenarios they are nevertheless common. For example, dramatic stock market crashes foretell the end of the economy. The recent uptick in the extinction rate of species and global warming foretell the end of the planet, as we know it. More recently, we had the BP Gulf oil spill and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan to stir our fear. (Google [List of predicted apocalyptic events] and YouTube [2011 Doomsday].)
Such events easily impart doomsday emotions, that while serious events, are not terminal. More telling is how such events can trigger cataclysmic perceptions in people far removed in time and space from actual events, or non-events as in the case of Armageddon-like stories.
Believers in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic worldview and the Western worldview in general, may be especially vulnerable to apocalyptic scenarios. The Western model of creation is a one-time event. The beginning is over, whether it was a Big Bang or God’s creation. When is the end? A ‘beginning’ primes us for an ‘end’. To paraphrase chapter 2, The whole world recognizes the beginning as the beginning, yet this is only the end.
It’s not surprising that serious believers get anxious from time to time. The Judeo-Christian-Islamic end of life scenario with its heaven or hell finality is a similar model that parallels the linear Western beginning – ending model.
Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, with their cyclic view of reality, offer those who share those beliefs a safer and gentler alternative. “Don’t freak out, you can redo life over better next time” works for the Buddhist and Hindu. The Tao Te Ching takes the cyclic view a step further by deflating the reality of the words. If, Thus Something and Nothing produce each other, [and] Before and after follow each other, as chapter 2 points out, how seriously can we take ‘something’, ‘nothing’, ‘before’ and ‘after’? Chapter 56’s, Mysterious sameness tops this off by offering our mind a continuum of existence — a kind of immortality, so to speak. (See You are Immortal!, p.391.)
Frankly, fear dwells beneath the surface in all species. It is a survival instinct after all (see Fear rules, p.186. and Fear & Need Born in Nothing , p.486). However, it is much more than that for humans. What accounts for the apocalyptic sense we share? Knowledge of our own death must lie at the heart of it. This knowledge certainly would have been among the first long-term realities humans noticed. Other social species mourn the loss of companions, but humans have an objective memory of this. We know there is an apparent end to every beginning, which makes life a much more serious affair. Knowing this, we could no longer merrily hunt and gather our days away as other animals do. As a result, both imagined and real fears drove us to prepare for the future. Indeed, our survival success as a species is partly due to this apprehension.
Fear is a valuable survival asset, but it has a downside when misdirected or lulled to sleep by a civilized false sense of security. As chapter 72 cautions, When the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them. A false sense of security allows us to react to trivial imagined fears, and overlook matters that actually warrant fear.
Given this, it is not surprising that we often fail to act until after the fact. For instance, we don’t prepare adequately for earthquakes or for optimal health. Yet, we speed up before the yellow light turns red at the intersection. In the former we feel that “it won’t happen to me”, and in the latter we feel the fear of imminent loss… we’ll miss the light!
On the other hand, having an optimistic, “it won’t happen to me” outlook can benefit survival. This, along with natural laziness deters us from wasting energy on imagined and unrealistic fears — and needs. “Choose your battles wisely”, as they say. That’s the hitch! It is impossible to teach wisdom. Wisdom only accrues through one’s experience of making some bad choices along the way.
(1) The notion of a Judgment Day brings to my mind the nature of judgment. Christ said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged”. This puts the cart somewhat before the horse. The degree one judges themselves determines how much they judge others. Judgment begins within and projects outward to ‘them’.
You Know 3506
More than once, I’ve mentioned the likelihood that we put the cart before the horse when it comes to learning, understanding, and knowing. Over the last few years, I’ve become convinced that we only truly understand and learn what we already know intuitively. My suspicions began during our home schooling days as I began seeing subtle indications of this.
When I first brought this up with my family, they all rolled their eyes, “Yeh, right” they said. However, constant brainwashing finally brought them to see my point. Brainwashing? Well, not exactly. I offered concrete examples that gradually helped sell them on my theory.
I understand, but do I know? (p.70) is a post that attempts to deal with this off-the-wall point of view. Yes, all this may seem bizarre, but then knowing and understanding are actually mysterious matters.
Low and behold, research reported in Science News, Geometric minds skip school (1), comes to the rescue. (Google [Flexible intuitions of Euclidean geometry in an Amazonian indigene group].) It seems Amazonian villagers grasp abstract spatial concepts despite lacking formal math education. They know geometric principles intuitively. Granted, my views on knowing and understanding are more radical and reach farther than that, but then I don’t have skeptical peer-reviewing scientists insisting on proof. 😉
I regard the advanced knowledge civilization prides itself on as actually being based in innate knowing, as this research implies. The emergent property principle (i.e., Tao as Emergent Property, p.121) helps support and gives deeper context to my view that we only truly understand what we already innately know. Additionally, what commonly passes for understanding is actually mimicry as noted in Learning What You Know, p.112. That said, mimicry is certainly a major step on the path to tapping intuitive knowing and understanding.
(1) Here are a few excerpts from the article.
In a South American jungle, far from traffic circles, city squares and the Pentagon, beats the heart of geometry.
Villagers belonging to an Amazonian group called the Mundurucú intuitively grasp abstract geometric principles despite having no formal math education, say psychologist Véronique Izard of Université Paris Descartes and her colleagues.
Mundurucú adults and 7- to 13-year-olds demonstrate as firm an understanding of the properties of points, lines and surfaces as adults and school-age children in the United States and France, Izard’s team reports online May 23 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
U.S. children between ages 5 and 7 partially understand geometric space, but not to the same extent as older children and adults, the researchers find.
These results suggest two possible routes to geometric knowledge. “Either geometry is innate but doesn’t emerge until around age 7 or geometry is learned but must be acquired on the basis of general experiences with space, such as the ways our bodies move,” Izard says.
Both possibilities present puzzles, she adds. If geometry relies on an innate brain mechanism, it’s unclear how such a neural system generates abstract notions about phenomena such as infinite surfaces and why this system doesn’t fully kick in until age 7. If geometry depends on years of spatial learning, it’s not known how people transform real-world experience into abstract geometric concepts — such as lines that extend forever or perfect right angles — that a forest dweller never encounters in the natural world.
We! 7114
Knowing that we are all in this together evokes a sense of community and well-being. Not long ago humanity had a narrower view of what we are in all this together involved. Happily, science is showing us just how deep and vast the we of this actually reaches. (photo: microbes inside human intestines)
The Science News article, Inside Job, covers research that offers us another warning of the danger of willfully innovating while ignorant of the constant, as chapter 16 cautions. This reminds me of the Science News’ reports on green house gases and global warming in the mid 80’s. It “only” took 20 years for this to become widely known. And yet, this knowledge has yet to propel significant remedial action. I imagine the perceived loss-to-gain ratio (cost/benefit) isn’t compelling enough. No doubt, the biological issues raised in this report will fair no better. Obviously, we only learn the hard way.
In effect, the cost/benefit here is more of an immediate loss to immediate gain ratio. For global warming, the immediate loss is high, like giving up fossil fuel, without any immediate gain. In fact, the only gain would be a serious attempt to avoid the looming disaster. That didn’t work for abolishing nuclear weapons so why should it for anything else? Interestingly, the climatic consequences are gradually coming to fruition, as are the biological consequences previewed in this report, Inside Job. How disastrous do circumstances need to get before the gain feels worth the loss?
Alas, the wisdom of balance has yet to play a major role in human behavior. Instead, the bio-hoodwink (p.11, p.100) impels us to feel ‘the more the better’. Perceived immediate gain drives us—and naturally so. After all, we are animals! Yet, we have no trouble in ostensibly understanding the danger. Chapter 70 alludes to the ironic difference between ostensible and real understanding… My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet [ironically] no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. (See We only understand what we already know, p.254.)
On the bright side, science is relentlessly, albeit gradually, proving how interconnected everything is. That bodes well for the long-term future! Especially considering how naive we were on these matters just a few short centuries ago. We do truly learn, even if at a snail’s pace.
Here are a few excerpts from the Science News report. The comment at the end of the article by one of the researchers tickled me. (For more information, google [Gut microbes influence behavior].)
Teeming masses of bacteria are in your mouth, on your skin, up your nose and on the surface of your eye, in your stomach, deep in your bowels and well, just about everywhere. In fact, the number of bacterial cells you harbor exceeds the count of your own body’s cells by 10-to-1.
They are — for the most part — friendly. So friendly that many scientists now view humans as conglomerate superorganisms composed of thousands of species. Scientists have dubbed this internal flora the “microbiome,” a nod to the little ecosystems that have blossomed in the body throughout human evolution.
These microbes are no mere hitchhikers. They’re hard at work cleaning up your insides and pumping out compounds that have all kinds of effects on health, development and perhaps even some behavior, emerging evidence suggests.
New experiments — mostly with mice — are uncovering secrets about how bacteria beguile, coax and outright manipulate their hosts, including humans.
The thought of microbes controlling the body may tickle Pettersson, but most people are squeamish about even having bacteria around. “Everywhere you look people are trying to make the world germfree,” says Martin Blaser, a microbiologist at New York University.
But a bacteria-free world is neither practical nor healthy. Blaser and others think that hygienic practices are not only getting rid of pathogens but are also causing populations of helpful bacteria to dwindle, leading to disease. This disappearing-microbiota theory is slightly different from the hygiene hypothesis, which holds that reduced exposure to pathogens leads to a maladjusted immune system, which in turn causes allergies and asthma (SN: 8/26/00, p. 134). Breaking up with the bacterial buddies that humans evolved with could have even more profound effects on health.
“Clean water is great. I wouldn’t choose otherwise, but sometimes there are unforeseen consequences,” Blaser says. In addition to widespread use of antibiotics to battle infections and purposely kill bacteria, humans are changing their microbial makeups in some unexpected ways. For example:
Clean water = People pick up fewer fecal bacteria
Bathing= Changes a person’s mix of bacteria on skin (1)
Reduced breast feeding=Babies get fewer bacteria from contact with mother
Smaller families=Fewer hand-me-downs from siblings
Increased cesarean sections=Babies get few bacteria from birth canal
Dental fillings=Changes a person’s mix of bacteria in mouth
It’s been slow in coming, but an awareness is growing that small creatures can wield great influence on the development of the human brain, immune system and other parts of the body. It should come as no great surprise, Mazmanian says. After all, bacteria shape their environments all the time, creating teeming colonies around vents in the ocean floor and helping build coral reefs and rain forests. “I don’t see us as being any different from a coral reef,” he says. “But humans are narcissists by nature, and most of the rest of the world isn’t ready to admit that little, ignorant bacteria could be in charge.”
Buddha’s First Noble Truth describes the source of sorrow that all animals can feel, “… sad it is to be joined with that which we dislike, sadder still is the separation from that which we love, and painful is the craving for that which can’t be obtained”. For social animals like us, feeling that others share this burden helps alleviate this pain, while the isolation and loneliness more common in civilization aggravates it.
The sense of isolation fades away if we look farther afield for timeless connection. Insects can serve as a tool to humble and weaken the isolating “illusion of self”(ego). They are available to ponder most anywhere you happen to be. By sincerely observing the similarities—the profound sameness of chapter 56—between you and them can help alleviate the “illusion of self” and the sense of isolation and disconnection it causes. Insects, like humans, vigorously work and not shirk as chapter 2 puts it… indeed, perhaps more so than us. Becoming a bug for a moment can help you feel how we are all in this together. Try it!
(1) I quit using soap decades ago in favor of a stiff brush to simulate an aspect of living wild. It’s a loose simulation, but it seems beneficial from the bacteria sense. When in doubt about anything, I consider how ancestral hominids lived and wild animals still do. This has offered me the best guidance overall. This helps me avoid being hoodwinked by the latest great “answer” that current experts come up with.
You Are What You Own 4336
The 1st and 2nd of Buddha’s Four Noble Truths (p.604) are spot on in regards to the nature and the cause of humanity’s existential difficulties. While these first Truths are a no-brainer, the remedy offered in his 3rd and 4th Noble Truths turn out to be more subtle.
It is easier to identify problems or questions than it is to recognize or apply truly effective solutions. For example, if the river floods our town we can readily identify the nature and the cause of the problem. The short-term solution, clean up and rebuild, is as straightforward as it is temporary. The truly effective solution might be to move the town, but no one wants to let go and move… yet anyway.
Solutions for humanity’s existential problems have run a similar course. Otherwise, the many political and religious solutions offered historically would have succeeded by now, i.e., we would have moved the town. If anything, we are as far now from a truly effective solution as ever (1). The answers or solutions humanity comes up with always lead to more questions and problems. In addition, the deeper we look into life’s challenges, the more unfathomable it all becomes. Our need for resolution drives us to jump at what feels like straightforward solutions, and we end up going in circles. We lack the patience to follow the breadcrumb trail: questions beget answers…beget questions… beget answers… ad nauseam, until all that remains is the eternal question, naturally!
Our problem is internal and while it’s associated with our sense of self, the sense of self doesn’t cause the problem. The sense of self is innate and natural. I think of it as the survival sense that motivates all life to live out its days. Our unique difficulty is due to thoughts of self. As chapter 7 says, Is it not because he is without thought of self that he is able to accomplish his private ends? Thinking enables people to project this sense of self onto their stuff… their beliefs, their future, their past, their life. The Science News report, Kids own up to ownership, illustrates just how early and deep this attachment to our stuff begins. This shows that science has come another step closer to proving a key element of Buddha’s Second Noble Truth. The kids in the article show how it begins with their stuff, and just goes on from there. Truly, “… the illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things”.
Here’s a short excerpt from that report. (Google [Children’s inferences about ownership] for more)
WASHINGTON — Young children are possessed by possessions. Preschoolers argue about what belongs to whom with annoying regularity, a habit that might suggest limited appreciation of what it means to own something.
But it’s actually just the opposite, psychologist Ori Friedman of the University of Waterloo in Canada reported on May 28 at the Association for Psychological Science annual meeting. At ages 4 and 5, youngsters value a person’s ownership rights — say, to a crayon — far more strongly than adults do, Friedman and psychology graduate student Karen Neary found.
Rather than being learned from parents, a concept of property rights may automatically grow out of 2- to 3-year-olds’ ideas about bodily rights, such as assuming that another person can’t touch or control one’s body for no reason, Friedman proposed.
Chapter 15 offers some interim advice for thinking… Tentative, as if fording a river in winter, Hesitant, as if in fear of his neighbors. You can’t trust your mind any more than a river in winter. Chapter 20 offers another good motto; My mind is that of a fool – how blank! With this, at least we can stop digging (i.e., thinking) when we find ourselves in a hole.
(1) The impetuous way humanity jumps at what feels like straightforward solutions may improve as the mean age of humanity rises over the coming millennia. The mean age was in the teens during Roman times, and even up through the 19th century. Now, it is 36+ in the developed world. An aging population is less aggressive and impulsive than a younger one, which alone helps mitigate part of humanity’s existential problem. At least we’ll have more patience to follow that breadcrumb trail of questions and answers. It is on this trail that the coping solutions offered in Buddha’s 3rd and 4th Noble Truths become more feasible.
Thou Shalt Not… 4273
I doubt devout Christians are here to take offense, so I’ll propose an 11th Commandment… Thou shalt not take the path of least resistance. It has a nice ring to it, yet I’ll admit it sounds unnatural. Indeed, we evolved to take the path of least resistance. Then again, we didn’t evolve to eat grains, drive cars, or the countless other things we do to make life more convenient, comfortable and secure. In the wild, taking the path of least resistance is naturally healthful. In civilized settings, results often turn out otherwise. (photo #11: thou shalt not take the path of least resistance)
The inherent drive to take the path of least resistance is a key incentive behind the invention of tools and by extension civilization itself. If you doubt that, just imagine life without any tools, not even a stone axe. Tool use is a keystone of civilization. By making the path of least resistance increasingly easier to trod, civilization unwittingly produces a path of inherent imbalance.
This imbalance increases with every technological advancement we make. The shift from hunter-gatherer to agriculture was a major milestone. Archeological evidence shows that the following 10,000 years marked a decline in human physical health. Fortunately, human physical health has recovered greatly through improved sanitation and science over the last few centuries.
Human mental health is another matter. The more recent advent of the Iron Age (1200 BCE) certainly instigated a major decline in human mental health… a decline that shows little sign of recovery. Indeed, the Electric Age may cause it to decline even more rapidly now (see The Good Old Days, p.459). The symptom’s point of view vis-à-vis religion reveals its underlying basis.
Religion, above all else, is about making us feel emotionally and psychologically secure. It so happens that all the current major religions took root following the aftermath of the Iron Age. Iron technology was very economically, culturally, and socially unsettling at the time. Iron forced people to find new ways to comfort and unite their cultures. Society needed an updated spiritual paradigm to alleviate the disruption and increased disconnection arising from the widespread use of iron. (Note: Iron is a much more efficient material than stone or bronze. Alas, human wisdom didn’t increase proportionally to deal prudently with this quantum leap in technological efficiency… Does that sound familiar?)
My proposed 11th commandment parallels Buddha’s Second Noble Truth, which in part says, “… the desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in a net of sorrow, pleasures are the bait and the result is pain.” One of the problems I have with the Ten Commandments, or even my 11th one, is that without lucid evidence based on experience, commandments easily become lifeless platitudes. Merely because everyone says something is important doesn’t hit home for me. I need proof! Sure, my less social and contrarian nature accounts for some of this. However, I bet I’m not alone! Everyone is less or more social, and less or more contrarian. Having a coherent reason for approaching life the way one considers best can only help. Knowing a deeper ‘why’ really improves the chances of actualizing chapter 21’s, In his every movement a man of great virtue follows the way and the way only. Contemplating what is in my best interest and why makes it nearly impossible to do otherwise.
This is about increasing living-balance, and the heightened sense of well-being this brings. Merely being told that I’ll be happier following the Way, the Ten Commandments, or whatever, is a banality incapable of coaxing me to resist taking the path of least resistance. I need to see the full depth of the predicament we humans have created for ourselves. Ironically, probing this deep helps me take the situation less seriously because I realize that it all comes about naturally … there are no devils to blame. Conversely, keeping to the shallow end, one can easily take ‘it’ too seriously and flip over to the other extreme in a kind of ‘thou shalt take the path of most resistance’. Then renunciation and self-flagellation rule the day. Isn’t this just how the pendulum of human behavior plays out? (See The Pendulum Swings, p.394)
See No Evil 5846
While discussing life with a friend the other day the word evil came up. He sees America as an “evil empire” that commits acts of torture that surpass anything al-Qaeda has done. I think he was referring to all the bombs dropped over the last 100 years. In any case, this provided grist for my mind’s mill. For starters, the idea of evil immediately brings to mind the chapter 2’s, The whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad — Ha! No wonder Taoist views aren’t mainstream.
When I look around me, I see no good, evil, beauty, or ugly in nature. Consider the Chinese word for nature: zì rán (自然). Zì (自) = self; certainly. Rán (然) = correct; so. Accordingly, Nature = self-correct, self-so, certainly-so. In other words, reality is not duality! The extreme duality we perceive might well be a result of the disconnection from Nature we feel, and vice versa.
Nature includes everything, including the behaviors arising from our biological nature. Therefore, it is oxymoronic to regard any human action as evil, no matter how unpleasant, i.e., nature can be unpleasant but it isn’t evil. As a result, I have to wonder what calling something evil actually means from a symptom’s point of view (p.141).
Thinking that something is evil is mostly a projection (a reflection) of what one hates (1). I recall hearing the phrase, “I hate evil” a few times. I expect this comes from Biblical proverbs 8-13 “To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech”. What a sharp contrast this is to chapter 2’s view of good and bad, beauty and ugly. As I see it, ‘hate’ and ‘evil’ share the same side of the coin. Namely, evil actions arise out of hate-filled emotion. So, seeing something as evil actually means we are seeing something we hate. That begs the question, what does hate actually mean from a symptom’s point of view?
There is another way to see evil
Hate really boils down to what we really feel unpleasant and dislike in the extreme. Conversely, love is what we really like. Why then do we love some things and hate other things? I see the survival instinct at work here. Namely, that which we feel beneficial, we love; that which we feel harmful, we hate. This simple process of attraction and aversion is common to all life. It is the fulcrum of survival. The stronger we feel either one, the more active the response. The only two factors that are unique to humans are tool use and cognition. These greatly influence our responses to these universal survival instincts.
Just imagine what would happen if an angry chimp had a gun and a skillful finger to pull the trigger. Clearly, like chimps without such tools, we’d mostly be throwing feces at each other instead of guided missiles. Considering our capability to destroy anything that disturbs us, it is remarkable that we don’t wreak more havoc on the planet than we do.
Next, imagine how tormented that angry chimp might be if it could think. All its emotional currents could exist larger than life in its imagination — it could love and hate! Clearly, animals (including humans) without thought will mostly experience the moment, ‘up’ or ‘down’, with little cognitive ability to magnify and fixate on it. As it is now, we haul around our ‘loves and hates’ like so much baggage. A worry-free life remains beyond our reach as long as we hang onto our ‘love and hate’ narratives (2).
There is another way to deal with evil
Our exceptional ability to think, and the manual dexterity to make tools, brings with it many unintended and harmful consequences. Even so, as a species, we are not going to do as chapter 80 suggests, return to the use of the knotted rope, nor heed chapter 71’s, To know yet to think that one does not know is best anytime soon, if ever. Still, it surprises me that a rational view of our predicament is as rare as it is (3).
Our typical approach to fighting evil is ironic, hypocritical, and futile. We’re fighting fire with fire. Understanding ourselves as animals above all else would help break this cycle. It would certainly help to realize that our highest ideals are not answers to our problem, but rather symptoms of our problem. Of course seeing our ideals as symptoms rather than as answers may depend on how comfortable we are feeling without thought of self, as chapter 7 puts it. Yes, there’s always a hitch. The good and evil duality we perceive is simply one’s self-projection of one’s own needs and fears.
(1) Also curious is how one person’s ‘hated and evil’ is another’s ‘loved and good’. The inconsistency and hypocrisy in moral outrages is striking, although quite natural as well. A most obvious example is how the right-to-life conservative sees abortion as evil, but condones capital punishment. On the other hand, the free-to-choose liberal often sees capital punishment as evil, but condones abortion. When it comes to killing, humanity’s line in the sand moves all over the place, except for Jainism, I suppose. Yet even Vegans, like the Jains, are moving that line by judging what is sentient. This reminds me of my next post — Is a Rock Conscious?
(2) Letting go is all the more difficult because our loves and hates are inextricably linked. To paraphrase chapter 2, the hates and the loves complement each other. As long as you hold out for one you’ll inherit the other.
(3) It is possible our inability to see ourselves more rationally stems from our real inability to do anything about ourselves. Just as questions demand answers, seeing problems most likely evokes an instinctive urge to fix them. Does this limit our ability to fully consider matters that are truly natural and beyond our ability to fix? Perhaps our belief in free will (p.587, p.591), explicit or implied, is linked to this limitation. No doubt, we have a serious need to feel we are in control… Ha!
Is Rock Conscious? 5988
A while ago, I attempted to pin down a friend (1) of mine on the subject of consciousness. My view that a rock could be conscious didn’t go over too well. He said, “Words are sounds that gain meaning with use. Saying that a rock is conscious is like saying a rock is alive. That might work in a poem, but not for logical communication. Look in a dictionary for usage rather than rely on my memory”.
Accordingly, I looked up the word conscious in a few dictionaries and then tracked down some of the words used to define that word. I felt like a dog chasing its tale. Clearly, word definition is a messy affair when you scratch the surface. No wonder we prefer simple answers lying on the surface of life’s mystery. All the same, I can show why a rock or even an atom for that matter, qualifies as being conscious using the following trail of definitions.
Some definitions of conscious specifically refer only to living organisms. That being the case, I’ll limit this to living things — initially. Limited to organisms, it is easy for me to see how even a virus, bacteria, or amoeba is conscious, or perhaps subconscious. Actually, I should say it is only easy to see as long as you follow the trail of definitions below.
The Trail of Definitions
Conscious (Date: 1592)
perceiving, apprehending, or noticing with a degree of controlled thought or observation <was conscious that someone was watching
Perceiving (Date: 14th century)
to attain awareness or understanding of
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French perceivre, from Latin percipere, from per- thoroughly + capere to take.
Awareness (Date: before 12th century)
a: watchful, wary b: having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge
Etymology: Middle English iwar, from Old English gewær, from ge- (associative prefix) + wær wary
Subconscious (Date: circa 1834)
the mental activities just below the threshold of consciousness
Mental (Date: 15th century)
the conscious mental events and capabilities in an organism
Mind (Date: before 12th century)
a: the element or complex of elements in an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons b: the conscious mental events and capabilities in an organism
Etymology: ME mynde < OE (ge)mynd, memory < IE base *men-, to think > Gr menos, spirit, force, L mens, mind
Spirit (Date: 13th century)
an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French, espirit, spirit, from Latin spiritus, literally, breath, from spirare to blow, breathe
Breath (Date: before 12th century)
a: the faculty of breathing b: an act of breathing
The faculty of breathing… No, I feel I should stop here. This is looking more like a vicious definition-defining circle to me.
Chapter 32 hints at the problem, beginning with… The way is for ever nameless.
Though the uncarved block is small… And ending with… Only when it is cut are there names. As soon as there are names, One ought to know that it is time to stop. Knowing when to stop one can be free from danger.
The sharper word definitions are, the more their cut reflects human-centric, culture-centric, and self-centric bias. The long held beliefs that children, women and Africans were not fully conscious and mentally capable, exemplify such bias. Clearly, where we draw our definition lines in the sand reflects the depth of our self-understanding and self-security… or the lack there of. We desperately need to define reality, and we do so in arbitrary ways that prop up our own self-image.
Inside vs. Outside-the-box
Classifying experience boxes perception in to preconceptions that we absorb from infancy onward. Perceiving any reality outside such cultural indoctrination is nearly impossible until we leg go and unlearn some of this definitional status quo. In other words, it is healthy to consider the possibility that a rock is conscious.
Frankly, dictionaries endeavor to define an inside-the-box point of view. Naturally, as all humans raised ‘inside this box’, I understand the viewpoint from inside it. If I couldn’t, I’d be incapable of writing any of this. The Correlations process arose out of my need to peek outside-the-box enough to more deeply examine my inside-the-box point of view. Contrast is the issue here; I need to find a ‘there’ in order to see a ‘here’. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.)
So, is a rock conscious?
It all depends on what you mean by “conscious”. By my definition, rocks are conscious, although they don’t think or breathe. Only we think, as far as I know, and so only we have coined the word “conscious”. If we limit the definition of consciousness to thinking, then only humans are conscious. And even then, only after the age of 12 months or so after we’ve learned enough names, words, and language to begin thinking. Before that, feeling dominates perception, i.e., by this definition, feeling is not thinking.
What is thinking? I define thinking as a brain function that requires symbolic language. Thus, according to this definition, without language, there is no thinking. Think is also a synonym for believe. To paraphrase chapter 71, To know yet to believe that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to believe that one knows will lead to difficulty.
Clearly, we are stuck with thinking. Symbolic language is an integral and instinctive part of who we are… our awareness, our consciousness. What we think, however, can be infinitely fluid. Allowing that a rock may be conscious is obviously more fluid, and conforms to chapter 71’s To know yet to think that one does not know is best’. Allowing for this leaves the door open for mysterious sameness, as chapter 56 puts it, to tickle your consciousness. Mysterious sameness hints that all existence shares an essence of being, a consciousness of being… Beingness.
(1) This is the same friend who instigated my last post, See No Evil (p.209). This post, Is a Rock Conscious?, and that last post are somewhat connected.
Feeling Animal-ness 5401
We “know” humans are animals, biologically speaking. Yet do we really feel we are? In reality, there is a wide gap between our knowledge and our experience. Catching the flu for the “first” time in my life recently offers an example of how thought can distort and pigeonhole reality.
Assuming that I caught the flu for the first time must be incorrect, but up until now, I never knew the difference between a cold and the flu. Sure, I’ve heard of flu shots and the risks for old people catching the flu. However, whenever I came down with flu-ish symptoms, I just felt I had a cold.
My “first” time with depression offers another example. Up until about 30 years ago, I’d never been depressed. I’d heard about people having depression; I just never felt I experience it myself. After my intense six-month long day and night work on the Correlations (Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565), I experienced depression for the first time in my life. However, was that really the first time? Like never having caught the flu, never feeling depression until then was most improbable.
“Thick like the uncarved block”
I had felt bad at various times throughout my life up until these two first time examples. I just never “knew” exactly what was wrong. A bad time would eventually revolve back to a good one until the next bad one came around again. Chapter 58 describes this natural ebb and flow poetically as, It is on disaster that good fortune perches; It is beneath good fortune that disaster crouches.
Of course, no animal, other than human, would label this ebb and flow experience as either good or bad. Not attaching the more specific labels, flu and depression, to my earlier experiences was more animal-like, and actually closer to reality. Chapter 15 hints at this simplicity… Thick like the uncarved block; Vacant like a valley; Murky like muddy water.
These two experiences exemplify chapter 32, As soon as there are names, one ought to know that it is time to stop. Naming experience has unintended and undesirable consequences. Sure, there are useful reasons for naming experience, but there are costs that we don’t realize. Naming experience, ‘carves the block’, ‘occupies the valley’, and ‘clears the muddy water’. What’s more, to rephrase chapter 56, naming experience [releases] the openings; [opens] the doors; [hones] the sharpness; [tangles] the knots; [brightens] the glare.
We fear the emptiness and stillness that embracing the uncarved block evokes. Chapter 20 hints why… Between yea and nay, How much difference is there? Between good and evil, How great is the distance? We obviously feel the need to exaggerate experience and make more of less. Doing so supports our “illusion of self” and that things truly exist and matter! Perhaps chapter 19’s, Exhibit the unadorned and embrace the uncarved block, Have little thought of self and as few desires as possible, feels virtuous because it is the last thing we are emotionally able to do. It promises balance to our reality, and so we imagine ourselves doing it… not today, but perhaps ‘tomorrow’.
It appears that we can’t feel peace of mind until we name our experiences. Then we feel we “know”. To be honest, that’s why I contemplate my observations. Writing about all this is just another way of naming. On the other hand, I’m always looking for that mysterious sameness in order to blur distinctions, and make less out of more. What I’m doing sounds a lot like chapter 36. To paraphrase: If you would have a thing [blurred], you must first [clarify] it. Indeed, isn’t this what we all do through life? Simply fill in the blank: If you would have _”x”_ laid aside, you must first set _”x”_ up.
To summarize: We humans obviously need to fill our mind’s space. After all, Nature abhors a vacuum. As a result, we name, think, and speak about our experience to fill that space. Okay, so far so good. The difficulties really arise when we seriously believe what we think! As chapter 71 cautions,
The sage meets with no difficulty.
It is because he is alive to it that he meets with no difficulty.
Naming experience bestows a sense of control
Chapter 32 notes, The way constant is without name. I’ve previously offered the observation that helping others is a subtle form of control over them. This cold hard fact applies even more to our act of naming things, whether they are physical, emotional or mental. Names impart a sense of control, and that supports our sense of free will. We can feel that we direct our fate. This truth of naming applies across the board, including every word I use. The zoologist names the species he observes; the hairdresser names the style she uses; the historian names dates; the astronomer names the stars…
Our connection with naming the content of our perception, our mind, is total and virtually impossible to rise above. That’s why chapter 16 says, nearly rising beyond oneself. That is why Taoist say, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Sincerely recognizing your disease is the only treatment. As chapter 71 goes on to say, Man alone faults this disease; this so as not to be ill. The sacred person is not ill, taking his disease as illness.
Ants Are Us 5678
Watching this video on ants (google [CBS News Small wonders: What ants can teach us]) left me feeling that we’re simply ants with big brains and hands with opposable thumbs. This definitely agrees with chapter 56’s This is known as mysterious sameness! Just imagine what ants could do if they had hands and big brains. I suppose they could trash the earth even faster than we are doing.(photo: gathering around the water cooler)
As civilization and technology advance, we become more specialized in the roles we play in society. This progressive specialization is transforming modern society to become more ant-like in various ways. Given that we’re not ants, this should create some unique social problems for our species. Of course, we’ll eventually adapt. Besides, what’s life without problems? Here are some excerpts that highlight the similarities between ants and humans…
Mark Moffett – biologist, author, photographer and ant-enthusiast almost from birth says, “I learned early, like when I was in diapers, that ants are controlling the world under our feet. Down there as an infant I would watch them doing all of these things that were very human-like: building roads, working together to collect food, all kinds of things. Ants do all kinds of things that even primates, like a chimpanzee, don’t have to deal with.”
There are farmers, soldiers, nurses, sanitation specialists, highway construction workers. “You get a variety of different sizes of workers with different shapes. And they’re all built specifically to do certain tasks or jobs. So they are born with this identity,” said Moffett. (photo: ants ‘saying’ goodbye)
There are actually “suicide bomber” ants. “The ant simply walks up to the enemy and explodes – spraying this toxic yellow glue over itself and everything around it,” Moffett said
With behavior this “human-like,” they must be pretty smart, right?
No, according to Deborah Gordon, professor of biology at Stanford: “Ants are not smart. In fact, if you watch an ant for any length of time, you’re gonna end up wanting to help it, because ants are really very inept”.
“But colonies are smart. So what’s amazing about ants is that in the aggregate, all of these inept creatures accomplish amazing feats as colonies,” she said.
And according to Gordon, they do it all without a boss.
“In an ant colony, there’s nobody in charge. There are no bureaucrats. There are no foremen. There are no managers. There is nobody telling anybody what to do,” she said.
So all these survive and thrive together, all without a leader – which can be hard for us humans to understand.
“We put a lot of effort into thinking through how to organize some of the things that we try to do as groups,” said Gordon. “Ants don’t put in any effort at all. They’re pretty messy about it, and it works really well.”
So, if no one is in charge, how DO ants make decisions?
Most ants, it turns out, simply “follow the crowd”; the more ants follow a trail, the stronger the trail’s scent is – and the stronger the trail’s scent is, the more likely ant will follow it.
“Basically if you have enough employees or machines – or ants in a colony – they can all have very specific tasks,” said Lawson. “And that’s how ant society is. And that’s how they evolved jobs over millions of years. It’s come to be that we need a nursing ant; we need a soldier ant.”
”Arguably, humans are too smart for the functioning of the whole society – it pays to be individually stupid,” Moffett laughed. “This is the wisdom of the crowds idea brought to ants. Basically, all those little ants with their mostly ignorant choices, out of all that emerges a smart society.”
It is uncanny how similar we are to ants. Of course, we don’t see ourselves that way. Our species-centric ego impels us to paint a self-portrait commensurate with our highest ideals rather than sober self-understanding. Take, for example, the comment, “So, if no one is in charge, how DO ants make decisions?” (photo:”my dear, what big pincers you have”)
Our belief in free will (p.587, p.591) convinces us to feel we have more control over life than we actually do. What’s more, if we don’t, at least someone does… for better or worse. History and science hints at just the opposite. Our biological instincts are the ones really in charge, just like in ants and every other living thing. Indeed, the ant’s instincts of attraction and aversion (a.k.a., ant need and fear) keep its attention focused on those urges. How are we any different? Our desires and worries (a.k.a., human need and fear) consume most of our days, albeit often subconsciously. For a deeper look, see How the Hoodwink Hooks, p.100 and Reward, Fear and Need, p.181.
Finally, note how succinctly chapter 71 sums up humanity’s core problem: Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. While we’re never going to reach the simple naturalness known to other animals and plants, we can at least take heed, as the first line of chapter 71 advises, To know yet to think that one does not know is best.
I just can’t remind myself of all this too often. The yearning to see Superman in the mind’s mirror is that compelling. This yearning must be the inevitable result of the survival instinct’s effect on a large thinking brain. The need to be in control is a primal sense we share with all life, or at least, all life with a developed nervous system. In humans, emotions drive cognition to think up appealing scenarios that agree with that innate emotion, and… Voilà! … We have cultural narratives that offer us the evidence of our special place in creation. In short, we judge ourselves and predictably come out on top.
“… Strive On Diligently” 4479
The BBC aired an excellent six part series on India. The other night we watched Part 2. (Google [BBC The story of India (Part 2)]. The first half hour retells the life of Buddha. Incorporating present day video footage of India with the story makes this telling especially effective. The end of the segment stood out to me. To quote:
Buddha (around the age of 80, 486 BCE) felt his time nearing the end, traveled north towards the land of his childhood. The Buddha reached a little town on the edge of the Ganges plane where he fell ill.
His disciples could not bear to let him go. Buddha replied, “What more do you want of me? Ask no more of me. I have made known the teaching. You are the community now. I’ve reached the end of my journey”. His last words before he passed were, “All created things must pass, strive on diligently”.
For me, “All created things must pass, strive on diligently” is a most undeniable and profound observation of all life on earth—it’s survivals bottom line. This is a subtle way of saying that life’s striving, not life’s accomplishments, confers life meaning. The more I can emotionally embrace that, the less success and failure matter. I am free to simply be. As chapter 33 says, He who perseveres is a man of purpose, or the Bhagavad Gita 3:30 Be free from vain hopes and selfish thoughts, and with inner peace fight thou thy fight.
The actual intention of both Buddha and Jesus was to help people refocus on their culture’s spiritual narrative, not to become as gods themselves. The Buddha’s teaching expresses the core teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, albeit more succinctly and rationally. The same is true of the Old Testament and Jesus. You could say Buddha and Jesus updated and consolidated those ancient teachings to fit with their times better. Alas, their straightforward updates were soon dogmatized and homogenized to the lowest common denominator. That sounds a lot like entropy at work — or is it entropy at rest? Anyway, it is naturally so! (buddha on his death bed)
It may be hard to appreciate how profoundly the times were a-changing back then. Looking back, it all can blur together as ancient history. Living through the times would have been otherwise. Notably, the introduction of efficient iron smelting and iron fabrication into tools of agriculture and war had a revolutionary impact on daily life. Interestingly, I sense the harnessing of electricity, from the first electric motor in 1837 to the computerized everything of today, will have a similar world-shattering impact on humanity’s way of life. I mean, we’ve entered only the beginning stages of the Electric Age!
It is an awesome time to be alive if you can stand back far enough to see the historical context. Even so, it is hard to fully realize the long-term impact of all this while living through it. Lives are short; memories are shorter. If you doubt the impact of the Electric Age, just imagine your life today without the use of electricity… no cars, no planes, no profound scientific or medical advancements, and no electricity-based media. What’s more, think of all the things electric motors do for us.
In a fundamental way, electricity is a modern form of slave labor. We’re hot so we turn on our fan. We don’t need slaves or servants to wield a fan. The consequences of having such power is that it makes us all as rich as kings in many respects. Jesus saw downside consequences of such power when he said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”… No wonder Buddha left his kingdom and wealth behind.
Eventually, consolidated updates of humanity’s spiritual truths will come about to match this post Electric Age better. Spiritual grounding by whatever definition, Enlightenment, Entering the Kingdom of God, or whatever, is the first casualty of progress and power whether wrought by the dawning of the Agriculture Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, or the Electric Age. What to do? As Buddha suggested, “All created things must pass, strive on diligently” (1).
(1) Another source has this as, “All things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence”. I like fewer words generally, but the suggestion to work out our own salvation with diligence is telling. I feel “strive on diligently” applies well to other animals, while this applies well to humans who, unlike other animals, are concerned with their salvation.
Loss is Gain; Gain is Loss 2074
This title, “Loss is Gain; Gain is Loss”, may sound a bit ridiculous because we are biologically set up to respond positively to gain and negatively to loss. Chapter 58’s, It is on disaster that good fortune perches; It is beneath good fortune that disaster crouches attempts to show how entangled gain and loss are. We can’t have one without the other. The adage “be careful what you wish for, it may come true” also alludes to this. (photo: shishi odoshi [”deer scarer”])
A useful ploy in life is convincing our hoodwinking emotions of the actual benefit of loss and the hidden downside of gain. Naturally, the difficulty lies in putting principle to practice. The good news is that years of evidence, hard-won through personal experience, can help keep us ever more mindful of this.
There are countless examples of this open secret, although they are mostly fleeting and subtle. Being subtle, such situations don’t trigger emotion strongly enough to make the process easy to notice. When major loss or gain occurs, the emotions overwhelm reason and so all you see is one side, feeling either euphoric or miserable. Both emotions blind-side impartial observation.
Looking for evidence of this open secret is easy, yet one might say, “Why bother spending time and energy on this?” Well, as chapter 64 advises, Deal with a thing while it is still nothing; Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in. Examining the subtle nature of gain and loss plays a major role in deepening self-honesty… and the deeper that is, the more likely I am to deal with a thing while it is still nothing.
The photo is of a Japanese shishi odoshi (“deer scarer”). Every now and then I’d come across one on the grounds of a Japanese temple. I always assumed it was symbolic of the process: loss brings about gain, gain brings about loss (i.e., when it fills, it empties right away, and then begins filling again). Looking for this photo, I discovered its practical and perhaps traditional use. Does it really scare deer away? Deer are probably smarter than that.
Why Man is King 5312
Up until now, civilization has put Man at the top, and Woman at the bottom of civilization’s hierarchical structure. I once thought civilization simply incorporated a great ape trait wherein an alpha-male dominates the group. That may still be one reason, but I also see universal forces in either setting up or breaking down this male-female hierarchy. (photo: king sahura c.2487-2475 b.c.e.)
I suspect that cultural traditions and biological instincts come about following a similar evolutionary process, albeit, at greatly different time scales. No one individual of a species intentionally creates a tradition or instinct, yet populations end up expressing traditional and instinctive behaviors for generations… until circumstances shift. For mice and ants, such shifts lead to changes via biological evolution. For humans, such shifts lead to changes via cultural evolution. All the same, societies of men, mice or ants share some deeply similar characteristics. (See Ant Are Us, p.216 and A Brother is a Brother, p.246) (photo: the venus of willendorf c. 22,000 b.c.e.)
Shifting circumstances result in evolutionary change, whether biological or cultural. That’s how humans, ants, and all, arrived at where we are today. With your deepest intuitive sense of what makes humans tick, try imagining the changes that lie ahead for us now that the age of electricity is advancing at what feels like light speed! Here are some connections I see.
A post agricultural-revolution world
With the advent of agriculture, large populations of less intimately connected people had to pull together to make the new system work. Gone was the deep life-long bonding between individuals of the small hunter-gatherer group. That fundamental shift was just begging for trouble within agricultural society (i.e., internecine feuds).
This is where a culture’s traditions can step in to help stabilize society. Traditions give less connected individuals at least an illusion of connection by sharing the same music, food, dress, religion, beliefs, etc. Most importantly, these stabilizing aspects help hold the family together. After all, family stability is the bedrock of civilization as a whole. Lose that, and it becomes every man and woman for him/her self. Chaos! Accordingly, what paradigm and tradition needs to evolve to stabilize civilization enough? (photo: mother and baby)
Determining what paradigm most effectively holds society together prompts me to return to my original morning musings: What keeps the dynamics of male-female relationships either working well, long-term and stable vs. what leads to their early demise?
I suspect that when a woman feels she ‘owns’ her man lock stock and barrel she is more likely to roam, innately on the look out for a more fit fathering prospect. The same applies to when a man feels he ‘owns’ his woman. The gut feeling here: Two birds in the bush are worth more than one in the hand. As the female is the cornerstone of primate nesting behavior, civilization inevitably evolved a paradigm that favors keeping woman in the lower, less mobile position. This, along with any alpha-male instinct, probably accounts for why ‘man is king’, so to speak.
The Venus of Willendorf figurine hints that things were somewhat different during the hunter-gather times. To be sure, this analysis rests on the premise that we are not truly innately monogamous. No truly hierarchical animal (1), ape or otherwise, is monogamous to my knowledge. The two, hierarchy and monogamy are a little like oil and water; they are not mutually supportive. There’s more to it, naturally. For one thing, we may not be naturally that hierarchical in the wild. The extreme hierarchy we see now is likely a consequence of civilization. Anyhow, even if I’m wrong about the hierarchy / monogamy part, the overall story is the same, so on with the show…
Industrialization and the birth of the electric-age
The advent of industrialization and modern, market economies made the “man is king” paradigm increasingly obsolete. The women’s lib and the other social movements over the last century reflect this shift. Where does humanity go from here? I imagine that the Electric-Age is bringing about the most profound change in human circumstances since our ancestors harnessed fire… if not that, then certainly since the agricultural revolution. Chapter 51 says circumstances bring us to maturity.
Human culture’s paradigm is changing, and with the past as our only guide means that we have no clue to what we are doing. We are like children, born into a new world stumbling along and feeling our way forward. Ironically, this leads me to envision a time (10,000 AD?) when humanity may more easily appreciate the Taoist’s fluid view of reality. At least by then, if not long before, Man will no longer be King. (photo: alpha-male)
(1) Google [Primate Behavior: Adaptations of Group Living] for details on primate behavior. My hypothesis rests on what constitutes a truly hierarchical animal. The evidence shows that, as primates, we are naturally more egalitarian than hierarchical. That cooperative trait accounts for much of our survival success. However, our shift to a settled agrarian life required a more hierarchical social structure of civilization.
I, Amoeba 3111
I am always reassured when I see a strong correlation between ostensibly low mundane life forms and myself. It shows Mother Nature is no fool; she simplifies her work by using time-tested tools at every level of life — and non-life as well. I suppose the reassurance I feel arises from seeing examples of my being truly connected to all life being.
Consequently, it is somewhat weird to see the lengths humanity goes to see itself as superior. Take for instance the myth of Man created in God’s image. Being unable to discern the subtle similarities between ‘them’—other life forms—and ‘us’, our species-centric ego aim our myths in that direction. In addition, the hierarchical backbone of civilization must certainly intensify this ‘them’ vs. ‘us’ bias.
Developing tools that allow us to see more, beginning with the telescope and microscope, helped change that. And, thanks to the Electric Age, this ability to examine how nature works its magic appears to be increasing exponentially. The Science News article, On the trail of cell navigation, shows the not-so-mysterious sameness between how the “dumb” amoeba and I approach life.
Ask yourself what single feature of experience has turned out to be the surest guide to living life in general. I don’t mean any particular experience, but more about your life experience overall. The end of chapter 14 hints at what to look for, The ability to know the beginning of antiquity is called the thread running through the way. That thread is the constant throughout your experience, which makes it extraordinarily subtle!
As you read this excerpt from the article, look for similarities between how you and cells navigate through life. (Google [Self-assisted amoeboid navigation in complex environments] for more.)
Cells seeking paths through the body’s tangle of tissues might adapt the navigational strategy of Hansel and Gretel. In the Brothers Grimm tale, the lost kids dropped pebbles and bread crumbs along a wooded trail to help lead them back out of a freaky forest.
Instead of using markers telling them where to go, though, cells might leave behind repellent molecules telling them where not to go.
In a new study, scientists suggest these markers help trailblazing cells move away from areas where they’ve gotten stuck, such as confusing dead ends and tricky corners.
“I think it’s a really nice idea that cells could be using something like this, a simple mechanism that allows them to navigate through these complex environments,” says biologist Iain Couzin of Princeton University, who was not involved in the study.
When reviewing the 75+ years of my life, I find the most dependable way of navigating life has been the same for me as it is for cells. Discovering “where not to go” has turned out to be my best guide of where to go. Discovering life’s dead ends, be they ideas, goals, “truths”, and such, greatly consolidates and simplifies life. The learning never ceases. Anything that promises to be an answer or solution comes up a distant second. They always turn out to be less than promised.
Naked Thought 5568
Styles of thinking and clothing have a lot in common. We are born with mind simple and body naked. We soon dress our body in clothes and our mind in thoughts. Wishing to return to our original self physically, we can just go naked. Wishing to return to our original self mentally is another matter.
Chapter 49 hints, The sage has no mind of his own. He takes as his own the mind of the people. Chapter 16 sheds light on how this can happen:
The problem in returning to one’s roots lies in styles of thinking. I see two archetypical cognitive styles (A and B below) from which we pick, sometimes one, sometimes the other. Which is your normal preference?
(A) Discerning differences: This mode tends to support biases, which augments tribal connection, i.e., ‘us’ vs. ‘them’. This reinforces judgments and our sense of social fairness. This can leave one feeling either pleased by the justice or annoyed by the injustice, depending on circumstances. This style is more akin to classical physics.
(B) Discerning similarities: (1) This mode tends to neutralize biases, which augments chapter 49’s having no mind of your own. This can also neutralize judgments and our sense of social fairness. This can leave one feeling serene vis-à-vis the natural justice of the way, regardless of circumstances. This emptiness also heightens a soulful sense of solitude. As chapter 39 hints, Thus lords and princes refer to themselves as ‘solitary’, ‘desolate’, and ‘hapless’. This is taking the inferior as root, is it not? This style is more akin to quantum physics (entanglement).
Talk of shoring up or neutralizing one’s biases may be misleading. Perhaps knowledge is a better word here than biases. After all, at the deepest level knowledge and bias share common ground. Let me clarify the knowledge issue…
Not being omniscient, we can’t know anything absolutely. This means all knowledge is relative and ultimately rests on the shifting sands of what we assume we know. As chapter 21 notes, As a thing the way is shadowy, indistinct. We compensate for this dreadful murkiness with a passionate conviction in our beliefs. Thinking style (A) helps accomplish this by focusing much more on discerning differences than similarities.
Discernment of differences, differentiating ‘this’ from ‘that’, is the foundation upon which knowledge rests. Reducing the discernment of differences is one way to alleviate knowledge’s impact on perception. Thinking style (B) helps this by looking for as much similarity between apparent differences as possible. Then, when chapter 10 asks, “When your discernment penetrates the four quarters are you capable of not knowing anything?”, you can answer, “Yep! All I see is mysterious sameness” – #56.
It all comes down to a choice between relying on a point of view that magnifies differences, or one that shrinks differences. In casual matters, thinking style (A) works well. It is fun and parallels chapter 1’s Allow yourself to have desires to observe its manifestation. However, in serious matters, I prefer style (B) which fosters serenity (2). It parallels chapter 1’s, Rid yourself of desire in order to observe its secrets.
Note, I use the word choice lightly. Ultimately, emotion pushes us into the choice we make. Nonetheless, an awareness of each style can help one deal with the consequences of each. In the end, isn’t that what really matters. It is not that one succeeds. After all, in the end we all fail, i.e., we die. Chapter 33 hints at what matters,
This is where styles (A) and (B) join forces, as both drive us to strive on in one way or another. Indeed, we can’t help but strive on diligently, naturally. We merely think we should strive harder! No wonder we have difficulty. Nonetheless, awareness of this self-inflicted difficulty helps greatly. As the end of chapter 71 says, The sage meets with no difficulty. It is because he is alive to it that he meets with no difficulty.
(1) Style B parallels the Correlations process. Using Correlations to ponder life requires discerning similarities to the point of no return or as close to that as one can get. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565.)
(2) Everything has a price, even serenity. Style (B) diminishes the sense of tribal solidarity. There is no ‘us’ against ‘them’. Social connection becomes much more indistinct and shadowy. Your tribe is the universe. Chapter 20 speaks to this…
The multitude are joyous
As if partaking of the ‘Tai Lao’ offering
Or going up to a terrace in spring.
I alone am inactive and reveal no signs,
Like a baby that has not yet learned to smile,
Listless as though with no home to go back to.
The multitude all have more than enough;
I alone seem to be in want.
My mind is that of a fool – how blank!
Vulgar people are clear; I alone am drowsy.
Vulgar people are alert; I alone am muddled.
Calm like the sea; Like a high wind that never ceases.
The multitude all have a purpose;
I alone am foolish and uncouth.
I alone am different from others and value being fed by the mother.
Naturally Unnatural, Naturally! 4689
Occasionally I hear people opine on what is or isn’t natural human behavior. Doesn’t this depend on what part of the elephant (See Biology’s Blinders, p.2) one currently perceives? Elephant parables aside, I see this issue as emerging layers of reality’s onion. (See Tao as Emergent Property, p.121.) Let me sort this out…
Like all animals, humans are naturally inclined to take the easy way, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. In the wild this bio-hoodwink (p.11, p.100) invariably works out well. These attraction and aversion instincts drive life, from ants to dogs to people. The first photo exemplifies this with a human highway on the left and the ant highway on the right. Both species are just trying to make life as easy and efficient as possible. See Ants are Us, p.216, for other similarities between humans and ants.
Over time, this drive has led humanity to develop tools and materials to make life as comfortable and secure as possible. The instinct more-is-better lies behind the urge to fatten up whenever possible in the wild as who knows when the next shortfall is coming. The seal in the next photo feels it has to eat its fill while it can. The human male next to the seal is no different; his biology does not know the supermarkets are always overflowing with food, nor the true risk of continually overeating (1).
While we are utterly natural in pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, we are not living under the wild conditions that those instincts evolved over millions of years to handle. The instinct to take the easy way, in conjunction with our unrestrained ability to succeed at doing so, causes escalating imbalance. We increasingly face too much of a good thing. Alas, giving up some of our “good” thing is biologically nigh impossible, and so we remain bogged down in difficulty (2).
Any species that evolves capabilities that allow it to circumvent nature’s counterbalancing forces would naturally evolve further to bring it back into balance. Either that or become extinct. Of course, external conditions can also change suddenly enough to thrust a species lethally out of balance (e.g., a comet encountering the dinosaurs, humans encountering the dodo bird).
Like other creatures on Earth, we simply respond to life’s circumstances in overall ignorance of the consequences. Like all life, we react to conditions and adapt accordingly. The ironic thing about humans is that human knowledge is a major source of our ignorance. Other animals are just “dumb” and ignorant; we are “intelligent” and ignorant. As these chapters observe: When cleverness emerges there is great hypocrisy (18); Woe to him who wilfully innovates while ignorant of the constant (16); It is because people are ignorant that they fail to understand me (70) and especially, To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty (71).
(1) By my late 20’s, I began gaining weight naturally. My diet didn’t change; my biology did. When I quit smoking, my weight shot up as I replaced the pleasure of tobacco with the pleasure of food. If I had continued taking pleasure’s bait, I’d be morbidly obese today.
We burn fewer calories as we age. This slow-down prepared us in the wild for becoming less able to hunt and gather and less able to recover from injury. Our biology still responds as though we are living in the wild, even though our mind knows otherwise. There is a colossal disconnect between who we are biologically and our civilized circumstances where rich and abundant food is normally always available (i.e., refrigerators, super markets, restaurants).
As it happens, it took me some 10 years to unlearn the ‘eat today for who knows tomorrow’ approach to life that my years of a vagabond life abroad helped to ingrain. It simply took me that long to settle down psychologically enough to know food was always at hand. It took me even longer to know I needed to rein in the pleasurable more-is-better drive. Though I theoretically understood that short-term pleasure easily results in long-term pain, it took time and experience to begin to put that insight into practice. It is the gut insight not free will that determines outcomes.
(2) Here are a few passages from Chapter 63 that speaks to the obvious difficulty we face.
Oh My Aching Bones 3937
I have always been a more-is-better personality. I see that trait in most others so I figure I am normal. However, I have always pushed more to the limit, often to the breaking point. I suppose in this regard I am a bit abnormal. As I became a ‘lao tzu’ (i.e., 老子 = old person, father) my age and aching bones led me to approach things a little differently, and happily with unexpectedly positive results.
A key phrase from chapter 48 (1) is my lodestar. It goes like this: One does less and less until one does nothing at all, and when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone. That may sound silly on the face of it. Given the ‘Just Do It’ culture we live in, it is essential to read between the lines of this guiding light.
The reason more-is-better drives me is because I have always inherently felt that approach would give me what I need. I say inherently felt because it has been an innate subconscious drive all of my life. Only after repeatedly hitting the wall, as it were, did I begin to examine that side of my nature more deeply.
More-is-better is about quantity. We have a common and innate expectation that if we do something more, we will be better off. That means more practice, more study, more work, more money, more charity, more eating healthy, more exercise, more friends, more fame, more sex, more justice, more peace… more of whatever we value.
If we were living in the wild like other animals, the more-is-better drive would usually turn out to be healthy and balanced. Thanks to civilization, we live more comfortable and secure lives than animals in the wild. However, we are biologically still an animal, which means we have a lot more survival energy to spend than most civilized circumstances demand. The result: we innately overdo action by pursuing a more-is-better path in whatever activity we feel important. Survival instincts are always driving us regardless of circumstances.
As it happens, life naturally follows a pattern pointed out in chapter 36,
It took me a lifetime, but I have finally laid much of this more-is-better aside, except for more time. Time is too mysterious and ephemeral to manipulate, yet it still conforms to the pattern. You might say, birth sets up time and death lays aside time.
Another ideal, less-is-more, has attracted attention in recent times. This 19th century expression parallels chapter 48 above, and rings true for many stressed out people these days. It appears that civilization has finally reached a point where too much of a good thing has become a widespread reality.
Less-is-more is about quality. The most amazing thing I have found is that attention to quality in what I do is so much more effective than my innate impulses ever led me to feel. Indeed, one minute in quality equals hours in quantity. To this day, I must maintain a constant background awareness of this life truth: Less is truly more.
In summary: Really trusting that less-is-more can deliver what no amount of doing more ever can. Yet, nothing is ever that easy, is it? The hitch lies in trusting less-is-more viscerally enough to influence daily actions. Experience is the key. All you need do is prove to yourself through personal experience that less truly is more, and that quality trumps quantity. Well… at least that gets the ball rolling in the right direction.
(1) The following The Tao Te Ching, Word for Word translation of chapter 48 stays closer to the literal Chinese. See the online commentary on this chapter for a slightly different angle.
Sobering up! 4876
Up until my early forties, I was drunk on thought bolstered with the certainty of belief. Fortunately, I found a way to detoxify myself, although this is still a work in progress.
Recovering alcoholics continue to confess, “I’m an alcoholic”, even as they strive to stay continuously on the straight and narrow day after day. Similarly, I’m a thinker continuously recovering from certainty of thought day after day. (See Belief: Are We Just Fooling Ourselves?, p.591.).
Of course, like alcohol, certainty is not bad by itself. It is all about the circumstances and quantity. Inborn certainty that makes me jump away to avoid an oncoming bus or avoid food that smells off, benefits me without fail. Cognitive certainty is where things go awry. Any possibility of chapter 16’s One’s action will lead to impartiality flies out the window once the emotional of certainty begins reinforcing thought. At that point, the emotion blindsides perception and difficulties multiply.
I’m a little surprised that this process isn’t more widely recognized since humanity has been aware of this for ages. The clearest example is probably represented by chapter 71, to know yet to think that one does not know is best; not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Buddha also spoke to this cognitive problem. Much of his Noble Truths and Eight Fold Path (p.604) speaks to the role the mind plays in life.
My own naiveté surprises me even more. There is simply no way that we can impartially evaluate anything that offers us pleasure. Pleasure is the bait, as Buddha said, and it creates a blind spot around the source of that pleasure. Can merely understanding that we intoxicate ourselves with thought help anyone sober up? I would imagine not.
Just as in any other intoxicating habit—shopping, eating, drugs, social media, and so on—we personally have to reach rock bottom before we can begin recovery. Simple understanding rarely, if ever, breaks a habit… we must viscerally know. Chapter 36 points out this process, if you would have a thing laid aside, you must first set it up. Only when a thing is fully set up are we ready to lay it aside (1). Why should an addiction to certainty-of-belief be any different?
Alas, our addiction to certainty-of-belief is somewhat different and more challenging. There are obvious physical consequences to all other addictions: a glutton’s obesity, a shopper’s debt, a smoker’s cough, or a drunkard’s hangovers. Not so with thought, other than the neurotic impulses from which we suffer. In addition, even if we recognized our addiction to certainty-of-belief, what are we to do? Other sources of addictions are external, which can be kept out of reach, if not eliminated. Thinking lies at the heart of awareness… even in our sleep through dreams. This explains the appeal of psychopharmacology, which is at least better than a lobotomy. However, better still is the do-it-yourself virtual lobotomy. What?
A do-it-yourself virtual lobotomy
If your certainty-of-belief exhausts you, try out the Correlations process (p.565) as a type of do-it-yourself virtual lobotomy. It may help detoxify your mind from the weight of its preconceptions as it did for me. Slightly less effective but much more accessible would be delving into the depths of the Tao Te Ching. Also useful are yogic practices like meditation and hatha yoga. Heck, most any spiritual practice should help.
(1) That may not be altogether true. The power of an addiction is symptomatic of the degree of disconnection we feel. The more secure our sense of social connection, the less sway any addiction has upon us. Improvements in our sense of connection should take some of the steam out of the set it up in order to lay it aside process that chapter 36 describes.
Thought and the ‘word bricks’ we use to put it together, have left us with a unique sense of disconnection compared to other animals. That is the price we must pay for the powerful advantages that thought and imagination afford us. Isn’t it ironic that we use thought to reconnect, i.e., any belief that promises reconnection with God, the One, or whatever label we use. This is like building a fortress of belief on the shifting sands of mysterious sameness – #56. As chapter 25 describes ‘it’, There is a thing confusedly formed, Born before heaven and earth. Silent and void.
To be sure, there is nothing wrong with belief! After all, belief is actually a symptom of deeper realities and not a sin to avoid. Belief is just something that can easily become too much of a good thing. Thus, we need less certainty in belief to counterbalance belief’s polar extremes. The less passionate we hold to any particular belief, the more smoothly our thought can adapt to ever-changing reality.
The Wealthy Poor 9145
Why do many wealthy people often keep upping the ante, buying increasingly more expensive things? This may follow a progression I first noticed when I experienced my own slight wealth upgrade in Japan (see Peaches and Pleasure, p.32). We innately appear to convert any upgrade in our standard-of-living into a new bottom line in our standard-of-living. As this becomes the status quo, contentment wanes and we begin seeking to up the ante again. Biologically speaking, the hunter-gatherer within us reaches outward from our current ‘enough’ driven by the ‘more is better’ instinct.
Google [CBS report on the science behind pleasure-seeking] for interesting aspects of this process (or see transcript below). Interestingly, this doesn’t occur in some people, like Warren Buffett. This report sheds light on that too in a round about way. This report, although slanted towards the benefits of pleasure, does offer food-for-thought on why some folks pursue pleasure more than others do.
Not surprisingly, the report makes no mention of Buddha’s Second Noble Truth, p.604, even though it is entirely empirically obvious. Especially noteworthy is how the Second Truth ends: “Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain”. Keep Buddha’s Truths in mind as you listen to this report. You can see how thinking plays such a large role in life for humans, and why Taoism speaks to its downside. As my favorite chapter 71 puts it, thinking that one knows will lead to difficulty.
Well-being is not connected to pleasure, per se. It is more like pleasure promises us well-being. No wonder Buddha called it “bait”. So why is Warren Buffett an exception to the ostentatious tokens of wealth many rich people chase after? Wealthy people who live simple lives don’t take the bait because they are content. From a symptoms point of view, the fact that wealthy people often continue to up the ante pleasure-wise proves the old cliché, “money can’t buy happiness”. They are the wealthy poor!
Transcript
It can be as simple as a sunset, as decadent as a dessert, or as extravagant as a weekend in Paris. But we all have our own little pleasures…
“Chocolate and peanuts!… mmmmm…”
“I’m a Barbie collector. I have, like, over 100 Barbies.”
“I love Mexican food!”
“The rush of cliff jumping, when you’re up in the air, and you’re hoping the water is deep enough, and your heart is beating a thousand miles an hour, and you SPLASH!”
Professor Gregory Berns, a neuroeconomist at Emory University, notes that some pleasures are no less than a matter of survival.
“Pleasure is an instantaneous feeling of something good,” Dr. Berns said. “When you teach a bunch of undergraduates and teenagers like I do and I ask them to list the things that give them pleasure, sleep is always at the top of the list”.
“You have kind of the basic needs, right? So you have food, sleep, and sex. Pretty much boils down to that, if you’re talking about actual pleasure,” Berns laughed.
But pleasure goes well beyond basic needs. Yale psychologist Paul Bloom says WHY we enjoy what we enjoy is very complicated.
“It seems like we just taste food, and taste wine, we respond to our visceral sensations. But actually it is surprisingly deep,” Bloom said.
So deep, in fact, that Bloom was pleased to write a book on pleasure, which he says is as much about our brains as about our experiences.
“Our pleasure is a response not just to the physical makeup of something, what it looks like or tastes like, or smells like, or feels like, but rather to our beliefs of what it really IS, what its real essence is,” Bloom said.
And boy, can we be fooled!
Bloom recalls one famous experiment with wine drinkers done by scientists at Stanford and Cal Tech…
“Half the people are told they’re drinking cheap plunk, the other half are told they’re drinking something out of $100-$150 bottle,” Bloom said. “It tastes better to them, if they THINK they’re drinking from an expensive bottle. And it turns out that if they think they’re drinking expensive wine, parts of the brain that are associated with pleasure and reward light up like a Christmas tree.”
“So if I have people over for dinner, I should add a little ‘1’ in front of the price tag, and put it on the table?” Spencer asked.
“That is the ultimate trick to making wine taste better,” Bloom said.
And it’s the sort of trick that works only on human beings.
“Both my dog and me enjoy drinking water when we’re thirsty, but I’m the one who cares about where the water came from – whether it’s bottled water, or from the tap,” Bloom said. “My dog doesn’t care.”
“You’re the one that, if we put a higher price tag on that bottle of water, you’ll enjoy it more?” suggested Spencer.
“That’s right! I might give my dog premium dog food, but the dog doesn’t care that I spent a lot of money for it.”
People, on the other hand, seem to get ENORMOUS pleasure out of spending ENORMOUS sums on some very curious things.
Was Michael Jackson’s jacket really worth $1.8 million?
Or how about President Kennedy’s tape measure, which went for almost $50,000 at auction?
Or Eric Clapton’s guitar, snapped up for just under a million bucks?
Given all that, Paul Bloom wondered what people might pay for the pleasure of owning, say, George Clooney’s sweater?
“And the answer is, a fair amount,” said Bloom. “Much more than they’d pay for MY sweater, or for a brand new sweater.”
But why? For bragging rights? Or to re-sell on eBay? Apparently not…
Bloom conducted an experiment where people were not allowed to tell people or boast about buying Clooney’s sweater, or even re-sell it, and the perceived value was reduced. “But here’s what makes the value really drop: We told another group of subjects that we thoroughly washed it before it got to them. Now the value plummets.”
“It’s not still George Clooney’s sweater?” asked Spencer.
“As my wife put it, you washed away the Clooney cooties!” Bloom laughed. “You’ve washed away the sort of essence of the person.”
“That gives them more pleasure in owning it?”
“Human beings are strange,” laughed Spencer.
“Human beings are extraordinary,” he replied.
Some pleasures are universal, like eating the mouth-watering butter-and-sugar concoctions at Magnolia Bakery in New York City – it really is pure pleasure on a plate.
But not all of life’s pleasures are so straight-forward. In fact, if you think about it, some of them are downright weird.
Take cheese.
“Cheese is spoiled milk, it smells bad,” said psychologist Paul Rozin. “But the point is that we get great pleasure out of it. And some people love the stinky cheeses. And part of the pleasure of eating them is that they really smell bad, but they’re good!”
Rozin’s studies go well beyond the pleasures of the disgusting, to the joy of the downright painful. Take hot chili peppers…
“Well, hot chili peppers are eaten by over two billion people in the world,” Rozin said. “And yet, this is an innately negative experience. Little babies don’t like it. So, the question to me was, why would anybody put in their mouth something that produces a pain signal from the mouth to the brain?”
His answer? What he calls “benign masochism” – the same human quirk that explains why we enjoy horror movies that terrify us… why we like sad songs that make us cry.
“It’s a sense of your mind over your body,” Rozin said. “Your body is saying, ‘Bad news, get out of here!’ Your mind knows, ‘I’m actually not in danger. I’m mastering this negative experience, and my mastery of it gives me pleasure.’”
But there are limits. Just ask those chili pepper people…
“What happens is the one that people like best tends to be the one that’s just below the level they can’t bear,” Rozin laughed. “In other words, they’re pushing the limit of how hot they can stand it. Similarly with roller coasters. People who love roller coasters will like the steepest and scariest one they can stand.”
Push your pleasure to that limit and – odd as it seems – odds are you’ll want more. So what’s the best strategy to maximize life’s pleasures?
Emory Professor Gregory Berns did an experiment that offers a clue: When he gave subjects alternating drops of water and juice, their brain activity showed they preferred the juice. No surprise. But when the juice came at unexpected intervals and was a surprise, they liked it even more.
His advice: Plan surprises.
“You have to take risks, I think, to really experience pleasure,” Dr. Berns said. “And there’s, you know, there’s a reason why people say the first time is always the best. The first time you experience something, whether it’s your first kiss, your first bite of sushi, whatever you like, it’s always the best, it’s always the most memorable.”
So whether it’s Clooney’s sweater… roller coasters… chili peppers… or something else entirely (“Chocolate”… “good friend, good beer”…), treasure those pleasures.
But remember: There’s always room for something new – and people keep pushing the envelope, like bungee jumping.
“Yeah, why not?” said Dr. Berns.
For more on this, google [How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like] by Paul Bloom (W.W. Norton)
Opiate of the Masses 9272
Karl Marx said religion was the opiate of the masses. I say it is prosperity, not religion, which is the opiate of the masses. The United States has experienced decades of unprecedented prosperity. Indeed, most people have lived their whole lives accustomed to what is actually a historically rare era of unusual affluence.
Now, the 2008 Great Recession is forcing many to go cold turkey, unwillingly sobering up without knowing the deeper causes for the withdrawal symptoms they now feel. Prosperity has a real dark side linked to desire and pleasure, and not surprising if you concur with Buddha’s Second Truth, “…The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in a net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain”.
I lived abroad for fifteen years, from age 20 to 35. I spent much of this time at the grass roots level in the developing world. I truly came of age during those years. Returning to the USA after so long away enabled me to see this culture with fresh eyes. I was particularly surprised to see how little people actually appreciated their abundance and easily went into debt for more… get it now and pay for it later. This approach had become a real way of life here during my absence. This exemplified my precautionary motto, “short-term pleasure, [leads to] long-term pain”, and the opposite, “short-term pain; long-term pleasure”. It appeared to me that American culture was now on the path of gluttony, with pain to follow. (See Naturally Unnatural, Naturally!, p.227.)
Indian Givers
‘Indian giver’ is apparently based on an American Indian form of barter where upon giving a gift he expects to receive an equivalent, or to have his gift returned (google [Indian giver]). This ‘Indian giving’ reflects a straightforward sense of balance — a natural virtue perhaps. I first noticed a profound lack of this virtue though a personal experience in Vietnam.
I left Thailand to find work in Vietnam after the war began heating up. My plan was to save money and return to Thailand where I intended to settle down. Being able to speak peasant Vietnamese, I was able to wrangle a job as a surveyor supervisor for an American construction firm. Every morning I’d pack extra food for lunch from the well-provisioned base camp to share with my Vietnamese crew. We had a feast every day—times were good. Some months later, the company clamped down and banned this practice. When I told my crew the freebees were finished, they got surprisingly angry. I was dumb founded. The freebees had been a lucky windfall, so why were they reacting as though the free food treat was a “human right”.
The angry protests against Great Recession belt tightening in Greece, Italy, USA, and elsewhere, are other examples of this irrational expectation. It is so much easier to receive than give up. None wishes to pay now for past prosperity. “It is just so unfair”, as my Vietnamese crew would say. Clearly, a sense of appreciation is not innate, nor should it be. The survival instinct must certainly drive us to feel that more-is-better. (photo: my crew and me)
Chickens Come Home to Roost
Initially, chapter 72’s When the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them came to mind when I retuned here in the late 70’s. Perhaps another Great Depression was in store for us. I soon realized that whatever awful visitation would descend wasn’t just around the corner, so I settled into American life and had a family. Then 2008’s Great Recession came along. Wow, I thought, are the chickens coming home to roost? Perhaps the awful visitation is here.
Having little incentive to consider deeper causes, like lacking a proper sense of awe, many people seek out scapegoats. In this case, the corporations and banks fit the bill on the political left, and big government and taxes fit the bill on the political right. Certainly, the banks had a hand in the Great Recession. However, the laissez-faire government oversight was the ultimate cause and whom can we ultimately hold responsible for the government?
In a democracy, surely responsibility lies with the population from whom the government takes its character! Moreover, the fact that only half the population bothers to vote places even more responsibility with us… ‘We the People’ (1). Put simply, it is not the corporation’s fault, bank’s fault, government’s fault, taxes’ fault. It is our fault… those who vote and those who don’t. Of course, we will never hear that mea culpa will we? It is so much easier to cast stones.
The Opiates
There is widespread ignorance of the role banks and corporations play in our lives. They are the engines of the prosperity we enjoy. Ironically, these engines are also the source of the drug of prosperity we crave. Do you see the problem? People condemn the very thing on which they have become so dependent. The same is true for much of the rhetoric of the Tea Party faction. They rail against TARP (the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program), without which the world economy might have completely collapsed. The irony here is that most banks have paid back the TARP fund, with the government actually making a profit, coming out $billions ahead.
Sloppy governmental oversight made the reckless actions of Wall Street possible. After the Great Depression of the 1930’s, Congress passed laws that provided enough regulation. Congress repealed these laws recently, which allowed Wall Street to act recklessly again. How is this any different from discarding laws against drunk driving? Without such laws and stiff penalties, drunk driving would be much more common. Chapter 16 sums up the inevitable, Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant. The constant in this case corresponds to history. Congress ignored economic reality and woe ensued. Memory is short, especially when blinded by promises of gain.
We Are Trying To Change the World
“The corporations control the government” is a complaint I often hear. Sure, corporate lobbyists do have considerable influence. Conversely, lobbyists for labor and progressive causes push their cases from the other side. I’ve often voted for the inevitable losers, like the Libertarian and the Green parties, just to send a “don’t take my vote for granted” message to the politicians. Friends say, “You’re just throwing your vote away”. However, rigidly voting for either dominant party only continues the status quo, which is fine if you’re happy with that. However, I suspect most people aren’t and in a democracy, ‘We the People’ are the government. Doesn’t that make us responsible for the status quo?
This is a fine example of our irrational desire to have it both ways. We want better government, but we don’t want to rock the boat to achieve it. As is natural for any animal, we react to events. As Buddha’s Second Noble Truth says, “The surrounding world effects sensation and begets a craving thirst that clamors for immediate satisfaction”. Our desires (thirsts) choose and we follow. Then, unlike other animals, we single out scapegoats when things go wrong.
Similarly, I used to wish there was justice in the world and always found someone to blame for the injustice I saw. I finally realized, “It’s my fault too”. I suppose that is the nonsectarian counterpart of the Christianity’s original sin. I find peace in seeing this as nature’s way (2). As chapter 34 reminds, The way is broad, reaching left as well as right. I know that any lingering distress I feel about circumstances just reflects my own lingering needs and fears.
(1) Even when most people vote, democracy can still be very frustrating because a significant minority of the population is often going to be unhappy with the results. For many, democracy is good especially when it goes their way. Alas, democracy may end up a lot more problematic in the future. Democracy may require more maturity from us as a whole, the governed, than we are capable.
Causes and effects run so much deeper than we care to admit or consider. Recent centuries of cultural fragmentation are a natural consequence of progress… The main aspects being the increasing rate of change in population, mobility, communication, and wealth brought about by the deployment of steam power in the 1800’s, followed by the harnessing of electricity and the exploitation of petroleum in the 1900’s. In the great scheme of things, this is a very recent change; the full impact of which we have only barely begun to experience. It can take centuries for culture to adapt itself to such game changing innovations.
Perhaps the most imbalanced and worrisome aspect of the modern economy is that it is all based on continuous growth, I repeat, continuous growth. That bodes no better for the future than cancer would… continuous growth is cancer! The chickens will come home to roost one day.
(2) While I see thinking in general and civilization in particular as the cause for much of the dilemma in which we find ourselves, I can’t blame either one. Both are natural phenomena naturally evolving into a presumably more balanced state, or winding down towards extinction. Time will tell. In the meantime, it helps to be aware of the causes and effects of current imbalance. See also, Democracy as Myth, p.177.
Gone Fishin’, Back Soon 3388
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 suitable for consumption. Finishing the last chapter of my translation of the Tao Te Ching — Tao Te Ching, Word for Word — was the catalyst I needed to reevaluate matters. I’ve wondered for some time why I post my observations in the first place. After all, a Taoist point of view has to be among the most ironic subjects to speak or write on. As chapter 56 reminds, he who knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know. Naturally, I include think and write along with speak. (photo: me, age 3, fishing… sort of)
So I have to ask myself, if I don’t know, why reveal my ignorance? On the other hand, if I do know, why am I speaking? To be fair, chapter 56’s He who knows… statement is not the whole story. On the plus side, striving to write coherently is a fascinating challenge, and my observations seem to benefit a few people. You could say I’m composing ‘music’ for the mind beyond itself— the indistinct and shadowy realm, as chapter 21 says. Speaking of indistinct, chapter 67 hints, The whole world says that my way is vast and resembles nothing. It is because it is vast that it resembles nothing. If it resembled anything, it would, long before now, have become small.
Is redundancy the name of the game?
Clearly, I’ve said it all before, ad nauseam. Still, this continuous echo keeps the bio-hoodwink from pulling me off course. Alas, forgetting what I truly want of life is all-too-easy! Thus, recalling insights from my more balanced moments helps anchor me during my less balanced moments. Redundancy is essential if I wish to remember my deepest priorities.
Adventures of aging
I never remember any elderly people telling me how fascinating aging was, although if they had, it probably wouldn’t have registered, i.e., I can only truly understand what I already know (see You Know, p.203). I seem to be having increasing difficulty remembering things. I know this worries many aging people. However, it’s a positive thing for me, as chapter 20 says… My mind is that of a fool – how blank! Vulgar people are clear. I alone am drowsy. Vulgar people are alert. I alone am muddled. Insight seems to flow through the void my mind is becoming… or perhaps I’m just making lemonade when served with lemons!
Then again, I could just be seeing myself more as I actually am rather than as the genius I once preferred to think I was. That sounds like chapter 71’s Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Put simply, what I thought was true prevented me from seeing what may be actually true — the blinding effect of belief.
Another unlikely possibility is that I could be experiencing the beginnings of Alzheimer’s and the hole it produces in memory will lead to the final days of insight before my mind’s curtain falls. Speculating is fun, especially given how life usually turns out differently from anything we imagine. Life’s an adventure, that’s for sure!
Postscript: It is now 2019, about 8 years after I wrote this post. I now believe I’ve completed the circle, or as chapter 36 puts it, If you would have a thing laid aside, you must first set it up. After my last post, The Tradeoff, (p.549) I felt I’d said enough. Still, who knows? Oh, and I don’t have Alzheimer’s… yet.
Why? 5316
Some say “love” is their favorite word. Others say “God” is. I’ve also had favorite words over the years, but “why” beats them all. So I ask myself, why continue posting these observations? It’s certainly not for money or fame. I actually prefer anonymity. In fact, years ago when my yoga students showed hints of guru worship, I went out of my way to discourage that. Do I just need to vent? Well, there was some of that urge early on, but I have most of that off my chest now. So why continue?
One reason is the art and challenge of it. My most intriguing observations pop into my mind during my morning yoga headstand, while soaking in the bath, and in dreams during the night. I suppose that’s the art of it. Writing them well enough to resonate with someone else is the challenge. I don’t suppose this is any different from playwrights, for instance, who dream up scenarios and write plays. Posting my observations is like putting on a play… way, way, way off Broadway, of course. At first glance, I suppose that answers why I continue to write. Yet, “why” lingers on. “Why” would linger on, of course. It is the deepest existential question of all… and ultimately unanswerable, at least from a Taoist point of view.
The question mark-like graphic for this post is the graphic I made for my first serious attempt at writing in 1976. My wife says the poems in the essay are her favorite part. Well, at least they help lighten it up. If you want to read that first attempt, go to: http://www.centertao.org/media/Why_First-Writing-1976.pdf.
As I ponder that first attempt, I realize how this process allows me to record and then rethink my observations. This sort of analysis helps me figure out life. Of course, all this is mostly reinventing the wheel since what I discover is essentially rediscovering what others have discovered throughout time. To me, that says the path to truth is universal and awaits anyone hungry enough to make the journey… an endless journey, I imagine.
It is interesting to see how much my thoughts have changed over time, yet not in some fundamental ways. At first, I started placing an (X) when I really wished to disavow the dumb idea I had back then, with an eye to updating it. Then I realized, what has changed over the 40 years is not anywhere near as important as what has remained more of less constant. Therefore, I have left it as is, except for attempting to correct spelling.
The major change between then and now is my shift away from an advocacy of free will towards mysterious sameness. Still, if you believe in free will, you may find the essay speaks to you, but again, keep in mind that it comes from where I was 40 years ago when I thought A Practical Way was merely a matter of free choice.
Curiously, my son Luke said my writing back then was better than now. I can’t really believe that is true, as I’ve worked so hard over the last several decades to write as well as possible. Then it occurred to me that when one intuitively knows what a writer is saying, that writing would tend to feel well written and vice versa as well. (See, We only understand what we already know, p.254.) My A Practical Way is easy to understand, straightforward and written with a righteous flavor similar to the Bhagavad Gita, which I read daily.
Below is the essay’s introduction. It gives the flavor of my thinking back then.
* * * * * A Practical Way to Eternity * * * * *
I wrote some poems to give delight
While reading about my spiritual plight
You’ll probably see I’m too uptight
Well, here is the Way I make it all right
I fought and thought and wound my mind too tight
Broke the mainspring and saw the light
I wrote this essay so all of you might
Also decide it’s better to put up a fight!
INTRODUCTION
Most of us humans spend our whole lives finding fault with the “condition” of the world, marriage, government, job, life, and so on. We expect everyone to do the right thing and become annoyed when they don’t i.e. Nixon as president, communist repression, wife’s overspending, children’s misbehavior, worker incompetence, capitalist’s spoiling the environment, permissive society or too restrictive one, and so on. We insist on everyone doing their “best”.
However, when it comes to taking care of, improving, nourishing our own body and mind, of ridding ourselves of the imperfections in our own personality and life, then we all of a sudden become very tolerant of faults and laziness.
How can we ever honestly expect the outside world to be any different when we aren’t even willing to do our best for our own “inner world”? The “inner world” is one thing, the only thing, we really do have a chance to control and improve. Indeed, without the “inner world” what do you have? Death!! And those who care not for the “inner world” are living a “life in death”.
An improvement in your inner world improves the whole universe by a small degree, depending on the extent of improvement. Buddha improved his to a high degree and so had a big effect on the world. If we all did our best for our inner world, the outer world would take care of itself easily.
Therefore, we must cease blaming and finding fault with the “outer world” and do what we can for the “inner” one. I wrote this essay to help you and me towards this goal.
Really, Have We No Clue? 6332
As a child, I marveled at how everything seemed to work so well. The infrastructure and logistics to run society blew my mind, although I didn’t know that was the word for it. How the authorities dealt with all the sewage and garbage my hometown produced baffled me.
I am still in awe that civilization works as well as it does, although I now know it is actually nature’s logistic ability running the show. I also notice how ‘it all’ just barely works, and that’s not surprising given that civilization is a manmade social structure. Various chickens are always coming home to roost… climate change, depleted aquifers, new diseases, social dysfunctions of various forms, to name a few.
“Out of the mouths of babes” is no empty saying, as the 10 year old me demonstrates. It almost seems like we get more stupid in some ways as we become adults. That may be due in part to our ability as adults to willfully innovate while ignorant of the constant, as chapter 16 cautions. Such power is intoxicating and blinding. As we age and approach death, I suspect many begin sensing the danger that chapter 71 warns of… Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Naturally, this does little to help matters because death soon removes all those who finally realize they don’t know. Then, the next generation, fully in their prime, continues to repeat the errors of their elders, willfully innovating in their quest for progress while ignorant of the constant. Happily, the rising median age of the population should ameliorate this a bit. By the way, doesn’t death feel like a suitable synonym for the constant?
The Science News article, Lopped Off, highlights just how profoundly we as a species usually have no clue what we’re doing. (See a brief excerpt from this article below.) Young children and elderly people may have always had their intuitive doubts, but who listens to them? With any luck, science will compel more of us middle-aged know-it-alls to sober up and face our ignorance.
Chapter 16’s Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant, is very prescient on the unintended consequences of our clever and willful behavior. Back then, the “woe” was small scale compared to now when our innovative abilities threatened the entire planet. It is ironic that science both leads to technological innovations that cause the destruction, and now forces us to realize the full range of consequences of our actions. We can only hope the lag time between innovation and realization is decreasing.
Speaking of innovation
Compared to all the other species inhabiting earth, it appears ours may be a unique evolutionary innovation. Surely, this is not Mother Nature willfully innovating while ignorant of the constant, so she must just be experimenting. ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’ appears to be nature’s rule of thumb. Certainly, these are interesting times… as that old Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times”.
Our belief in what we think we know blinds us from deeply appreciating what we don’t know. Knowledge is a two edged sword. It empowers us to overcome many obstacles, yet the certainty of knowledge simultaneously blindsides us. Overcoming small obstacles actually creates what often turns out to be a larger obstacle… that’s the law of unintended consequences. Knowledge gives us a false sense of security. Despite being awfully limited, knowledge gives us believers the illusion that we truly know. This begs the question, “How do we know what we know is truly so?” That makes chapter 71 an effective test of self-honesty… To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. Of course, one must take the test as fearlessly and self-honestly as possible to make a passing grade.
We assume we’ll find solutions that eventually result in happiness ever after, a biblical land of milk and honey. That is certainly a hallmark in Western religion. Such thinking doesn’t conform to nature’s reality, but only to how nature intends for us to perceive life. You might say that optimism is an emergent property of the bio-hoodwink. (See Tao As Emergent Property, p.121 and How the Hoodwink Hooks, p.100.) Our species can’t afford to indulge in this species-centric dream much longer. No worries though… As chapter 51 says, Circumstances bring us to maturity!
Here is a brief excerpt from that article. (Google [Removal of top predators trickles through the food web].)
“We’re eliminating large predators very quickly around the world,” says wildlife biologist Michael Soulé of the Wildlands Network, who works out of Paonia, Colo. “It’s estimated that 90 percent are already gone.”
These end-of-the-line carnivores, known as “apex consumers,” can influence the lower rungs of their ecological ladders. By keeping the critters they dine on in check, the apex species affect the next rungs down, and so on. The system remains balanced as populations fluctuate in sync.
But sharks aren’t the only predators under siege. A host of carnivores perched atop food webs are being eliminated by humans, the real killing machines. Although marine species such as sharks are primarily caught for food, large terrestrial hunters (think lions, wolves and grizzlies) are often targeted for removal because they threaten humans moving into previously wild spaces.
Chapter 16 fits this sorry situation so well that I couldn’t resist submitting a comment (below) to Letters at Science News. They printed it, so finally science and religion find common ground. 😉
Predators inspire poetry and fear
Regarding “Lopped off” (SN: 11/5/11, p. 26): One of the Tao Te Ching’s chapters (excerpt below) is very prescient on the unintended consequences of human behavior. It was written around 500 B.C., long before our innovative abilities threatened the entire planet. It is ironic that science both leads to innovations that cause the destruction, and now allows us to realize the full range of consequences.
A Brother is a Brother 3014
I love how science is chipping away at our species-centric sense of superiority. This time it is a Science News report He’s no rat, he’s my brother. (Google [Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free].) This bit of research speaks for itself.
Of course, I can’t leave without reiterating my wonder at the peculiar urge humanity feels to see itself as the “superior species” capable of love, empathy, awareness, spirituality, and, you name it. We are certainly different in many ways from other species, but only superficially….not fundamentally.
A symptom’s point of view (p.141) tells me that it is our insecurity and sense of disconnection that drives us to inflate our self-image this way. As chapter 2 hints, It is because it lays claim to no merit that its merit never deserts it. Being thinking animals, we puff ourselves up cognitively while gorillas with their physical prowess puff themselves up by thumping their chest. Isn’t it marvelous how similar things really are!
Here are a few brief excerpts from the article:
Calling someone a rat should no longer be considered an insult. The often-maligned rodents go out of their way to liberate a trapped friend, a gregarious display that’s driven by empathy, researchers conclude in the Dec. 9 Science.
“As humans, we tend sometimes to have this feeling that there’s something special about our morals,” says neuroscientist Christian Keysers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam, who was not involved in the study. “It seems that even rats have this urge to help.”
Initially, the free rat would circle the cage, digging and biting at it. After about seven days of encountering its trapped friend, the roaming rat learned how to open the cage and liberate the trapped rat. “It’s very obvious that it is intentional,” Bartal says. “They walk right up to the door and open the door.” The liberation is followed by a frenzy of excited running.
“If I open the door, that rat’s distress goes away and my distress goes away,” psychologist Matthew Campbell of Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, who studies empathy in chimpanzees. “They are affected by what the other is experiencing, and that alone is remarkable.”
To push the limits of the rats’ goodwill, Bartal and her team pitted a trapped rat against trapped chocolate, forcing a rat to choose which one to release. “These rats adore their chocolate,” she says. The results astonished Bartal: The rats were equally likely to free a rat in distress as they were to free the sweets. To a rat, a fellow rodent’s freedom was just as sweet as five chocolate chips.
And the niceness doesn’t stop there: “The most shocking thing is they left some of the chocolate for the other rat,” Bartal says. The hero rat left a chocolate chip or two for its newly free associate in more than half of the trials. On purpose. “It’s not like they missed a chocolate,” Bartal says. “They actually carried it out of the restrainer sometimes but did not eat it.”
Resistance is Futile 4573
This Science News article, Fighting willpower’s catch-22, (google the title) reports on how resisting desires makes following desires more tempting. I certainly have experienced this to be true, although it took me decades to recognize this and begin to manage it. Like maintaining balance, applying this always requires continuous re-realization.
Why did it take so long? After all, the Tao Te Ching presses home the view that contending with oneself or others is only shooting oneself in the foot. This is probably a good example of how we can only truly understand what we intuitively know already. Alas, we must wait for this ‘know already’ to come about, mostly day-by-day throughout life. (See We only understand what we already know p.254. and You Know, p.203.)
Underlying this is the deep-seated myth of will power and discipline—the belief we can control those characteristics or hurry things along. (See Free Will: Fact or Wishful Thinking?, p.587 )
A clear example of this catch-22 trap in my life was my relationship with tobacco that played out over years… This in contrast to the short-term research reported in Science News. (See My Battle With Tobacco p.146) Here are a few excerpts from the Science News article. (Google [Everyday Temptations – Hofmann].)
Willpower comes with a wicked kickback. Exerting self-control saps a person’s mental energy and makes the next desire that inevitably comes along feel more compelling and harder to resist, a study of people’s daily struggles with temptation found.
But people best able to resist eating sweets, going out with friends before finishing work or other temptations find ways to steer clear of such enticements altogether, so that they rarely have to resort to self-control.
Willpower fluctuates throughout the day, rather than being a constant personality trait. Prior resistance makes new desires seem stronger than usual. In addition, there appears to be no signature feeling of when willpower is low.
P.S. No sooner had I posted this than I saw a review of Michael Gazzaniga’s book in Science News. (Google [Free Will and the Science of the Brain].)
In his new book, Gazzaniga drags readers kicking and screaming to the brink of an existential meltdown, and then rescues them with a dramatic twist at the end.
Gazzaniga’s opening salvo: You are not the boss of your brain. The illusion of control is a sweet lie that people —including neuroscientists — tell themselves. Gazzaniga, a neuroscientist himself, describes loads of studies, including some of his own, showing that people aren’t always willful and purposeful agents in control. One of his best arguments: “Have you ever succeeded in telling your brain to shut up already and go to sleep?”
If natural laws and the ways of the brain can explain each and every behavior, it follows that free will is an illusion. But before you sprint out and buy a Porsche (“The universe made me do it!”), Gazzaniga calls out that very issue. Angsty hand-wringing about free will is meaningless, he argues. What really matter are social relationships. Just as it’s uninformative to say that a person who is alone on a planet is the tallest, the concept of personal responsibility has no meaning if there are no other people to be responsible to.
No matter how much scientists learn about the brain, the results will never offer an escape clause releasing people from personal responsibility, he says.
For sensitive, introspective readers, the book may feel like an emotional roller coaster as it careens through brain science, morality and even law. But Gazzaniga is a funny, sympathetic and trusty guide, making the trip not just worthwhile, but fun.
It is striking how language and ensuing thought entangles perception. You might say language itself serves as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy that often over-stresses emotion. Naturally, this language-emotion loop is a by-product (a.k.a. emergent property, p.121) of the bio-hoodwink, (p.100). The real problem occurs when the ensuing perceptions, reinforced by an implicit or implied belief in free will, drives us to contend with ourselves in an unwinnable battle.
Contrary to what the author says, I find that we use free will as our escape clause from reality. The illusion of personal responsibility offers us the promise of escape in that we can presumably get what we want if we just take more responsibility. This is how civilization keeps its populations in line. As chapter 65 reveals, Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them.
The Trans Tribal Tao 7761
Much in the Taoist worldview marches to the beat of a different drummer. So much so that if one has to ask “How so?”, one may not be genuinely ready to know how so. Anyway…
Marching to the beat of a different drummer often boils down to feeling, acting and/or thinking outside-the-box, which can at times appear amoral, apolitical, asexual, aesthetic, areligious, acultural.
As with all things fundamental, I suspect that ‘taoists’ are born, not made (see Small ‘t’ Taoist, p.154). That’s because one needs to be impartial enough by nature to see the universality of life. We all lie along the bell curve, from an inside-the-box conventional group-oriented to an eccentric and trans-tribal, i.e., “beyond” tribal. (See Are you out of touch with nature?, p.50 and Postscript, p.627)
Experience tells me that people are mostly normal group oriented tribal animals. Chapter 20 portrays the contrast well… The multitude are joyous
as if partaking of the ‘Tai Lao’ offering or going up to a terrace in spring, and ends with… I alone am inactive and reveal no signs, I alone am foolish and uncouth. I alone am different from others and value being fed by the mother. I don’t doubt everyone can relate to both ends of this spectrum; it is just a matter of degree. Even so, there are more people at the normal end — and naturally so. We’re a social species after all!
The vast appeal of mainstream religion is a clear indicator of our tribal nature, as is the lack of appeal for the Taoist worldview. However, perhaps that will change over time. The only reason I dare say that stems from the historical origins of Islam. I suppose that sounds farfetched considering how group oriented and tribal Islam seems. In that regard, Islam is not different from any other mainstream religion. Indeed, I consider Islam and Christianity as essentially branches of Judaism. Judaism in turn is likely an offshoot of Zoroastrianism, a 4000-year-old Persian religion and the world’s first monotheistic faith. At any rate, consider these two overviews on the origins of Islam. Afterward I’ll link this up with the “Trans Tribal Tao”.
#1 The basic teachings of Muhammad emphasized Islam as a trans-tribal fellowship, a harmonious community whose inner peace was safeguarded through regulated legal relations that closely mirrored the contractual outlook of the merchant class. Muhammad also mandated and expanded earlier techniques of wealth redistribution through elevating almsgiving to a religious duty. While presenting Islam as the last chapter in the history of monotheism, Muhammad also operated in a territory that was far removed from imperial or great power centers. Central western Arabia in Muhammad’s time was becoming increasingly connected to world trade routes, but being situated deep in the desert, remained independent of the great powers of the time. The context in which Muhammad operated, therefore, provided for the emergence of a new type of political community. This was one that was not based on imperial politics but rather on overcoming and reworking Arab tribal traditions and integrating various classes and social groups under the banner of a new religion that gave them a sense of common and universal identity, binding contractual relations, and solidaristic practices and attitudes.
#2 In the first real Islamic community—Medina under Muhammad—we could already see this dynamic of a trans-tribal umma (i.e., collective community) being formed by an outsider. Muhammad succeeded brilliantly in Medina, where the conflictual tribes, needing common adjudication, all expressed faith in Islam before even seeing the prophet, who at that point had absolutely no more prospects in his hometown of Mecca. In other words, only someone with an ideology transcending the particularities of any specific tribes could build a trans-tribal society.
The success of early Islam consisted to a great extent in its ability to graft a common spiritual language on all trans-tribal, voluntary public spaces of the pre-Islamic era in Arabia. All pre-Islamic institutions of peace, trade, and civic life that had been organized above the level of the tribe, such as the haram of Mecca, the pilgrimage, and the sacred months, were simply absorbed into Islam. Even more remarkably, Islam incorporated such common spaces without elaborating a clear doctrine of a common state.
What strikes me here is how the intense small-tribe nature of nomadic Arab people became problematic at some point. The times were ripe for a more inclusive trans-tribal point of view (1). Muhammad was in the right place at the right time with an effective framework. Similar paradigm shifts have occurred for tribal Europeans, Indians, Africans, Asians — everyone really. Such shifts, like from pagan to Christian, seem to work well — until they don’t and conflict breaks out!
People adopt new paradigms when necessary… “Necessity is the mother of invention”! The people of the world are fast approaching a point where the current tribal cultural structures of politics, religion, and all rest are becoming more problematic, just as the Arabian social norm did at the time of Muhammad.
Frankly, I foresee a time when paradigms more Taoist in nature will take hold. Perhaps this has started already and will play out over the coming centuries. In any case, one thing is certain, as circumstances change, the cultural paradigm must adapt accordingly. The radically new age we’ve entered—the Electric Revolution(2)— has opened a Pandora’s Box of change, of which we’ve only seen a glimpse, as of yet. (See Why Man is King, p.221; Just How Big Is The Gap?, p.56; Tao As Emergent Property, p.121; “… Strive On Diligently”, p.218.)
While a more Taoist paradigm may supplant the tribal ones of today, people will still lie somewhere along the spectrum, from the conventional group-oriented to the idiosyncratic and trans-tribal. Alas, that means peace on earth is no more likely to occur under a Taoist paradigm than it has under current and previous ones. There may be more peace on earth going forward, but it won’t be due to a new and improved paradigm or genetic evolution (3). What will bring about peace on earth? See The Tradeoff, p.549 for one possibility.
(1) I mentioned to my family a while ago that I reckoned I was trans-tribal by nature. Right off, they said that was not a real word, so I Googled it and found very interesting references to Islam. I suppose if Islam could actually pull off its trans-tribal goal I would join up. Of course, that goes for the other religions as well — if reality matched their ideal, I would join. Of course, I guess such a truly trans-tribal group would be ironic and oxymoronic.
From as far back as I can recall, I was never seriously able to join any group, whether school sports, clubs and cliques, or later, religion, politics, clothing styles, you name it. Happily, my mind found Taoist thought and joined up, as it were. Chapter 21 says, As a thing the way is shadowy, indistinct, indistinct and shadowy. As we can see, the Tao Te Ching outlines a trans-tribal point of view that is not conducive to tribalism, and so it really was a faith of last resort for me.
(2) I took the liberty of capitalizing Electric Revolution since I regard it as perhaps the most significant change in hominids since the harnessing of fire some 500,000 + years ago. The changes that lie ahead over the coming millennia are nearly unfathomable. Heads up! As chapter 72 cautions, when the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them.
(3) I’m only referring to a cultural evolution. Genetic improvements to our species are probably impossible because the necessary evolutionary bottleneck is very unlikely to occur now.
Two Paths 3908
There are two main approaches to life. The most common one is striving to conform to your culture’s ideals of how to live. This typically amounts to expecting yourself and others to conform to your culture’s code of ethics… religious, political, and what not. I call this approach ‘small conformity’.
Chapter 65 hints at the other, less common approach.
I interpret “great conformity” to mean matching whatever is naturally so — the way things actually are. As chapter 68 puts it, This is called matching of Nature’s ancient utmost. This usually amounts to rethinking perceptions until you reach impartiality and the sense of utter acceptance that conveys.
Chapter 16 outlines the steps … Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial, Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural, Natural therefore the way.
Each path has its own difficulty, perhaps equally difficult overall. However, our individual experience is where we live life. I’ve always felt frustrated when attempting to shoehorn my life into a supposedly ideal way to live. But boy did I try! When, in total failure, I finally gave up and began being just myself, life became simpler and a whole lot more gentle. Ironically, by giving up trying to be a good person, I actually became an honest “better” person. As chapter 38 notes, Superior virtue is not virtuous, and so has virtue. Inferior virtue never deviates from virtue and so is without virtue.
Looking back, I assume my journey here is an example of chapter 36’s, In desiring weakness, one must first strive. In desiring to let go, one must first begin. I expect letting life ‘just be’ goes totally against the survival instinct. We innately feel a need to take action and do something about perceived problems, i.e., any situation that stands in the way of what we desire (i.e., need + thought) or worry about (i.e., fear + thought) in life. We want change we can believe in! Such thinking—and thought in general—is the major difference between animals and humans, and the biological trait that cognitively disconnects us from nature. Therefore, Taoists say, Realizing I don’t know is better, not knowing this knowing is disease (chapter 71). “Disease” is the literal translation of the Chinese — how bluntly true!
Our preference for action makes us more inclined to ask how rather than to ask why. Surely, that accounts for many of the unintended consequences in which we find ourselves. Over time, I have found that initially pondering why leads to the more beneficial and effective how. This avoids putting the cart before the horse.
Now I’ll let the Tao Te Ching embellish on the two approaches, ‘small conformity’ and ‘great conformity’…
The smooth way seems knotty…#41
The great way is very smooth, yet people are fond of paths…#53
The way constant is without name.
Simple though small,
Nothing under heaven can subjugate it as well…#32
Chapter 80 flies in the face of humanity’s path-of-progress paradigm, if not evolution itself. Thus, unwinding our progress in order to realize chapter 80’s enable the people to again use the knotted rope is implausible. The computer, not to mention electricity, is here to stay. However, this call to simplicity helps keep perspective. Every gain we win comes at a cost, but the glitter of progress blinds us to those embedded costs… Later we wake up hung over wondering why. Rather than blame scapegoats, we need only look in the mirror to find who is responsible!
(1) From this post onward, I began using the more literal Tao Te Ching, Word for Word translation along with D.C. Lau’s translation.
We only understand what we know 1875
Chapter 56’s, One who speaks does not know has intrigued me for a long time. I came across this D.C. Lao translation in Vietnam in the early 60’s. I’ve referred to it often over the decades in various ways, and it launches the overview of CenterTao.org. (See What are the roots of thought?, p.602.)
My insight into this deepened recently when I realized that we only really understand what we already intuitively know. Thought leapfrogs reality, and so it can’t intuitively grasp subtler aspects. Only years of life experience can, and even that intuitive knowing is often beyond thought’s horizon — subliminal. Essentially, this suggests that we can only find genuine answers to life’s puzzles by looking within. Chapter 47 says as much, Without going out the door, we can know all under heaven, Without looking out the window, we can see nature’s way.
Our fervent biases and preferences drown out intuitive knowing. Emotions — needs and fears — are the power broker behind our thoughts. Accordingly, only in moments of deep emotional equanimity are we balanced and impartial. Only then are we able to know what we know without biases skewing our understanding.
I imagine the suggestion that we only understand what we already know sounds peculiar. Indeed, it took me a few years to swallow this truth. This fact also implies that we can only truly learn from others what we already intuitively know. That means much of learning is actually a ‘human see—human do’ form of mimicry awaiting the arrival of intuitive knowing later in life. This ‘older and wiser’ fact of life sheds light on chapter 65’s Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them. (See, Those Who Speak Do Not Know. So, Why Speak?, p.1; I understand, but do I know?, p.70; Learning What You Know, p.112, and You Know, p.203.)
Jack of All Trades, Master of None? 5587
Is there any true difference between a generalist “jack of all trades” and a master? After all, isn’t a “jack of all trades” simply a master generalist?
I’ve been doing several activities for many years: yoga (~55 years), tai chi (~45 years), shakuhachi sui Zen (~40 years), gardening (~35 years) and, I have various other skills from electronics to welding and much in between. Oddly, writing is one of my weakest skills, so naturally writing fascinates me most.
Surely, this makes me a “jack of all trades”… and naturally, not a master of any. Sure enough, I have long wondered about the pejorative sounding “master of none” that goes with the saying. No doubt it is true, but so what?
For me, life is an experiment and this one has played out long enough for me to address some results.
First, there is the problem inherent in becoming too much of a master, as I point out in Why Do Idiot Savants Run Things?, p.79. As with all things in life, balance is vital. Too much of a good thing is no better than too little. Therefore, actual ability in any field can’t be the definitive measure of mastery. Neither too much nor too little may be the ultimate gauge by which to judge true competence.
To be sure, only the individual doer knows whether they are doing ‘too much’ or ‘too little’. It is utterly subjective. Attempting to judge another person’s balance between too much and too little is little more than a projection of one’s own state of balance, or rather lack of balance. What we judge desirable (or not) in others only reflects what we need, or fear, for ourselves.
Attempting to master something is quite different from the traditional definition of mastery. Mastery is a matter of knowing what to do… and especially knowing what not to do. At some point, I can relax my search for knowing, and settle into my knowing. In other words, I am a master in my own right. We all are! It cannot be otherwise. Let’s see if I can explain…
The struggle to achieve mastery is essentially life’s purpose. We say, “Get it together”, “Get it done”, “Get grounded”, “Turn over a new leaf”, and just generally succeed at whatever one’s goal or need happens to be. Mastery is how close one comes to matching the reality of one’s daily life to one’s personal ideal, i.e., knowing what to do or not do and doing that. Each step closer to the ideal you get becomes the current status quo.
The mind continues to idealize outcomes using the current status quo as a new base line from which to advance. Ironically, this means that the journey to mastery never ends… Progress marches forever onward. As you journey on, your knowing what to do, or not do evolves too. For example, on the surface, I appear to have mastered this yoga posture (photo right). In truth, I am at the edge of competency, no different from when I began yoga over 50 years ago. Each increase in capability resets the base line to the beginning. I’m always a beginner, and always will be.
Our expectations always reach beyond the status quo of our current reality. This is simply the primal hunter-gatherer instinct prodding us to keep seeking. Seeking facilitates survival, up to a point anyway. You could say the journey is always here and now beneath our feet. We’re always at the beginning of the next step. In this way, everyone is master of their own life. Each of us does the best we can relative to our nature and circumstance, struggling our way towards optimum balance, and in truth never quite reaching it. Chapter 64 hints at this, A thousand mile journey begins below the feet. Of doing we fail, of holding on we lose.
Naturally, there is the hoodwinking side of mastery. This is our social need to anoint masters of whatever we deem important. They symbolize and appear to embody the ideals to which we aspire. These alpha-males or females will surely lead us to a better place we believe… or perhaps like lemmings, off a cliff.
The Yoga of Perfection
One main problem I’ve always had with perfecting one aspect of life was that this amounted to putting all my perfection eggs in one basket. Conversely, putting all these eggs in each of life’s baskets is humanly impossible. The Bhagavad Gita hints at what may count for true mastery.
They all attain perfection when they find joy in their work. Hear how a man attains perfection and finds joy in his work. #18:45
A man attains perfection when his work is worship of God, from whom all things come and who is in all. #18:46
Greater is thine own work, even if this be humble, than the work of another, even if this be great. When a man does the work God gives him, no sin can touch this man. #18:47
And a man should not abandon his work, even if he cannot achieve it in full perfection; because in all work there may be imperfection, even as in all fire there is smoke. #18:48
It helps to read between the lines enough to see how these parallel Buddha’s Fourth Noble Truth, and his last word of advice, “All things must pass, strive on diligently”. Also as a Taoist, I like to think of “God” as akin to Profound sameness or perhaps the profound female.
The fox and the hedgehog
At around the same time as Buddha, the Greek poet Archilochos said, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing”. Everyone is somewhere on a fox / hedgehog bell curve, with a few of us on either end being extreme foxes or hedgehogs. (See Are you out of touch with nature?, p.50, and Postscript, p.626.) I imagine the jack-of-all-trades is more on the fox end of the bell curve, while the master is more on the hedgehog side. Google the quote for interesting angles on this matter.
Be Careful What You Wish 4110
“Be careful what you wish for”, followed by “it might just come true” is an ironic maxim concerning the perils of wishing without grasping unintended consequences.
First, we need to stipulate that wishing for something is relatively synonymous with desiring, expecting, hoping and praying for something. Next, is there a fundamental source for all these sentiments?
We feel a visceral need, which stimulates thought that creates a story that conforms to that need. Thus, primal need is the lowest common denominator for those rather synonymous sentiments above. Next, we expect reality to match the story. This feeds back on the larger framework of cherished ideals developing within us since childhood.
Finally, how do we feel when our wish for a certain result falls through? Not happy! As Buddha said, Painful is the craving for that which cannot be obtained and pleasures are the bait, the result is pain. Therefore, “Be careful what you wish for, it will be the source of your suffering”.
The core ideals we cherish help determine what we wish for in life. This sets up the potential pitfalls that lie ahead. My experience in the stock market serves as an example. It plunged and decimated the value of our stock. If my core ideal were to make money, this crash would have been very painful. As it happens, my core ideal is patience and balance. The plunging stock market actually handed me a good opportunity to ‘practice what I preach’ — another core ideal of mine.
Therefore, we can improve the maxim further: “Take care in what you idealize to limit future suffering.” That is the value of embracing so called spiritual principles as sincerely as possible. They counterbalance the more-is-better urge that pushes us to get all we can as quickly as possible. (See How the hoodwink hooks, p.100.) Christ put it well, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. That last line says it all.
Speaking of being careful of what we wish for
Grover Norquist advocates never increasing taxes. Many regard this view extreme, including me. On the other hand, he points out that raising taxes is what politicians do instead of governing or making hard decisions. He is correct historically. In a democracy, people wish for things and vote for politicians who promise to deliver them, preferably without raising taxes. Later, when the chickens come home to roost, we naturally and irrationally blame scapegoats (e.g., corporations, politicians), but in a democracy the buck stops with ‘we the people’. Well… that is the dilemma! Chapter 70 speaks to this irony, Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do. Under heaven none can know, none can do.
Modern culture increasingly appeases our innate urge to get something (benefits) for nothing (no taxes) if possible. Nature is a pay as you go scheme, so such expectations normally run counter to reality in the wild. There, windfalls are rare, yet when they occur, the natural urge to seize them is healthful.
In modern times, we have contrived clever ways to borrow from the future to make up for the deficit of today… in a kind of perpetual, albeit artificial and unbalanced windfall. Generally, people the world over are innately incapable of paying as they go unless compelled to do so by circumstances—nature.
The naïve wish to get things ‘today’ and pay for them ‘tomorrow’ supports Norquist’s position. Yet, this also means Norquist’s plan is doomed. Taxes will go up… but spending will outstrip any tax increase in the end. Getting more for less is an instinctive urge, and so impossible to pass up let alone eliminate. As chapter 16 cautions us, Answering to one’s destiny is called the constant, knowing the constant is called honest. Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results.
Use Non-Responsibility 9567
A key character in chapter 57 (事 shì) can translate as responsibility. As such, lines 3 and 12 in Chapter 57 read as Use non-responsibility when seeking all under heaven and I am without responsibility and the people thrive themselves.
Suggesting a virtue of non-responsibility defies common sense and seems to threaten the very fabric of society. Like free will, being responsible is a virtue highly prized in civilization. I’ve written a good deal on free will, which ties right in with the notion of responsibility (see Mind in Body in Mind in Body, p.7 and Free Will: Fact or Wishful Thinking?, p.587).
By definition (1), being responsible means you respond to circumstances in a thoughtful and deliberate way. That sounds great. Now, only if it were actually possible! Research reported in Science News, Brain cells know which way you’ll bet, tells the deeper story. (Google [Single-Neuron Responses Patel].)
Excerpts from the Science News article
Researchers enlisted eight people undergoing experimental therapy to alleviate severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder that involved implanting electrodes deep into the brain.
During surgery, the electrodes eavesdropped on the behavior of individual nerve cells in an otherwise unreachable area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. Other places in the brain feed lots of diverse signals to the nucleus accumbens: Information about a person’s emotions, memories and more sophisticated reasoning — key ingredients for decision making — all flow into this area.
While in the operating room, participants played a simplified version of the card game “War,” in which two players each receive a card, and the higher card wins. Participants saw a video screen with their card face up next to a face-down opponent’s card. After a short wait, the players pushed one of two buttons to bet either $5 or $20 that they’d beat their opponent. Finally, the face-down card was flipped over, and the participants saw the results of their wager.
Meanwhile, researchers detected 19 nerve cells in the nucleus accumbens that seemed to be involved in the betting. Electrical signals from these cells predicted whether a person would bet high or low. Most surprisingly, this nerve cell pattern was evident about 2.8 seconds before a player pushed a button — a delay so long that it’s “unheard of in neuroscience,” Patel said.
These nerve cells receive information from other brain systems and call the shots fast, before the rest of the brain catches up, Patel said. “The brain is presumably calculating these things before you’re conscious of it.”
This research shows that people, rather than being in control and consciously deciding their choices, are actually observing what happens after the fact. This is difficult for a proud “I” (ego) to accept. We want to be responsible and in control… and we certainly insist on others being so as well. Indeed, society requires us to believe in a responsible “I”.
Witnessing reality
In fact, human cognitive awareness is just an observer after the fact. We witness what is happening moment by moment. Problems only arise when we project, via the brain’s mirror neurons, our own needs and fears onto our observations. That ensnares us in the ensuing judgments we make and often continue to carry as baggage throughout life.
UPDATE 2020: I now realize that our sense of responsibility is an emergent property (see p.121) arising from the survival instinct common to all animals. Only in humans is this also a belief. To the extent we are unable to realize this survival urge within ourselves, we compensate for this by projecting a demand onto others to be responsible. We unconsciously feel if they are responsible, we will benefit and prosper. Guilt, shame and blame are the emotional results of the ‘responsibility instinct’ influencing thought and any attendant belief in free will (2).
Be involved using non-responsibility
Initially, an advocacy for non-responsibility likely evokes fears of either withdrawal from life or inflicting havoc on society. In fact, both fears are unfounded. The benefit of non-responsibility is in how it places more time and space between the stimulus of situation and our desire for a particular outcome (3). It is a continuous ‘count to ten’ before reacting to events approach. After all, instinct will force a response eventually. Non-responsibility is otherwise known as wei wu. As the first two lines of chapter 63 says…
Do without doing, ( 为 无 为 wei wu wei)
Be involved without being involved. (事 无 事 shi wu shi)
The “involved” of chapter 63 and “responsibility” of chapter 57 are synonym-like variations of the character 事 (shì = matter; affair; trouble; work; responsibility; involvement; serve; be engaged in). Do/Doing (为 ) mostly amounts to reacting to stimuli. An urgent sense of involvement and responsibility quickly blows reactions out of proportion to reality. Anything that can put time and space between stimuli and reaction reduces stress and danger. As chapter 16 hints,
Using non-responsibility helps avoid the chaos of over-reaction by keeping awareness present rather than caught up in the dramas of the past or future. Chapter 8 advises, In action, satisfactory is time. Chapter 6 offers the big cosmic picture that can help give one’s life enough time to flow naturally.
Any sense of eternity we can muster helps avoid deluding ourselves into thinking we or others are in control of life. Alas, we only take to heart what we are ready and willing to hear. Even then, chapter 70 hints at the difficulty we face, Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do. Under heaven none can know, none can do.
Free Will vs. Determinism
All discussions of free will that I’ve encountered bounce between some version of free will vs. determinism. As the graphic shows, compatibilism strives to bridge the gap between free will and determinism… yet fails in my view. This worn out debate stems from archaic points of view: the Christian concept of predestination, the theological paradox of free will, and Newtonian physics. In contrast, biological need addresses this issue of choice perfectly, if you are able to accept the fact that we are like any other animal.
Humans have big brains, dogs have big noses, eagles have big eyes, and so on. Yet, we all do what we do driven by the needs or fears we feel at the moment. Humans have long been adverse to seeing themselves so integral to nature. A species-centric ego drives us to see ourselves as superior and to create stories — beliefs — to prove it.
An especially interesting thing about belief is that believing a belief proves its veracity in the mind of the believer. No wonder beliefs are so hard to shake! I see this as the consequence of our cognitive disconnect from nature. Feeling separate, we compensate by connecting ourselves to a belief. The more faithfully we believe it, the truer it feels and the more we can experience reconnection — religion! Note: religion = religare (“to reconnect,”) from the Latin: prefix re “again” + ligare “bind, connect”. (See Are you out of touch with nature?, p.50 and Science, Religion, Truth, p.136)
As Arthur Schopenhauer said, “Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills”. Or, as I might put it, we can do what we feel a need to do; we can’t choose what need to feel. Need and fear are the bottom lines in all animals, including humans.
(1) Definitions
Responsibility noun, plural -ties.
1. the state or fact of being responsible.
2. an instance of being responsible: The responsibility for this mess is yours!
3. a particular burden of obligation upon one who is responsible: the responsibilities of authority.
4. a person or thing for which one is responsible: A child is a responsibility to its parents.
5. reliability or dependability, especially in meeting debts or payments.
Responsible adjective
1. answerable or accountable, as for something within one’s power, control, or management (often followed by to or for ): He is responsible to the president for his decisions.
2. involving accountability or responsibility: a responsible position.
3. chargeable with being the author, cause, or occasion of something (usually followed by for ): Termites were responsible for the damage.
4. having a capacity for moral decisions and therefore accountable; capable of rational thought or action: The defendant is not responsible for his actions.
5. able to discharge obligations or pay debts.
Origin:
1590–1600; < Latin respons ( us ) ( see response) + -ible
Response noun
1. an answer or reply, as in words or in some action.
2. Biology, any behavior of a living organism that results from an external or internal stimulus.
(2) For more on guilt and blame, see Guilt, Shame and the Name Game, p.287. For more on free will and belief, see Free Will: Fact or Wishful Thinking?, p.587; The Truth About Lies, p.189 and Are You A Beliefaholic?, p.76.
(3) Desire is simply the blending of instinctive animal need + human thought. All living things experience need. This and its partner fear are the motive forces that drive survival. See also How the Hoodwink Hooks, p.100 and Two Paths, p.252.
The Only Safe Escape 5011
The only way I’ve found to escape life without unintended consequences is to give myself to life. It is a bit ironic… as chapter 78 says, Straight and honest words seem inside out, or as D.C. Lau put it, straightforward words seem paradoxical. At times, I can lose myself in the flowing moment by utter devotion to the action or non-action in ‘that’ moment. This approach to life is the one experienced by all nonthinking animals. They can easily do without doing, (wei wu wei), be involved (responsibility) without being involved (responsibility). (shi wu shi), as chapter 63 put it. For us this is not so easy.
Such primal devotion is the only healthy escape I know. I have found that “giving” myself to other escapes, (e.g., alcohol, drugs, sex, rock and roll, work, shopping, eating, etc.) has adverse consequences, especially when I devote myself fully to one. Devotion to the moment’s flow prevents these or any other activity from becoming an escape.
The pursuit of sensual pleasures always promises escape, but never truly delivers. Ironically, devoting myself to the moment makes escape easy. This is because there is no promise made in the latter. Chapter 70 hints at this unusual, paradoxical practice, Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do. Under heaven none can know, none can do. In other words, the eternal moment is beyond knowing and doing.
Naturally, we instinctively choose pleasure. Rather, the promise of pleasure—the bio-hoodwink—chooses for us. But really, what is pleasurable about pleasure anyway? Is it a lack of stress, a sense of peace or balance? No! In reality, pleasure promises these and more, yet it all turns out to be promises quickly broken (1).
Humanity’s Drug of Choice
Why is alcohol (2) the drug of choice the world over? In life’s toil, we seek refuge in a worry-free moment-to-moment space, still and simple, yet our urges and circumstances pull us toward the opposite. Alcohol gives the mind a temporary thought-freer sense of space. Essentially, alcohol gives us an easy way to experience the flowing moment, albeit through a very fuzzy veil.
In addition, civilization’s framework and narrative restrains our natural sense of space. In effect, cultural education and tradition serve to inhibit and conceal as much of the mass population’s individual idiosyncrasies as possible. Essentially, we’re strangers under the skin and require a common narrative to help us feel connected. Civilization’s underlying social disconnection was an inevitable outcome of the now long-lost intimacy of our ancestral hunter-gatherer way of life. Alcohol temporarily releases us from civilization’s story and contrived conformity, which allows our idiosyncrasies to express themselves more freely.
These issues underlying substance abuse are more acute now that our technology enables a less connected life style rushing ahead at full tilt. It was different when the only way to get somewhere else was to walk there; the only way to communicate with others was to be with them; the only way to eat was to hunt-and-gather your food. Daily life and flowing moment went more hand-in-hand before technology allowed us to circumvent nature’s discipline… see Buddha’s Four Truths: Poking a Little Deeper, p.618. Indeed, our ability to avoid nature’s wild side began with the stone ax and has progressed exponentially ever since. No doubt, that is why chapter 80 advises; Enable the people to again use the knotted rope.
The alternative to drugs is flowing moment awareness. For humans, this intuitive approach requires deep self-awareness of awareness—meditation. In truth, only the ‘fuzzy space’ that devotion to the flowing moment offers is able to slow our mind’s rush into the imaginary future our thoughts relentlessly lure us.
(1) Pleasurable choices are biological hoodwinks to drive animals to live life. It works great in the wild because there are natural limits on the outcome. Civilization aims at stacking the ‘pleasure deck’ in our favor. No wonder religions deem the desire for pleasure to be problematic. Here are a few examples: Genesis 4:7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”; Buddha’s Fourth Noble Truths, “let your sole desire be the performance of your duty”; chapter 15’s, Maintain this way, not desiring to be full, and chapter 64’s, Taking this, the wise person desires non desire.
(2) Even if animals wanted to drink alcohol until they were drunk, they couldn’t. They don’t have access. Interestingly, cows given unlimited access to concentrated nutritious food will eat themselves to death. In the wild, they don’t have access. We are similar, as we can see by the epidemic of obesity and the ensuing diseases. Civilization offers great benefits for humans paid for by the unintended consequences of great global suffering for us and countless other animals. Indeed, harm always goes hand in hand with benefit.
Giving Your Life a Gift 2354
It’s been 50+ years since I first began doing yoga. This, along with my daily reflection of Buddha’s Noble Truths (p.604), has been the best thing I’ve done in my life for my life. Admittedly, a lot of living had to pass under the bridge of life before I truly realized this. For decades, conviction, pride, and ambition helped push me along.
Yoga as a vehicle can take you to indescribable places, depending on you, the driver. You can begin yoga by doing just one posture a day to get the ball rolling. Next year, or sooner if you like, add one more… and so on. Doing this one posture dutifully every day without fail is sufficient. That constancy will quite naturally take care of the rest over time.
Seriously ask yourself this question, “Can I set aside two minutes a day for my body and soul?” Next, consider this from chapter 13…
I’ve posted free PDF downloads for the most important beginning yoga postures. Begin now… what’s to lose but a couple of minutes a day. Download the PDFs at www.centertao.org/yoga/. For the complete book, google [Hatha Yoga: The Essential Dynamics].
I was thinking of doing a short video to cover the beginning postures. Then I thought perhaps there is something already online. Ha! Obviously, I don’t surf the web much! The following four videos taken together shed light on the big picture, as well as on key fundamentals important to know from the beginning. Simply google these titles:
Yoga GURU — B. K. S. Iyengar – The Ultimate Freedom Yoga [1976] 1/6
B.K.S. Iyengar – Yoga Demonstration, Sydney, 1983
B.K.S. Iyengar 1938 newsreel Part 1 (there is also part 2 and 3)
BKS Iyengar in 1977
The first title, “Yoga GURU…” has six segments. After watching 1/6, simply change the 1/6 in the search window to 2/6 and search again. Continue on up to 6/6. The second title, “…Yoga Demonstration, Sydney…” covers the basics nicely for 90 minutes. The last two videos are interesting for various reasons.
Who or What Do You Trust? 5232
The ‘small “t” taoist’ (p.154) within us can find it difficult deciding who to trust, especially if we feel both the advocate and the critic make credible cases. Conversely, the partisan within us seldom hesitates before favoring one side or the other.
Sincere advocacy for anything is a projection of one’s own beliefs. Importantly, sincere belief inherently blinds a believer to that fact. It’s a vicious circle: We believe what we desire, and we desire our belief because we trust it to be true. Note: Desire = need + thought.
Sincere criticism, on the other hand, is a projection of ignorance. Importantly, ignorance is less about a lack of knowledge and more about a form of belief-induced blindness. Our criticisms arise as a counterpoint to our beliefs. Clearly, trusting either advocate or critic is problematic, so again, who or what can we trust?
Buddha said we must experience a particular life issue in order to know it truly (1). Alas, we can’t test out everything in existence, so what shall we do? I find it’s helpful to be as impartial as possible and examine either why I feel drawn to the positive or the negative story I hear. If I haven’t actually experienced the situation, then I can be reasonably certain some underlying bias is influencing me. It doesn’t end there however. That bias is the result of deep-seated needs, which stem from even more primal fears… ultimately the fear of loss and death. That makes personal experience the only clear path forward. Yet, trust through experience feels like an unattainable Holy Grail. The universe is too vast, and a lifetime too short. I am still stuck. Who or what can I trust?
True experience of anything external is only possible if ‘I’ become ‘it’. First, ‘I’ must internalize ‘it’ to the point where ‘I’ cease to exist. Only ‘it’ remains, or does it? In this ultimate singularity, ‘I’ merges with ‘it’, until there is neither an ‘I’ nor ‘it’. That certainly sounds like a superhuman feat! Fortunately, this is indeed an outside-of-nature fantasy. However, it points a way back to the possible.
Seeing the impossibility of a perfect answer to the question, “Who do you trust?”, tells me that perfection itself is an unnatural fantasy outside reality. That’s a relief! This quest for truth and trust is simply a cradle-to-grave journey toward what chapter 56 calls, nearly rising beyond oneself. To summarize all this:
- We start out as infants passionately taking issues at face value and choosing sides. We all begin here exactly as nature intends. It is the full-blown bio-hoodwink (p.11, p.100).
- Later on comes withholding judgment somewhat until gaining some personal experience with the issues. The more we realize how jumping to conclusions leads us astray, the easier it becomes to wait and see.
- As life’s struggle wears down the ego, the “illusion of self” softens, breaking down the prideful barrier separating “I” from “That”. This parallels the Hindu, “You are that” (Tat Tvam Asi), or as chapter 56 puts it, This is called profound sameness.
- The last half of chapter 16 sums this journey up…
Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results.
Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial,
Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural,
Natural therefore the way.
The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself.
(1) This is my boiled down interpretation. Buddha was apparently very diplomatic as this entry from Wikipedia suggests…
[From Wikipedia:] According to the scriptures, during his lifetime the Buddha remained silent when asked several metaphysical questions. These regarded issues such as whether the universe is eternal or non-eternal (or whether it is finite or infinite), the unity or separation of the body and the self, the complete inexistence of a person after nirvana and death, and others. One explanation for this silence is that such questions distract from activity that is practical to realizing enlightenment and brings about the danger of substituting the experience of liberation by conceptual understanding of the doctrine or by religious faith. Another explanation is that both affirmative and negative positions regarding these questions are based on attachment to and misunderstanding of the aggregates and senses. That is, when one sees these things for what they are, the idea of forming positions on such metaphysical questions simply does not occur to one. Another closely related explanation is that reality is devoid of designations, or empty, and therefore language itself is a priori inadequate.
The last explanation, in italic, is right in line with the Taoist view. When our eyes behold reality this way, designation is nearly impossible. Objective reality vanishes, as does any ability to be either a critic or an advocate. This is one reason Taoist points of view are not very popular. People like to get excited about something and choose sides. Taoist impartiality, even in small measures, impedes that thrill. Fittingly, during the 80’s and 90’s when we were having weekly Taoist meetings someone came up with the motto for the group: “Be bored again”. To be sure, “Be born again” sounds a lot more fun and exciting.
Imagining a Better Way 4550
Human imagination is both a valuable survival asset and the source of lingering anxieties. Ironically, imagination also promises us ways to quell these anxieties. I say promises because fulfillment can’t truly be possible. This peculiar dynamic reminds me of the Möbius like geometry of Escher’s Waterfall.
We can imagine a better something and so we tend to expect that better something. Animals feel the same emotions that drive imagination in us, but only briefly and directly connected to current external stimulus. In addition to external stimuli we sense, we produce self-stimuli from our remembered past and imagined future images. In due course, these memories and images then stimulate and re-stimulate our deeper-seated needs and fears.
This imagination–emotion feedback loop keeps us chomping-at-the-bit waiting for reality to match our imagined ideals of what it “should be”. We end up contending with reality and pushing to make it mirror our desire. Undoubtedly, this was/is a key factor in the survival success of our species. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors this asset would have been largely benign.
This imagination–emotion feedback loop still works beneficially, especially when our ideal and reality closely align with one another. However, civilization functions by a different set of rules than our ancestors followed. Now, more than ever, progress is integral to civilization’s DNA. The perceived virtue of progress makes any success fleeting, and off we rush imagining an even better world to push for… that’s progress!
Our hunter-gatherer nature is always pulling the strings through a deep-seated more-is-better instinct. Naturally, this is beneficial in the wild… now, not so much. Continually imagining an even better world increasingly leads us to actions that bring unintended consequences. As chapter 16 warns, Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results. We easily overlook the constant in our rush for progress.
Need + Fear + Thought
The pains of life are inevitable and natural. Our ability to imagine ways of resisting what is natural only adds suffering to life’s pain. Non-thinking animals avoid this additional suffering. They can’t maintain a well imagined past and future, and so can’t imagine a better way. Does this mean humans suffer more? I suppose so. Imagined gains and losses (need + fear + thought) create our desires and worries. These do seem to add a degree of discomfort beyond what other animals can experience. The question is how large is the difference?
Judging degrees of difference will always be a projection of the observer’s needs and fears, so who knows? The human mind, bolstered by ego, has great difficulty seeing, realizing, knowing, and finally accepting its own fallibility. A couple of Taoist observations speak to this issue: Chapter 56, Knowing doesn’t speak; speaking doesn’t know (I think of thought as the internal aspect of speaking, or vice versa); chapter 71, Realizing I don’t know is better, not knowing this knowing is disease; chapter 10, When understanding reaches its full extent, can you know nothing?
Memory Poisons Consciousness’s Well
I suppose it sounds heretical to say, but human memory is a somewhat destructive and sorrow causing aspect of our unique cognitive ability. A sharp knife blade cuts both ways. First, the good side of the memory coin: it is one of humanity’s foremost survival tools, and it offers us the sweet and bittersweet joy of nostalgia.
Now, here is the other side of the coin. We’ve all experienced how hearing negative gossip about someone leaves us with poisonous preconceptions to overcome when meeting them in person. That is, if we wish to follow chapter 16’s model, Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial, Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural… or perhaps adhere to Christ’s “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
Another pernicious side to memory is favoritism. As D.C. Lau puts it in chapter 79, It is the way of heaven to show no favoritism. Just as we tend to see and hear what we desire, we also tend to form and retain the version of memory that supports our viewpoint. That makes memory even more unreliable. Indeed, such biased memory is in some ways worse than no memory at all.
Being acutely aware of this tendency to use memory as ammunition to push an ideal or action helps me take the certainty and the push out of my memory. Honestly seeing this bio-hoodwink (p.11) for what it is, has so far turned out to be my weapon of choice against my own delusion.
Placebo Effect 4315 `@`
Google [Treating Depression: Is there a placebo effect? – CBS News] for an interview with Irving Kirsch, a scientist at the Placebo Studies Program at Harvard Medical School. Kirsch, who’s been studying placebos for 36 years, says “sugar pills” can work miracles. He has found that the drugs used to treat depression for most people are effective due to the placebo effect, not the active ingredient. Here are a few excerpts that stand out for me:
Kirsch: Placebos are great for treating a number of disorders: irritable bowel syndrome, repetitive strain injuries, ulcers, Parkinson’s disease. Even traumatic knee pain. In this clinical trial some patients with osteoarthritis underwent knee surgery. While others had their knees merely opened and then sewn right back up. And here’s what happened. In terms of walking and climbing, the people who got the placebo actually did better than the people who got the real surgery.
It’s not all in your head because the placebos can also affect your body. So if you take a placebo tranquilizer, you’re likely to have a lowering of blood pressure and pulse rate. Placebos can decrease pain. And we know that’s not all in the mind also because we can track that using neuro-imaging in the brain as well.
The doctors who prescribe the pills become part of the placebo effect. A clinician who cares, who takes the time, who listens to you, who asks questions about your condition and pays attention to what you say, that’s the kind of care that can help facilitate a placebo effect.
Physical exercise is another treatment prescribed for the mildly depressed. By the end of 10 weeks, you get just as good a change in their depression scores, as you do at the end of 10 or 12 weeks with an antidepressant.
First, what is the likelihood of the placebo effect working on non-human animals… if at all? I don’t see how it could, so I suspect that the placebo effect is actually an intuitive phenomenon that helps compensate for something out of whack in our species. The major difference between humans and other animals is cognition followed by civilization.
Cognition keeps us constantly on edge relative to “dumb animals”. Thought enables us to worry about what may never happen, desire that which is impossible to obtain, and plan for the un-plan-able. (See Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, p.169.) Nature abhors a vacuum and so it naturally fills the mind’s vast inner space with anything available, whether facts or imagined mountains out of molehills. (See Thinking Clouds Consciousness, p.119.)
If we were actually making physical mountains out of molehills, there would be no disconnect from reality. This correlates to Kirsch’s data that shows physical exercise treats mild depression as well as antidepressant drugs. Chapter 15 hints at this grounded humility…
Our mind’s immense inner space keeps us rather high-strung. That interferes with an ability found in other animals to respond spontaneously to problematic situations. Our responses are much more complex for they take place in the backdrop of all the worries and desires we haul around through life. This easily causes us to stress out, over react and then swing between extremes.
All this combines to create an overall sense of disconnection. This imbalance is a natural result of our dipolar-like perception (see Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink, p.35). Our cultural shift from the egalitarian ways of our ancestors to the hierarchical social structure of civilization further increased this disconnection. (See The Tradeoff, p.549). This matches Kirsch’s data that shows a clinician who cares, takes the time, and listens to you helps facilitate a placebo effect. The doctor becomes a path of reconnection.
Considering the placebo effect from a symptoms point of view (p.141) reveals the underlying cause—the disease we have—that makes the placebo effective. As chapter 71 bluntly states, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease (See also Religion the Best Placebo, p.30.)
What Follows Loss of the Way? 2648
Knowing what was, what is, and what will be is virtually impossible because our own biases shape what we think we know. Chapter 38’s descending order can help evade the trap of preconceptions when pondering the whys and wherefores of life.
The evolution of cultures and beliefs over time offers an example of how to approach this. I’ll adapt chapter 38’s format to the loosely historical context of ancient Egypt as a makeshift example…
Hence, the pharaoh follows loss of primal tribal security.
Gods follow loss of the pharaoh.
One God follows loss of gods.
Favorite politicians follow loss of One God.
Rock idols and movie stars follow loss of favorite politicians.
From a symptoms point of view (p.141), I see the popularity of the Internet’s social media follows loss of primal tribal security as well. Social media offers at least the promise of some aspects of primal tribal security. The important thing about Chapter 38 is how it reveals how nature always moves in ways to rebalance circumstances. It shows how each loss is followed by a gain that returns conditions to balance, albeit not necessarily the kind of balance we desire. Each gain comes with its own set of unintended consequences. (See Exquisite Balance, p.127.)
As humanity moved from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture, losses through those changing circumstance led us to where we are today. The losses we accrue today will determine where we will end up tomorrow. The challenging aspect here is accepting that we are not in control of life, and that every benefit comes with a cost.
Chapter 2 presents a peaceful way to view life and may help return one to an increasingly primal state of balance… that is if one is ready to relinquish control.
This path won’t resonate with anyone who is desperate to control outcomes. At some point, when the futility of battling nature hits home, this will register, although not usually in a Taoist format. In other words, isn’t chapter 2 just another way of saying, “by the grace of God” or “Insha’Allah” (“if God wills”). Truth is singular… as chapter 56 puts it, This is called profound sameness.
Seat of Consciousness 10540
I recently received a kind email from someone who ended with this:
Lastly, from reading Lau Tzu and Chuang Tzu, do you agree that it would seem that they would likely favor vegetarianism? I am becoming vegetarian myself, but it seems that eating clams and mussels might be possible, because they have no brain, and thus no “seat of consciousness.” Thus, they are like plants. Thoughts?
Do I have thoughts? Does a bear poop in the woods? First let me say, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. With that disclaimer in place, I’ll proceed…
Let’s consider plants. When learning biology with my home-schooled son, I learned that all plants and animals have the same basic cell type — the eukaryote cell. Wow! Did they teach me that in high school? Even if they had, I’m certain I would not have seen the significance. However, seen through my old mind’s eye now, it is clear we are brothers and sisters to our plant and animal kin. This is an obvious example of chapter 56’s profound sameness. Of course, this is antithetical to anybody who needs to see our species superior. Nevertheless, truth will out.
What does “seat of consciousness” really mean? We need to consider what consciousness is in the first place. I did that thoroughly in a previous post (see Is Rock Conscious, p.212) so I needn’t revisit that here. Instead, I’ll tackle this issue from another angle beginning with excerpts from a Science News report that inspired this post.
Enriched with Information
Science News came to my rescue vis-à-vis the previous post, Is Rock Conscious. Their series, Demystifying the Mind, reviews the latest research into consciousness. These excerpts are from the last article in the series, Enriched with Information, which aligns with what I have to say on this. (Google [Consciousness: here, there and everywhere?].)
As a scientist, Giulio Tononi’s goal is as lofty as it gets: He wants to understand how the brain generates consciousness. Tononi’s idea, though, extends beyond humans. By moving from nerve cells to the math that describes them, he has untethered the theory of consciousness from the physical brain. Like amorphous Silly Putty, the equations can be molded to fit any system. With the right calculations, scientists could test whether a tornado with its innumerable dust particles circling in unison, 2050’s iPhone or the trillions of megabytes of information zooming around the Internet could have some degree of consciousness.
If Tononi is right, and integrated information actually is consciousness, then consciousness itself is no longer restricted to the inside of a head. As long as it has the right informational specs, any system, whether it’s made of nerve cells, silicon chips or light beams, could possess consciousness.
Such a realization alters the consciousness conversation. In a world full of objects that can move information around quickly — an octopus’s brain, a tree’s root system, the Internet — the discussion of whether an entity is conscious may lose its meaning. Instead, the question becomes, “How conscious is it?” Small systems with just a few bits of information may have a tiny sliver of consciousness, while large systems such as human brains have a whopping helping.
Because of its clarity, this informational intuition has resonated with other researchers, inspiring a new way to see the consciousness problem. “This insight was very important to me,” says Anil Seth of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. “I thought, there’s something right about all this.”
Seth believes the mathematical language of consciousness offers interesting descriptions but stops short of saying that integrated information is actually the thing itself. “The only systems that we know of in the universe that generate consciousness are biological,” he says.
Where does one draw the line when it comes to “consciousness”?
Doctors once assumed that babies lacked consciousness and so required no anesthetic during circumcision. Similarly, people used to discount the extent of consciousness in animals. I’ve framed these two examples as old-fashioned notions, but I know many people still consider true consciousness is a direct consequence of thought, which leaves babies and animals not particularly conscious.
In fact, a few years ago a friend and I were discussing quantum physics with a highly regarded physics professor. In particular, we were delving into the nature of quantum non-locality, which suggests to some people the universality of consciousness. He strongly disagreed with linking quantum non-locality to consciousness, yet when pressed, he wouldn’t reveal how he defined consciousness. After a few hours, he finally admitted that he believed the ability to think — cognition— was a prerequisite of consciousness.
This professor’s views correspond to psychologist’s Julian Jaynes definition of consciousness. Jaynes believed that ancient humans before roughly 1200 BC were not reflectively meta-conscious and operated by means of automatic, non-conscious habit-schemas. This is all quite ludicrous beginning with referring to 1200 BC as ancient. See: Just How Big Is The Gap?, p.56; Hunger: A Natural Stimulant, p.96; It’s Time We Changed Our Name, p.187; Don’t trust anyone under 60, p.193; Why Man is King, p.221).
This movable line of consciousness we draw is simply a symptom of rationalized self-interest. Ironically, what we define as consciousness is more a projection of the narrowness of our own consciousness. In our ignorance, we draw lines of distinction where we want, which allows us to get away with murder… sometimes literally. Our deeply felt need to have it both ways comfortably slides us unconsciously into hypocrisy. Chapter 18 is blunt. As D.C. Lau translated it, When cleverness emerges there is great hypocrisy. Put more literally, When intelligence increases, there is great falseness.
Favoritism
The natural fact is that dying is the price life pays for living. Creation and destruction go hand in hand, or as chapter 2 puts it… Hence, existence and nothing give birth to each other. In the web of life, all living things “murder” (destroy, kill, use, exploit) to survive. Any resistance to that natural process arises from our personal self-interest. This bias is sheer favoritism. As D.C. Lau translates chapter 79, It is the way of heaven to show no favoritism. Alternatively, as in chapter 50, Of people, aroused by life, in death trapped, also three in ten. Why is this so? Because they favor life. To be sure, I have no problem with favoring this or that. After all, life would be impossible without preferences. However, justifying such biases through self-serving narratives only adds to our hypocrisy and disconnection. Self-honesty reconnects us. As chapter 22 hints, He does not see his self for he is honest; he does not exist for he is clear.
Giving in to self-serving favoritism always leaves me feeling personally sullied. Conversely, striving for impartiality and balance leaves me with a deepening sense of integrity. For example, if I want to eat living things, I need to experience the killing of living things, particularly that which I eat. Granted, modern life doesn’t offer an opportunity to pull this off, unless your hobby is hunting. Even so, at least one can own up to this responsibility in principle… and thus take another step toward self-honesty.
“Seat of consciousness”
The ‘seat of consciousness’ issue raised in the email at the top of this post is not truly a Taoist concern in my view, but more Hindu and Buddhist. In other words, a Taoist would eat anything, albeit with a concern for what is healthful. We are omnivores biologically so any issues with eating meat would be about quantity and quality. Gorging on meat every day would not be balanced, natural, or healthful… unless you’re Maasai whose cattle meet their nutritional needs, i.e., they eat the meat, drink the milk… and the blood.
Naturally enough, I say every living thing has a “seat of consciousness”… it is just a matter of degree, vis-à-vis neurological complexity, as to where you draw the line. Similarity, not difference, defines the core Taoist outlook. As chapter 56 puts it…
For this reason,
Unobtainable and intimate,
Unobtainable and distant
Unobtainable and favorable
Unobtainable and fearful
Unobtainable and noble
Unobtainable and humble
For this reason all under heaven value it.
Discerning difference is an essential survival feature of perception for all living things. However, the dipolar nature of human cognition allows us to venture where no other animal has gone before, as far as we know. No animal imaginatively toys with reality as we do. Indeed, we go overboard by resorting to clever rationalizations that bolster our emotional agenda. Alas, we only end up fooling ourselves by believing we can have it both ways. Chapter 18 hints at this particularly human problem, When intelligence increases, there exists great falseness. When we equate intelligence with consciousness, we just end up being conscious of the intelligent projections of our own self-interest. Ironically, in the final analysis this makes us stupid and silly instead.
In the end, need and fear pull the strings
The last paragraph in the Science News report stands out…
Others have more unorthodox ideas. Koch says he might be wrong, but he believes that consciousness, like an electron’s charge, is something inherent in the fabric of reality that gives shape, structure and meaning to the world. “Consciousness is not an emergent feature of the universe,” he says. “It’s a fundamental property.”
Yes!!! Viewed this way, all is consciousness! Only our needs and fears cause and give direction to our partiality. Only our ability to think allows us to rationalize those biases and often end up being guilt-ridden hypocrites. Then again, isn’t this just nature’s way of stirring the pot? I’ve been busy here discerning distinctions, and no doubt, I have gone overboard. In the big picture, this is no big deal. I just find that it helps greatly to realize as deeply as possible what is actually happening! Or is that just my rationalization? Maybe it is both.
For a easy to understand overview of this conscious universe, Google [The Nonlocal, Entangled, Conscious Universe – Menas Kafatos].
I am foolish of human mind also? 8509
I am foolish of human mind also? is one of my favorite lines in chapter 20. The more literal the translation, the more peculiar it can read. If it helps, D.C. Lau interprets this line more poetically as, My mind is that of a fool – how blank.
I do feel the literal phrasing of the Tao Te Ching’s nonsense helps rattle my thoughts a little more effectively than when it’s translated into proper poetic English. The literal adds a bit more discomfort. As they say, “No pain, no gain”.
This reminds me of chapter 65 that says, Of ancients adept in the way, none ever use it to enlighten people, they will use it in order to fool them. This also feels somewhat counter intuitive, and in the ideal world we imagine, may come off as dishonest. That brings me to the deeper question, “How can we ever know what we feel or think is true?” I can answer that easily for feeling. If I stub my toe, I feel what I feel. The truth is the feeling. This is not so when it comes to what I think. The best advice I’ve found is chapter 71’s Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Contemplating that rattles my brain, which helps me re-realize I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll get on with today’s bit of foolishness…
Knowing Understanding
One way to look at this problem is to think of understanding as being a two-part process. A few years ago, I began to realize how one must actually have an intuitive sense of an issue before they can truly understand it (see You Know, p.203). Naturally, this only applies to us thinking animals. You could say we typically understand what to do long before we know how or why we’re doing it. Deeper understanding founded on intuitive knowing occurs gradually and continually over a lifetime. See Duke Huan and the wheelwright, p.71.
Think of it this way. You can understand words and follow procedures by way of the cortex — that gray matter outer layer of the brain where much of our rational thought, intelligence, and language takes place. This is more a matter of imitation than knowing. The knowing I’m referring to is a whole brain awareness that includes mid and lower brain regions from where primal emotion arises.
Guilt and Shame
A discussion with my son about the sense of guilt and shame may help illustrate knowing vs. understanding. The other day my son referred to some rather heady psychological ways of examining the nature of guilt. His idea being that through analyzing guilt thoroughly, one could find a way to manage it. I countered with my simpler zoology based view of seeing guilt as being merely an innate social instinct, with the practical purpose of pushing and pulling members of a group to interact. Additionally, guilt, along with competition, also serves to set up the hierarchical relationships between people and other large brain social animals.
Viewed even more closely, guilt and shame appear to be the result of two opposing needs with undercurrents of what I call the fairness gene. (See, Unfair Trade and Ape Aid: Chimps share altruistic capacity with people, p.587) First, one feels a social need to connect to the group, do the right thing socially for the group… do the fair thing. Second, one feels the self-centered need to be happy, fulfilled, and to prevail in life. Thoughts of self and thoughts of the group vie for our attention, and an inner emotional war of opposing ideals ensues, i.e., these thoughts originate in their emotional roots. I suppose the sense of guilt and shame increases in proportion to how much self-interest wins out over one’s ideals and expectations for fairness.
Feeling Guilt Precludes Understanding Guilt
One possible difference between my son’s complex psychological reasoning and my simpler reasoning is that his doesn’t require knowing guilt impartially. An analytical approach like his permits us to play around with something in our mind without the increased difficulty of experiencing it with detachment. Yet, we can still end up thinking that we know. Put another way, if you feel guilt, how can you know its nature without bias? An impartial view is the only way to examine the full nature of anything actually. We solve this enigma by employing our higher brain functions, reason and analysis, which operate easily without requiring us to undergo the actual experience (1).
This is where we get into difficulty: Again, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. At some point, science with its commitment to impartiality, will lay out the biological basis of guilt. This should help somewhat (2). I couldn’t wait that long, so I put a drawing at the top of this post that depicts a biological basis of love. That’s close enough I feel… guilt, shame, and love have so much in common. To say it is simply biology helps me untangle the issue, yet leaves me deeply in awe of the profound workings of biology.
Forever, a Work in Progress
Another example of the disease that thinking causes occurs when we experience a sense of loss (real or imagined). When reality doesn’t conform to our expectations, we feel a sense of failure and loss. This emotion pushes the mind to single out data (empirical, theoretical, or mythical) that provides evidence for that emotion. I find that knowing my mind instinctively does this helps motivate me to seek out evidence that points in the other direction. This self-honesty eventually ends in a more inclusive picture and with that, a more peaceful state of mind.
Alas, this happens only so long as I remain actively aware of the bio-hoodwink acting upon me. (See How the Hoodwink Hooks p.100) I say alas, because emotion constantly arises to steer my mind back to support its irrational “truth”, i.e., my current emotional stance. Buddha had it right (p.604). Namely, Right Resolution helps me remember what Right Comprehension sees. Right Effort keeps Right Thought reviewing Right Comprehension, and so on. All this helps increase Right State of Peaceful Mind. Naturally, my current emotional state hinges on my degree of Right State of Peaceful Mind. So, you see, this is really a virtuous circle playing out over my lifetime.
Chapter 71 ends with, The sacred person is not ill, taking his disease as illness. I see our tendency to not know yet think that we know as simply due to our brain having a mind of its own, so to speak. Having our story — gossip, ideals, expectations, and such — lead our thoughts around as a bull with a ring through its nose makes life difficult. Worse yet, this drowns out the mystery of the yet to be known. Chapter 41 offers a way to manage this, The superior student hearing the way, diligently travels it.
(1) I am able to consider guilt and shame rather objectively because I have never felt much of either. When I told my son that, he was skeptical. Honestly, I have experienced tinges of shame and guilt, but not enough to stick. As far back as I can remember, I have marched to the beat of my own drum. To be sure, it is genetic! Not surprisingly, this trait confers a good deal of social impartiality.
(2) Science does a lot more for advancing human sanity than is often appreciated. For example, the Aztecs killed thousands under the belief that such sacrifice would insure the Sun’s daily rebirth in the sky. Knowing the science behind the Sun now makes that impossible, at least culture-wide. Of course, there are always cul-de-sacs of folks who reject science and end up believing in god knows what. Even so, science will continue to pull humanity toward facing its biological reality and in the process, bring us closer to appreciating the true mystery of biology and of life!
It Began Now 4862
The Science News book review, Games Primates Play, is worth reading. It is short so I’ll paste the whole review below first, and then add my tangential two cents.
Games Primates Play: An Undercover Investigation of the Evolution and Economics of Human Relationships
Even decked out in cultural finery, people make monkeys of themselves. Maestripieri, a veteran monkey investigator, builds a fascinating and occasionally disturbing case for fundamental similarities in the social shenanigans of people, apes and monkeys due to a shared evolutionary heritage.
Maestripieri spies unspoken primate customs lurking in mundane human encounters. In a crowded elevator, people instinctively stand still and avoid eye contact, keeping their distance when only two remain. An ingrained need to defuse potential aggression when confined with strangers drives this behavior, Maestripieri argues. He has observed similar behavior in pairs of female macaques put in a small cage. To break the ice, the monkeys bare their teeth to signal fear and friendliness before grooming each other. It’s a short jump, he says, from caged macaques to two people in a high-rise elevator chatting nervously about the chance of rain.
Maestripieri also describes the evolutionarily deep appeal of nepotism. In female-run macaque societies, big shots’ daughters are guaranteed privileged lives while daughters of bottom-feeders eke out a miserable existence. Maestripieri relates this behavior to his own run-ins with kin favoritism in Italy’s military and universities.
Both people and macaques often hurt competitors if they can get away with it, Maestripieri says, but play nice in public. So it goes among scientists: Senior researchers attack rivals and young challengers in anonymous peer reviews. This would improve instantly with open review, he predicts.
Other research described in the book finds commonalities in primate cooperation and friendship, as well as in power plays, playing favorites and other dark social arts. In the end, Maestripieri’s theme is hard to deny: Monkey business is everyone’s business.
By Dario Maestripieri (Review by Bruce Bower)
Thanks to advances in science and technology, we are finally beginning to make real progress towards knowing and understanding ourselves as we are. In other words, we are beginning to see ourselves as animals first and foremost rather than the ideals we conjure up to prove our Homo sapiens’ superiority, which our species’ ego compels us to do.
The ultimate value of science and technology lies in its ability to help us see ourselves more impartially. No doubt we have a long way to go, and even longer before the populace feels comfortable with the unvarnished truth. The ‘cool’ scientific innovations most valued by the populace at large are merely distractions along the way — soon forgotten and replaced by the next novelty; with unintended and ominous results invariably following behind. As chapter 16 puts it,
Such impartiality is the overall aim of science, but how long must we wait? This answer lies in the eye of the beholder. Normally, we judge time from the perspective of a human lifetime. More to the point, our sense of time connects directly, although subtly, to desire. Buddha in his second truth said, “… The surrounding world affects sensation and begets a craving thirst that clamors for immediate satisfaction. The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things.” A “cleaving” to our imaginary ideals, plus a “clamoring for immediate satisfaction”, drags out time, reinforces self (ego) and delays Impartial therefore whole…. nearly rising beyond oneself.
Buddha succinctly sums up the essential framework for our conception of time. The more you desire some particular outcome, the more narrow time’s window feels. ‘Now’ becomes intertwined with your desire for immediate satisfaction. From this standpoint, several hundred years feels like a long time, yet from a desire-free evolutionary perspective, it feels like the blink of an eye. It helps me to feel ‘now’ as a great long flowing river. Where does it begin? Where does it end? I feel awe as I float along in the middle reaches watching the waters of time flowing around me. Now and eternity offset each other, yet share the same space-time. As chapter 56 put it, This is called profound sameness. Chapter 14 also comes to mind…
Note: Disciple is the root of discipline. Pondering that helps deepen the meaning.
The Secret to Happiness! 6670
I’ve long realized that much of life’s pleasures appear to occur in the anticipation of them… in the desire more than in satisfying the desire. The conclusion of a desire or goal — the sated phase — is ultra fleeting, almost to the point of being anticlimactic. If you’re interested in this, begin by watching this short video, YouTube [The Fast Draw: Vacations]. I’ll include a summary at the bottom of this post. (photo: happy at last?)
Empirical Basis
Here are a few personal examples of the power of anticipation, followed by reflections on its useful application:
[ During the years I spent hitch hiking the world I’d occasionally visited upscale supermarkets in the capital cities and feasted my eyes on the goodies — the soul food I enjoyed growing up in America. I recall doing this in Ouagadougou (capital of Burkina Faso) after hitch hiking across the Sahara desert. I must have spent a few hours inside the air-conditioned market ogling at the delicacies until I felt fully sated. I then went outside and had a snack from a street vender to top it off. (Ovaltine and a fried thing as I recall). (photo: feast your eyes )
[ When my ex-wife and I separated, I stopped eating for a few weeks to help ground me. I stayed at a friend’s house and each day I’d prepare the most exquisite meal I could for him. I have never enjoyed food as much as during that time. Nothing makes food so inviting as hunger, and it is in the anticipation where the joy really lies. You can notice this even in normal situations. Next time you have dinner, wait until you are extra hungry, then see how splendid the first bite tastes! The second will be a little less, and the third less still…and so on, until you may end up stuffed as chapter 9 hints, Grasping and yet full of, not in harmony with oneself. (photo: ouagadougou, burkina faso)
Food offers the clearest example of anticipation’s effect upon happiness. The Dutch study covered in the video focuses on vacations. However, I find this same effect in just about everything, but especially noticeable in shopping and sex. Why don’t we notice this happening more in our lives? Perhaps because we’re so caught up in the process… Ah yes, the blind spot blinds! (photo: shopping and sex)
Applying the Secret to Happiness
The Fast Draw: Vacations video describes a subtle essence underlying literally everything I do. When I am playing music, sweeping the floor, making tea, or you name it, I am happiest when my awareness is at the edge of the experience anticipating the next moment. I always thought of this as being-in-the-moment, but it is more like pushing my moment a bit ahead of the present ‘now’ (1). This moment of experience flow is hard to describe, so I can only hope it echoes your experience somewhat.
Shortly after seeing the video, I played my bamboo flute (google [blowing Zen]). I deliberately tried placing a little extra anticipation toward the next phrase I would be playing. I enjoyed it. To be sure, I often enjoy blowing Zen, but just as often I get so bored, I nearly fall asleep. As it happens, I’ve never had any particular insight into the why, either way. Now I have a clue.
This research helps link my blowing Zen experience with all other life experience. Like yoga, blowing Zen is one of those rare activities that connect you with yourself dynamically, yet passively enough to notice the subtler aspects of the practice. Happily, any insights realized during such spiritual practices carry over rather easily to humdrum facets of daily life.
Certainly, this secret to happiness is no panacea. I must still, as Buddha advised, “… Strive on diligently”. Most important I feel is striving to remember whatever secrets to happiness I’ve realized. Otherwise, history repeats itself. Most essential is realizing and then remembering how the bio-hoodwink manipulates me. Of course, I will never be free of all these primal reflexes. Still, I do anticipate being a little freer.
The Moral of this Story
Desire is not the culprit that leads to potential sorrow and ruin. Indeed, problems more likely arise in our hurry to satisfy desires. The more quickly we sate one desire, the sooner another arises to take its place. Our biology did not evolve to satisfy one desire after another so rapidly. Slowing down this satiation rate is patience. I guess that makes patience the real secret to happiness. Perhaps, I’d add perseverance. Patience and perseverance are the keys to happiness. (photo: sweep your cares away)
Summary of research on vacations and happiness
Researchers from the Netherlands set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts. They studied happiness levels among 1,530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a vacation during the 32-week study period.
The study, published in the Journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.
After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people. How much stress or relaxation a traveler experienced on the trip appeared to influence post-vacation happiness. There was no post-trip happiness benefit for travelers who said the vacation was “neutral” or stressful.”
Surprisingly, even those travelers who described the trip as “relaxing” showed no additional jump in happiness after the trip. “They were no happier than people who had not been on holiday,” said the lead author, Jeroen Nawijn, tourism research lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. For the report, google [Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday].
For the full report, see Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday.
(1) Another thing I’ve long noticed is that when I really do sink into the moment, a new anticipation instinctively bubbles up into my awareness. I reckon this is a hunter-gather driven instinct to keep on the lookout for the next meal, no matter how content I—the animal—may currently feel. I actually use this process when I feel burned out, depressed, or confused. I simply do as chapter 16 says, devote effort to emptiness, sincerely watch stillness. It always works as long as I reach full contentment with nothing, as in chapter 2’s Hence existence and nothing give birth to one another. Sure, naturally that can be a difficult target to reach. Still, eventually contentment gives birth to restlessness, and then off I go in “happy anticipation”. Note: The Couplets and the Co-generating Principle (p.566) can portray the process well.
Guilt, Shame and the Name Game 11804
I touched on guilt and shame in the post, I am foolish of human mind also? (p.276). Nevertheless, I feel our practice of naming such emotional experiences deserves its own post, so here goes, beginning with a personal example…
Up until thirty years ago, I had never experienced depression… or so I didn’t think. Following an intensive six-month period of creativity working out Correlations (p.565), I began experiencing a period of depression, or so I did think. Then I began to notice I had experienced elements of this incident before… I had just never named it. Up until then, life for me was either simply up or down, or various shades in between.
Calling it “depression” singled out the experience. The act of naming it nailed down its alleged reality. This is often unhelpful. While naming experiences eliminates the dreaded unknown, it also solidifies that which is often better left fluid, as chapter 21 puts it, only suddenly, only indistinct. In other words, naming induces our perception of a pseudo reality — only parts of the elephant — and easily blinds us to the rest of the picture. (Google [blind men and the elephant].)
In discussing guilt and shame, I told my son that I had never felt either guilt or shame, which he thought impossible. Was he correct? This reminds me of my depression experience. In reassessing my past, I assume I’ve felt some shame and guilt, but not enough to stick in memory. By not naming either surely helped make the experience forgettable. The uniquely Human problem we face results from thinking, naming, labeling, and lugging around and rehashing our labeled reality. Our story imprisons us.
Obviously, experiences must reach a certain threshold before we name them. Otherwise, we would run around labeling every trivial experience in life, and drive ourselves even more neurotic. For both shame and guilt, perhaps I never reach that threshold. As far back as I can remember, I’ve never felt a need to conform to the prevailing societal norm. Such detachment would naturally make me less socially susceptible to guilt and shame.
Guilt as a vital emotion in social relationships
The discussion with my son about guilt and shame (p.276) helps exemplify understanding vs. intuitive knowing. My son referred to some complex physiological ways of examining the nature of guilt. The idea being that through analyzing guilt thoroughly, one could find ways to understand and manage it. For me, complex analysis just beats around the bush, only offering up an illusion of resolution. Complexity is more a symptom arising from a lack of fundamental knowing. The simplest view illuminates. This is what makes Buddha’s Truths so powerful! Finding the simplest comprehensive view is also most difficult, from engineering problems to philosophical ones.
I deem guilt as being an innate social instinct, with an actual practical purpose of stimulating members of a group to interact. Additionally, guilt, along with competition, serves to set up the hierarchical relationships among social animals, humans included. Granted, this is the simplest view I’ve arrived at to date, at least one that can be spoken of. I mean, taken to the simplest level, words fail. Indeed, life is simpler than the words we use to describe it. The problem with putting even simple and straightforward observations into words is that misinterpretation is always inevitable. As chapter 43 offers, Not of words teaching, Without action advantage. Of course, this won’t work for my writing project here, so I’ll carry on…
Self-interest vs. group interest
Guilt and shame are most likely an emergent property (p.121) of conflicting needs (desires) and fears (worries) influencing social behavior. On one hand, one feels a social need to connect to the group, do the right thing socially for the group—the fair thing (see, Unfair Trade and Ape Aid, p.587). On the other hand, one feels a personal need to be happy and prevail. Thoughts of self and thoughts of the group vie for our attention, and an inner battle between opposing needs and fears develops. Logically, one’s guilt and shame should increase in proportion to how much self-interest wins out over one’s wishes for justice. Accordingly, I assume the modern belief in “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” causes guilt and shame to increase steadily.
Modern ideals of self-determination, and the desires these ideals stir, must perturb the social instincts that cause guilt and shame. Given the social bonding purpose of these instincts, it is reasonable to assume that feeling guilt and shame increases in proportion to increases in self-interest. Mother Nature needs social animals to bond rather than be off doing their own thing. Consequently, an increasing need to do your own thing would naturally induce painful conflict: self-interest desires vs. group-interest desires. We call that conflict guilt. In contrast, the group member feeling a strong need for group bonding would experience anger and blame toward any member’s inclination to do their own thing. This explains why groups vigorously ostracize whistle blowers, even though their actions aim at a greater good.
Now honestly, doesn’t considering humanity from a zoological viewpoint help simplify and even illuminate… without the usual drama. Of course, this also eliminates the convoluted rationales that we use to judge and blame others. No wonder we prefer the complex view that avoids painful self-honesty and allows us to be hypocritical when emotionally necessary.
The biological side of guilt
Considering guilt as a biological and zoological dynamic is a more effective path to understanding. Psychology can frequently over-complicate and distract us from the universal, natural view. Neglecting to consider matters as symptomatic of underlying natural forces leads us astray. A rigorous Symptoms Point Of View (p.141) always leaves the unknowable door ajar.
Seeking out deeper underlying causes helps ensure that I never think that I know. As chapter 71 notes, Realizing I don’t’ know is better. Why? Because each cause I identify turns into a symptom of yet deeper causes… going right back to the Big Bang and even its mysterious ancestor. As chapter 4 says, I don’t know of whose child it is, It resembles the ancestor of the Supreme Being.
At some point, science with its commitment to impartiality will lay out the biological basis for all human experience. Even then, we won’t truly know. However, at least we can leave it in the realm of natural causes, rather than God, the devil, or some other scapegoat. Then, we can let our Taoist worldview handle the rest of the story.
Science does a lot more for advancing our sanity than is often appreciated. For example, the Aztecs killed thousands under the belief that such sacrifice would insure the Sun’s daily rebirth in the sky. Knowing the science behind the Sun now makes that nigh impossible, although there will always be pockets of disconnected souls who will believe in anything, including the virtue of blood sacrifice. Eventually, science will force most humans to face their biological reality, which will bring us a few steps closer to appreciating the deeper mystery underlying biology, and even the ancestor of the Supreme Being.
The brain has a mind of its own
Alas, even with a simpler and more balanced view, I must remain actively aware of the bio-hoodwink acting upon me. To be honest, emotion constantly pulls the mind’s thoughts back to support my emotion’s non-rational “truth”, i.e., my current emotional reality. Buddha’s path (p.604) succinctly points out helpful steps to take to avoid this: Right Resolution keeps me remembering what Right Comprehension sees. Right Effort and Right Thought help keep my Right Resolution focused on my responsibility. Right State of Peaceful Mind motivates me to, as Buddha’s last words advised “Strive on diligently”. Even though as chapter 20 reminds, I Am Foolish Of Human Mind Also.
Evidently, our inclination to not know yet think that we know is an essential aspect of having a brain that has a mind of its own. Thought allows stories, gossip, ideals, myths, expectations, and such, to misdirect and lead us down one dead end after another. Isn’t that why, as chapter 41 puts it, The superior student hearing the way, diligently travels it. Isn’t life too short not to?
Realizing I don’t’ know is better
One way to look at this problem is to think of understanding as a layered process. True understanding always follows an intuitive, without words, knowing. Simply put, one must know before one can understand (see We only understand what we know, p.254) As far as I know, this only applies to Homo sapiens. For us, we are able to “understand” something long before we truly know. I should say pseudo understanding because it is more like mimicry that deeply knowing. In other words, we can understand the words without knowing the deep meaning. Instead, we misinterpret them to match our current emotional reality. Any deeper intuitive understanding occurs gradually and continually deepens over one’s lifetime.
So, how does one know one has deep knowing rather than merely an intellectual understanding? Chapter 71 answers this bluntly.
UPDATE 2020: I now feel guilt, shame and blame as having deeper roots than in the fairness instinct alone, although that social instinct still plays a major role.
Shame, guilt and blame appear to be complimentary instincts, or perhaps they are fundamentally one since they are all forms of blame directed either inwards or outwards. When an animal perceives something disturbing, it naturally focuses on what is responsible for the disturbance it feels (‘blame’), with the intent to resolve the situation, often through some form of either flight (repulsion) or fight (attraction).
Buddha’s first Noble Truth describes the basis for the major disturbances that all animals are capable of feeling, “… sad it is to be joined with that which we dislike, sadder still is the separation from that which we love, and painful is the craving for that which can’t be obtained”. Naturally, it is impossible for an animal to perceive how and why it is ultimately responsible for the disturbance it feels. We’re not that different given that taking responsibility threatens the illusion of self—ego. Like all animals, we look outward blaming external forces for what disturbs us… it is “they” who are responsible.
Buddha’s 2nd Noble Truth observes. “…The surrounding world affects sensation and begets a craving thirst that clamors for immediate satisfaction. The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in the net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain.” While this applies to all animals generally, only the part concerning cleaving and the illusion of self (ego) are human burdens. This makes our stories of blame, guilt, and shame sticky indeed.
Clearly, the human mind needs to cleave to belief to stabilize itself. Without that, we go insane. (See Belief in Nothing is Dangerous, p.160) That pressure to hold onto belief makes faultfinding narratives universal… it’s the disease chapter 71 points out. This is not so for chimpanzees, for example. They feel emotions of anger, fear, need, social bonding, fairness, etc. These same emotions in humans also strongly influence thought. The disease happens when these unscrutinized thoughts feed right back into our emotions, amplifying them to various degrees, causing unnecessary stress and suffering.
UPDATE 2022: Upon reflection, I also suspect that guilt and gratitude are complementary… two sides of the same coin. Pondering the difference between dogs and cats with regard to this offers a straightforward example. Interestingly, research shows that a sense of gratitude is linked to happiness. Does this apply to guilt—albeit subtly—as well?
Necessity, the Mother 2812
Free will is what presumably makes us different from other animals. We believe we have a unique ability to choose and act freely. (See Free Will: Fack or Wishful Thinking?, p.586)
The well-known proverb, “Necessity is the mother of invention”, points to the actual truth. Simply put, necessity is the mother of all choice and action. That obliterates any notion of free will. Nonetheless, the idea of necessity as the mother of invention should have challenged my firm and long-held belief in free will earlier.
Why did it take so long to realize this obvious inconsistency? Undoubtedly, harboring both beliefs offered me the comfort of having it both ways. The comfort that a viewpoint offers us easily overshadows the truth of that view. Looking honestly and impartially at life can be very sobering. It is much easier to remain intoxicated by our long-cherished beliefs, no matter how inconsistent with the facts they are.
This reminds me of chapter 81’s, True speech isn’t beautiful, Beautiful speech isn’t true. I see beautiful synonymous with pleasant, desirable, and comfortable. This comfort issue also reminds me of the Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna (the divine exemplar of yoga) appears before Arjuna in his true infinite form, where upon Arjuna freaks out and pleads for Krishna to return him to the comfortable “PG-13” rated humanist view. These lines are from the end of chapter 11.
11:45 In a vision I have seen what no man has seen before: I rejoice in exultation, and yet my heart trembles with fear. Have mercy upon me, Lord of gods, Refuge of the whole universe: show me again thine own human form.
11:47 By my grace and my wondrous power I have shown to thee, Arjuna. this form supreme made of light, which is the Infinite, the All: mine own form from the beginning, never seen by man before.
1:48 Neither Vedas, nor sacrifices, nor studies, nor benefaction, nor rituals, nor fearful austerities can give the vision of my Form Supreme. Thou alone hast seen this Form, thou the greatest of the Kurus.
11:49 Thou hast seen the tremendous form of my greatness, but fear not, and be not bewildered. Free from fear and with a glad heart see my friendly form again.
11:50 Thus spoke Vasudeva to Arjuna, and revealed himself in his human form. The God of all gave peace to his fears and showed himself in his peaceful beauty.
11:51 When I see thy gentle human face, Krishna, I return to my own nature, and my heart has peace.
We respond to life in accord with our projected version of reality. In other words, our emotions, fears and needs, paint the picture of what we perceive “out there”. We are so busy chasing down the loose ends of that projected reality, we are seldom able to stop and ask ourselves what is going on “in here”. As chapter 16 offers, Devote effort to emptiness, sincerely watch stillness.
A Bee with Personality 1499
Science has driven another nail into the coffin of human uniqueness. (Google [Bee genes may drive them to adventure].) This is yet another example of chapter 56’s, This is called profound sameness.
Soon—in a thousand years more or less—we’ll be forced to admit that, while we see ourselves as unique, we are actually profoundly similar to lesser animals. Science is slowly but surely pulling us back to greater humility and a more rational point of view.
The Science News article describes how researchers found some underlying motivational forces that effect how bees forage. Here are the concluding few paragraphs:
The work suggests that evolution may use the same genetic toolkit across species for behavioral traits, much in the way that related genes are used for building body parts, whether in a fruit fly or frog.
And the work adds to growing evidence that humans aren’t the only species that have personalities.
“If you ask people if they think a squid has personality, they usually say no,” says psychologist Sam Gosling of the University of Texas at Austin. But individual squid, and apparently bees, may consistently seek new things. In animals, scientists call that “novelty-seeking,” while people who exhibit similar traits get labels like “extrovert.”
Without the rigorous honesty that the scientific process requires, humanity would still be merrily rolling along with its species-centric myths of human superiority, oblivious to the deeper reality we share with all life on earth.
A Word to the Wise? 3704
“A word to the wise” is a good maxim, but flawed I’m afraid to say. I’ve always liked how D.C. Lau phrased the last characters of the first line of chapter 51: Circumstances bring them to maturity. It’s true, albeit not what the characters literally say. What is it about circumstances that bring us to maturity, and presumably wisdom?
Back in my twenties, I realized how life’s pains were the grist that actually taught me the life lessons I had to learn. It was in those years that I found Buddha’s Four Truths “to tell it like it was”. The second truth in particular rang true; especially …the desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in a net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain. I began seeing “pain” as the likely result of some misstep on my part. I knew it would be wise to learn as quickly as possible; otherwise I was destined to revisit the same stumbling block continually. Stumbling wasn’t something to avoid; repeating the same mistake was the problem and remains so today.
That people become wiser as they age is a commonly held view. It is one of a few with which I can’t quibble. I’ve always thought that a person’s accumulation of life experience was the key reason for this. A few days ago, I took this view a step further by asking myself, what is in the field-of-experience that pulls us into deeper maturity? Again, it’s pain… naturally!
Now at 70, there is age related pain to deal with. Earlier in life, it was self-inflicted pain, i.e., “…Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain”. As I’m aging, a whole list of “undeserved” pain is appearing. There is the general and increasing loss of acuity of the senses… hearing, sight, taste, smell. Add to this, physical issues like arthritis, muscle atrophy and skin that bleeds with the slightest scrape. I now say after gardening for a while, that if I’m not bleeding somewhere I really haven’t done anything. All these problems are always knocking at awareness’s door.
These pains are the sort everyone will suffer to one extent or another as they age. These “undeserved” declines and feeling the “injustice” of entropy are powerful forces. Yielding to them gracefully brings precious humility and wisdom. This approach is nicely spoken to in chapter 61, Of all under heaven, The female normally uses stillness to overcome the male. Using stillness, she serves the lower position.
Words to the unwise fall upon deaf ears
Recently I faced up to the serious truth that We only understand what we know (p.254). If this is correct, what hope is there for the young to heed many, if any, words of wisdom? They naturally lack the wisdom required to understand. It takes wisdom to know wisdom, or as I like to say, “It takes a sage to know as sage.” This natural ignorance has another repercussion. The young easily end up taking another person’s ostensible wisdom at face value, and this easily ends up being misguided faith. “Beware of false prophets”, I believe the Bible says somewhere.
The great conundrum here lies in lacking the experience to know whether one has the experience to know. Given this, how can one evaluate the wisdom of any words offered as words of wisdom? Misinterpretation and misunderstanding are inevitable. So far, I found that fully embracing chapter 71 is the only way to mitigate this otherwise un-winnable situation. For this, humility and reflection are essential… like I said, “It takes wisdom to know wisdom”.
Upping the Ante 5241
Have you noticed the ever-present urge to continue to up the ante? Not only that, but isn’t the sky often the limit? We can’t help but aim for the next step up, and when we reach it, that level becomes our new bottom line. Most of us are content for a while, but then we reach for more… repeatedly.
Retracing the evolutionary footsteps that brought us into modern times, I recognize this urge to be an emergent property (p.121), with its origin in our hunter-gather instinct. In the wild, this instinct urges us on in search of the next tasty morsels, the next satisfying thing for the belly, not the eye (#12).
In contrast, endless amounts of foods fill our grocery stores these days. If we have the money, we simply go buy food when we get hungry, and even when we’re not. No longer do we need to hunt and gather everyday as we did in the wild. However, our genome didn’t delete the hunter-gatherer instinct’s DNA when recently (i.e., ~10,000 years ago) we found ways to produce and store massive amounts of food. Those genes still urge us to hunt and gather as though we were living in the wild. The only difference now is that clothes, cars, religion, hobbies, money, gadgets, music, vacations, intoxicants, junk food, and the “cool” things in life, have become the things for the belly, and for the eye. Chapter 12 speaks to the problematic side of this urge playing out in civilized circumstance:
Our urge to fill body and soul never ceases because the hunter-gather instinct within us is not aware that we already have enough! Thus, we are always upping the ante. No matter what we have, we desire more. More just feels better, despite any of our ideals to the contrary. Oh how nature’s hoodwink hooks! (p.100). The Tao Te Ching has more to say on the difficulty we face. Here are some examples…
Holding a surplus is not in harmony with oneself; #9
Knowing to stop [he] can be without danger. #32
Knowing when to stop, never dangerous. #44
Is there any remedy?
Somewhat ironically, any remedy for this imbalance depends on what we truly want out of life. Desire drives us to up the ante, but it can also pull us in the other direction. Chapter 64 puts it bluntly, taking this, the wise person desires non-desire, or as Buddha said in his Fourth Noble Truth (p.604), “There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty”. Which way desire pulls us depends on whether or not we know we are out-of-sync with nature. Such Right Comprehension is where the sacred journey begins. From there, one crawls in action (Right Action) and outlook (Right Thought) toward what ever can offset that innocent primal instinct. Chapter 16 speaks to this returning …
Still, that may only be dreaming on my part, considering my previous views on free will. Then too, life is a learn-by-living process. Why would the remedy for this imbalance turn out to be any different from how we learn to walk as toddlers? The imbalance, stumbles, and falls are the indispensable first steps we take in learning to walk. How much stumbling is necessary before learning occurs? That must depend on what one truly wants of life.
That leaves me with one last question: What determines whether one remains complacent or strives for what is called profound moral character as chapter 10 puts it. Certainly, both complacency (a.k.a, laziness instinct) and striving (a.k.a., survival instinct) are primary forces influencing all living things. The interplay between these instincts and one’s circumstances determines how these forces play out. One thing I know, it isn’t free will!
Something practical
I find Hatha Yoga, executed honestly, helps counterbalance the urge for upping the ante, especially in regards to ever-increasing comfort and security. Rather than reaching for more comfort, yoga invites me to surrender to discomfort… even more so as my body ages. I would expect similar results from anything done over a lifetime that invites deliberate surrender. The Bhagavad Gita, the bible of Yoga, puts the notion of surrender well…
5:2 Both renunciation and holy work are a path to the Supreme; but better than surrender of work is the Yoga of holy work.
12:12 For concentration is better than mere practice, and meditation is better than concentration; but higher than meditation is surrender in love of the fruit of one’s actions, for on surrender follows peace.
What’s Not the Elephant? 3709
My favorite Buddhist parable is the Blind Men And The Elephant. Several blind men each touch a different part of an elephant and proceed to describe and debate what they think an elephant is.
The lesson here is how untrustworthy perception actually is. With only five main senses, we are all blind in the final analysis. And so chapter 71 advices, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
Yes, the Chinese character in 71 literally translates as disease. If it’s not a disease, then not knowing this knowing is certainly a disability… like blindness. Thought is the means by which we think we know something. Like the blind men who thought they knew, our thoughts trick us. The problem begins when we cognitively infer much too much from our narrow range of raw perception. Then, with unwavering certainty, think we know reality. As it happens, our fear of the unknown triggers a serious need to know. Then, we desperately hold onto whatever we think we know. In other words, we believe our beliefs. (See Beliefs: Are We Just Fooling Ourselves? p.591)
The Spotlight of Awareness
Awareness is the light that underpins thought. Like a spotlight, it shines here or there, but it can’t shine everywhere simultaneously. The big cosmic picture is beyond awareness’s scope. Like the blind men and the elephant, awareness only sees a small slice of the whole at a time, making thought always narrow, biased, and essentially false. As chapter 56 hints, knower not speak; speaker not know. In fact, I’d add, knower not think; thinker not know. Ironically, our awareness can only be the knower by knowing Nothing. As chapter 10 says, When understanding reaches its full extent, can you know nothing? Nothing correlates to death, silence, emptiness, and loss. Yet, this is the realm we fear the most. (See, Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565)
Thus, unless one is an omniscient god, Realizing I don’t know is better. As it happens, increasing awareness of my blindness often gives me the humility to avoid being blindsided by my blindness. I assume life experience more than any other factor informs the deeper thought-free regions of awareness. Slowly, as the decades pass, we increasingly accept that we don’t truly know. So, what does that say about my ramblings here? Frankly, I keep thinking, writing and speaking about all this to bolster my awareness of it — to keep re-realizing I don’t know. Some would say that I’m brain washing myself. Yes, as chapter 20 notes, I am foolish of human mind also #20.
Thinking Isn’t the Problem, It’s the Cure
Clearly, the human brain’s mind innately needs a story for its thoughts to hold onto. Thus, I don’t bother trying to avoid thought… obviously, as if that were possible. I simply maintain an on-going sense that thinking is defective in order to inject some distrust in concurrent thoughts. This is using thought to offset some of thought’s drawbacks. When I forget, emotion begins to influence thinking, which allows thought to lead me down the primrose path as it feeds back and reinforces its emotional source. A lifetime of backsliding onto this dead-end motivates me to strive on diligently (p.218), and use Taoist thought to turn my emotion driven thought mountains back into as impartial molehills as possible.
Finally, here are a few Taoist maxims speaking to the virtue of nothing:
When understanding reaches its full extent, can you know nothing? #10
Hence, of having what is thought favorable, of the nothing think as the useful. #11
Unending, it cannot be named, and returns again to nothing. #14
Having is born in nothing. #40
Sees nothing yet understands. #47
All under heaven say my way is great resembling nothing. #67
Tao and Democracy 3983
The Science News’ report, Uncommitted newbies can foil forceful few, explains why both democracy and Taoist views have never played a large role in human culture. (Also, google [Uninformed individuals promote democratic consensus in animal groups].)
The USA and many other countries regard themselves as democratic societies. Alas, I’m afraid that is more myth than reality. Actually, only a few power blocks—left or right—make the real decisions. See also, Democracy as Myth, p.177.
This research, seemingly ironic at first, shows how important impartiality can be for any truly democratic relationship. The more that power blocks square off against one another, the more this pulls everyone in-between into making a black and white choice to join one side or the other. Then too, there is a huge segment of the population that is simply oblivious to politics overall. Indeed, it is even debatable whether current democracies are more democratic than monarchies of old. Not a debate for today though; that’s another story.
Impartiality also lies at the heart of Taoist thought. The first line of chapter one of the Tao Te Ching deals with this straight on… “The way possible to think, runs counter to the constant way. The name possible to express runs counter to the constant name. Being so staunchly in the middle, with no favorites in the game is utterly alien to our tribal nature. Labeling issues and choosing sides is irresistible. However, choosing sides doesn’t serve democracy as well as we think. Consider this excerpt from the Science News’ article:
Decisions can be more democratic when individuals with no preset preference join a group.
Odd as it sounds, adding wishy-washy members to a group can wrest control from a strongly opinionated minority and make collective decisions more democratic. “It’s quite counter-intuitive,” says study coauthor Iain Couzin of Princeton University. “What we’re trying to do with this paper is put out a new idea.”
The study “supports a growing body of evidence that larger groups are better decision makers than smaller groups,” It also echoes economic research showing that having some fraction of uninformed traders in a market can reduce volatility.
In his laboratory experiments with real people pushed to reach consensus, Kearns says, “when the minority wins, it tends to happen fast — it’s almost shock and awe,” he says. So he can imagine that adding neutral, perhaps vacillating parties could give a majority a chance to recognize and exert its force.
“Maybe the optimum state isn’t everybody being highly informed and having very, very strong political opinions,” Kearns speculates. Perhaps an ideal world would still need a little ignorance. “Maybe the role of these ignorant individuals, whether they be fish or American voters, is to provide a stabilizing, mediating effect,” he says. But whatever the ideal dose of ignorance may be, current levels clearly exceed it, he says. “I think we’re very, very far from the optimum.”
Ignorance and rash certainty are a lot more dangerous than ignorance and hesitant uncertainty. As chapter 16 cautions, Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results. Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial. The central problem is that the most ignorant among us don’t know they are ignorant… which is what makes them the most ignorant. However, that will be changing in the coming centuries as the human life-span steadily increases. The longer each of us lives, the more likely our understanding can approach its optimum full extent (i.e., our own life being our fundamental learning experience). Whether we reach full understanding is another matter… as chapter 10 has it, when understanding reaches its full extent, can you know nothing?
In short, the longer people are able to live, the more likely they will realize how little they know. With this increase in humility comes impartiality. That bodes well for true democracy, and who knows, may even help the Taoist worldview become more mainstream.
And Then There Was Fire 9586
I’ve always found pondering the how’s and why’s of life and the world to be irresistible. The mountain of historical and scientific information available certainly makes this challenging. Happily, a lifetime of inquiry may be paying off. I can see outlines of the big picture now.
The constant difficulty lies in how mountains of detail obscure the view. You know the problem… “We can’t see the forest for the trees”. All the same, this current era appears to me to be overwhelmingly unique in human evolution.
A political advisor referring to politics once said, “It’s the economy, stupid”. I wonder if he realized how deeply primordial that is? Observing this forest from high up reveals how economic realities clearly shape everything. Not just for humans, but for all life. After all, economics is simply an emergent property (p.121) of the survival-based relationships that determine our overall level of comfort and security. Anyway, here is what I see so far…
Which Came First, Language, Music, or Fire? The Egg, of Course
Once upon a time, our distant ancestors harnessed what was a fearsome natural phenomenon — fire! On the other hand, harnessing fire could have followed the development of language, or more likely, a form of music that laid the foundation for language. Indeed, there is growing evidence for this. Google [Language, Music, and the Brain: A Mysterious Relationship]. Not music like the kind we hear now, but more like a music elephants and whales use to communicate. Okay, that takes care of the first one or two million years, maybe more. Now, I’ll move on to firmer ground.
Fire
The age of fire, began around 500,000+ years ago (1) when people figured out how to make and manage that fearsome ‘spirit’ that terrifies other animals. This made life much easier. Hunters fire-hardened their spear tips, which brought home more bacon. Fire allowed them to cook food making various nutrients more digestible and freed up some chewing time as well. Finally, fire allowed us to leave the warm climate of the tropics and settle the whole planet, nearly pole to frigid pole.
Agriculture and Primitive Metallurgy
Granaries excavated in Jordan indicate that people stored large quantities of wild cereals by about 11,000 years ago, a practice that led to the cultivation of domesticated plants. This radical shift in human lifestyle—the Neolithic Revolution—saw the transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals. Only a few thousand years later, around 5,000 years ago, came metallurgy.
The first utilitarian metal was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Tin alloyed with copper makes copper much stronger. At around this same time the first writing appears in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Harappa (a major city in the ancient Indus Valley civilization). Not surprisingly, the first writing clearly refers to trade… i.e., “It’s the economy stupid”. Note how human progress proceeded hand in hand with civilization. In the countless eons preceding civilization, progress advanced at a glacial pace. Then post-civilization, progress became increasingly exponential. Now, progress mushrooms at a truly mind-blowing pace.
Iron
About 3,000 years ago saw the beginning of a widespread use of iron. Being profoundly stronger, cheaper and easier to produce than bronze, the use of iron became available to the masses. This technological leap forward was the fulcrum to catapult humanity fully out of the stone-age. With this came the introduction of all the major religious paradigms of today. Coincidence you say?… No way! These were just essential religion upgrades to help people cope with the momentous economic and cultural changes brought about by iron.
Electricity
The Electricity Age, as I call it, beginning a little over 100 years ago has allowed a quantum leap in industrial and scientific innovation (2). This era is as momentous to human evolution as the harnessing of fire itself. Indeed, you could say electrical energy is a purer form of fire. Even so, living in the midst of all this makes it difficult to see from an epoch-spanning perspective. One way to appreciate the impact of the harnessing of electricity is to imagine how life would be without it. There would be no machines except for those driven by animal, water, or steam. All modern science and medicine depend entirely upon electricity. Without electricity, there could be no computers, and without them, none of the momentous medical breakthroughs we are just beginning to see. We are indeed at the beginning of an Electricity Revolution.
The Age of Wisdom… of sorts
Medical breakthroughs are likely the most profound culmination of these preceding Ages. From the dawn of civilization 10,000+ years ago, life expectancy along with birthrate has kept the median age of human populations in the 20’s, and even younger at times. History shows one result of this is that populations have behaved as you’d expect energetic youthful people to behave. The dawning of the Electricity Age has seen this median-age gradually increase. Now, it stands at about 37 years old in developed nations. It’s lower elsewhere… temporarily to be sure.
What we are now seeing is a gradual increase in this median-age of population, accompanied by a decreasing birth rate. In fact, birth rate is beginning to fall below replacement in the world’s wealthier technological cultures now.
Down the road, perhaps a few centuries to be conservative, the planet will be inhabited by cultures whose median age will almost certainly be above 100 years. Even in that distant day, the impact on a person in their 20’s to 40’s wouldn’t be much different than today. Coming into one’s 70’s and beyond, however, one begins to see through the idealistic and simplistic solutions that appealed early on. Live long enough and one has an increasing opportunity to experience the inherent emptiness in the promises leaders of society (artistic, religious, political… you name it) offer.
Simply put, living is life’s classroom; the more time spent in class, the greater the potential we have to realize and accept our own inherent ignorance. True, we are not going to be around to see the results of this, but it is happier to know that evolving circumstances are heading in a beneficial direction.
In summary
Chapter 16’s Rash actions lead to ominous results explains a destructive result of harnessing fire. The stimulus prompting this, and which we share with all animals, was the innate urge to overcome any obstacle to our comfort and security. Problems arose as we over-succeeded by means of our unique capacity to create ways of continuously increasing our comfort and security. Buddha summed it up well, “pleasures are the bait, the result is pain”. Chapter 29 agrees, With desire choosing anything, of doing I see no satisfied end.
Our innovative solutions always deliver us with ever more serious problems, culminating in an ability to wipe out life on earth through nuclear war. As D.C. Lau says in chapter 16, Woe to him who willfully innovates while ignorant of the constant.
Young minds are less capable of envisioning the unintended adverse consequences of progress. Experiencing a long life replete with losses and errors helps to appreciate viscerally the truth of the saying, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. The most vital matter in life is health… it’s the essence of survival. Everything else is simply icing on the cake of indulging our daily desires. What began with fire as a tool for survival will end with a fundamental advancement for survival… health and long life! With long life usually comes increasing mental health and wisdom. This, more than any other factor, should enable us to return to living in greater harmony with the rest of life on earth. I feel long-term human story has a happy conclusion despite all its thrilling ups-and-downs midway.
(1) About Archaeology says:
The controlled use of fire was an invention of the Early Stone Age (or Lower Paleolithic). The earliest evidence for controlled use of fire is at the Lower Paleolithic site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel, where charred wood and seeds were recovered from a site dated 790,000 years ago.
Not everybody believes that; the next oldest site is at Zhoukoudian, a Lower Paleolithic site in China dated to about 400,000 BP, and at Qesem Cave (Israel), between about 200,000-400,000 years ago.
In a paper published in Nature in March 2011, Roebroeks and Villa report their examinations of the available data for European sites and conclude that habitual use of fire wasn’t part of the human (meaning early modern and Neanderthal both) suite of behaviors until ca. 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. They argue that the earlier sites are representative of opportunistic use of natural fires.
(2) The introduction of game-changing technology, be it fire, iron, or electricity, disrupts society, both culturally and economically. Anthropology offers evidence of this when iron tools were introduced to primitive people. Similarly, the widespread use of electricity and the automobile, along with the other technological innovations, may have been a partial cause of the Great Depression and the two World Wars. I see similar disruption now brought about or amplified by the widespread use of the computer. I’d wager that humanity is in for one heck of a ride over the next few hundred years as religious and cultural norms fall by the wayside and are replaced by some that speak more effectively to the chaos and confusion of current times.
Beware: the Blind Spot 5032
I occasionally refer to the blind spot as our main impediment to understanding. What is the blind spot? Put simply, the blind spot = emotion + thought. The loudest emotions are need and fear (1). When those roar, they are all we can hear. In How the Hoodwink Hooks, (p.100) I first explain how desire = need + thought and worry = fear + thought. Clearly then, the blind spot = desire & worry.
The stronger and more compelling our emotions feel, the deeper the blindness becomes. Unfortunately, this is precisely the moment we need deeper understanding. It is as if the house is on fire, yet the water to put it out is inside the house.
The emotional side of this is instinctive and so nearly impossible to influence directly. On the other hand, thought is a little more malleable and so offers a gateway out of this mess. The prerequisite for this is sincerely realizing how severely thought + emotion blindsides us.
Emotion perceives (feels) the trees. It can’t see the forest. Naturally, feeling trees is nice. However, during emotional turmoil, it helps to know that the emotion you’re feeling is blinding you. Thus, a sliver of your awareness must realize and remember you’re not seeing the forest — the big picture. As chapter 71 cautions, Realizing I don’t know is better, not knowing this realization is disease.
Emotion is innate and real. Thought, although innate biologically, is not as real in its own right. Emotion steers and skews thought, which then conjures up rationalizations that support the emotion. Rationalizations then re-stimulate emotion, pulling ones awareness into what can become a vicious emotion + thought circle. Being aware of this vortex is not much different from being aware that driving fast is inherently dangerous. Thus…
Assume It’s False: Suspect Everything
Sounds paranoid, doesn’t it? Of course, if a paranoid person actually followed that advice they wouldn’t be paranoid. By assuming your perception is false and suspecting the veracity of everything, paranoia dies on the vine. In short, paranoia requires you to trust your perceptions are actually true.
Suspect everything could also sound conspiratorial. Conspiratorial stories are paranoid light and focus mostly on centers of power, i.e., government, corporations, religion, politics. It is as though these powers know what they are doing well enough to conspire adeptly… quite to the contrary.
To be more specific, I should say, suspect everything and then suspect those suspicions… and so on. Doing this helps you become more circumspect and as a result increases your emotional reaction time. Trading cognitive certainty for hesitancy is an essential aspect of a Taoist approach to living. Chapter 15 puts it nicely…
If you can put your perception of something into words and yet concurrently assume that that very perception is faulty, gives you time to let the perception verify itself. Such weakening of mental certainty is a way to conceal and yet newly become, as chapter 15 put it.
Naturally, the same principle doesn’t apply to pure sensory input. When your eyes see the colors of a sunset, they truly experience the color. Only when the mind labels the experience “beautiful” would it be wise to deem the label false. When your nose smells something repugnant, it truly experiences that odor. Naming the odor repugnant distorts, amplifies, and blindsides. When the mind attaches a label, it is safest to suspect the label.
Chapter 70 begins with, Our words very easy to know, very easy to do, but then cautions, Under heaven none can know, none can do. Even so, there is hope if you strive to see beyond what passes for common sense. Consider these lines…
When understanding reaches its full extent, can you know nothing? #10
This is called the without shape form, the without substance shape. #14
(1) The instinctive sense of fear and need are core emotions. For some more background, see What is the root of thought? (p.602). At its deepest level, need is driven by fear. It is easy to misunderstand fear if you focus on the symptoms (effects) that fear leaves in its wake. Chapter 40’s Loss through death, of the way it uses reveals nature’s process, i.e., living things experience fear as an emotional drive to avoid the loss of anything, with death being the ultimate loss life fears. Need simply offsets the continuous threat of entropy, i.e., entropy being the loss through death basis of nature’s process. (See Symptoms Point Of View, p.141)
“Fixation on same same” 4519
Recently my friend Andy teased me about my “fixation on same same”, as he put it. My habit of noticing similarities between apparent opposites bugs him a little.
“Fixation on same same” was his response to my comment, “Folks on the left use folks on the right as scapegoats and vice versa”. The underlying needs and fears of each side drive their partisan ideals. Blinded by emotion, they are unable to realize that they are different in name only”. Later I had to ask myself, is my so-called “fixation on same same” also a blind spot?
It isn’t for one primary reason. Finding similarities between opposites calms emotions, which then defuses preconceptions. Molehills become molehills again. Additionally, finding numerous examples of similarities between ostensibly unrelated matters can also indicate that the molehill you are seeing may be something real, and not a projection your emotions are conjuring up. Indeed, the real can only appear after emotions calm down. As chapter 16 notes, Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial, and chapter 55 hints, Knowing harmony is called the constant. Knowing the constant is called clear and honest.
All the same, I must have blind spots. I just can’t see them while I’m debating matters with Andy. After all, we are inevitably describing different parts of the elephant (1). Noteworthy here is how different issues trigger our fairness instinct (2). Andy objects to the unfair income distribution caused by Republicans. I object to the unfairness of him just singling out those Republican ‘devils’. I see just as much, albeit different, malfeasance on the Democratic side. In short, self-interest always comes with double standards.
To avoid double standards, two phases must play out: First, simple blind instinct discerns the differences I see. Next, I “fixate” on those differences until they blend and become “same sameness”. Why bother? Certainly, perceiving differences is stimulating, as nature intends. However, when the perception of differences dead-ends in irresolvable ways, it’s time to seek out the peace of impartiality. As chapter 16 begins, Devote effort to emptiness, sincerely watch stillness. Everything ‘out there’ rises up together, and I watch again. Everything ‘out there’, one and all, return again to their root cause.
A desert’s “same sameness” opens the mind
While camping in the middle of the Sahara desert, I reached a point of total disillusionment with humanity’s ideals and hypocrisy. As chapter 18 notes, When intelligence increases, there is great falseness. In wake of this experience, I began forming a singular appreciation of nature’s wisdom. By all indications, nature always moves toward balance. Balance is the bottom line, regardless of how dynamic the change is at any moment. For me, arriving at a balanced view became essential… no more hypocritically blaming scapegoats.
This means that when I notice myself favoring one point of view over another, I immediately know that this is a projection of my own self-interest. My current biased view is out-of-sync with nature. That relentlessly drives me to find ways to see the whole picture—equal and balanced. Correlations often help. (See Tools of Taoist Thought p.565.)
The full picture I end up seeing is usually beyond description. As chapter 14 notes, Unending, it cannot be named, and again returns to no-thing. This is called the without of shape form, the without of matter shape. Happily, this helps verify that I’m close to perceiving truth. As chapter 56 puts it, This is called profound sameness. Only here can I find a peaceful state of mind, and so I’ll opt for ‘fixation on same same’ over ‘fixation on differences’ any day, especially when a differences point-of-view causes stress.
(1) Debating anything requires a blind spot. (Google [John Cleese on the Blind Spot] and [The Blind Men and the Elephant].) Social interaction requires us to take sides to keep the conversation alive. Frankly, impartially is too serene to be socially engaging or interesting. Thus, as chapter 1 says, Hence, normally without desire so as to observe its wonder. Normally having desire so as to observe its boundary.
(2) The primal survival instincts of need and fear drive all animals. Social animals have another innate drive that I loosely refer to as the fairness instinct. It is ubiquitous, and underlies anger, jealously, envy, resentment, etc. Google [Unfair Trade: Monkeys demand equitable exchanges] and see A Symptom’s Point Of View, p.141.
Yamaguchi San 1749
I was going to name this post The Real Lesson, but somehow that felt a little off base, so I named it after my shakuhachi flute teacher, Yamaguchi Goro. This photo is of him and Aoki Reibo playing a beautiful suizen piece, Shika No Tohne (The Distant Cry of Deer). To see this performance, google [Yamaguchi Goro Shika No Tohne Part 1].
I studied with Mr. Yamaguchi in Japan, learning as much suizen (google [blowing zen one breath one mind]) as I could in a few short years. He taught me well, but it is taking decades to sink in. Indeed, the quest for perfection is unending, eternal… and naturally so.
I was going to name this post “The Real Lesson” because the most important lesson I learned while studying with him had nothing to do with playing the shakuhachi. This is one of numerous times that I have found great learning opportunities where I least expected them.
One day my awareness keenly focused on him replacing the cap on his flute. It appeared like perfection in action, patient, deliberate, and a wonderful example of chapter 63’s, Do without doing (wéi wú wéi 为无为). More over, it was a perfect, spontaneous example of chapter 43’s, Not of words teaching, Without action advantage (不言之教，无为之益).
Interestingly, I also realized that I had no idea if his action was as perfectly Do without doing as it appeared. How could I know either way? Not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder, so also is the lesson seen and learned. Our teachers in life are everywhere, in every-thing and no-thing, at every moment of life. The moments in life we actually suspend desire and belief may be the only genuine opportunities we have to learn the not of words teaching. Only then do we see beyond ourselves.
Can we pull the plug? 8231
A short video essay on cell phones gave me food for thought. Of course, I need more of that like I need another hole in my head, but I can’t pull the plug on thinking. The essay is ostensibly about the wide use of cell phones. However, scratch the surface and it offers insight into the deepest essence of human nature, especially when considering various connections to profound sameness, #56.
First, google [Texting: Can we pull the plug on our obsession?]. Note the comment, “Once upon a time, in what seems a far-off land, if you saw someone walking down the street talking to himself, you’d think he was, well, crazy”. Well, is it actually that different now? People in both situations are talking to a virtual or an imaginary—someone not there—person.
Naturally talking to ourselves is a symptom of something deeper, and that’s probably a symptom of something still deeper, and so on. Anyway, let’s scratch the surface and explore.
I see a few underlying forces at play here: A profound need to connect socially; a profound void that mind experiences; and a profound need to fill that void. Such connection for me was difficult in my early years. Like many, I felt a soul mate promised connection. When I found her, I hung on for dear life until she left me. That taught me not to put my need-for-connection eggs in external baskets. My experience exemplifies how our lessons in life often, if not always, unfold. As chapter 36 observes, In desiring to let go, one must first begin. In desiring to take, one must first give.
The only safe and secure connection is an internal one. The external world ebbs and flows, always changing. As chapter 58 notes, Mainstream turns to strange, Good turns to evil. This helps explain people’s love for their god. He, she, or it, can make a very enduring “soul mate”, depending upon the expectations you place upon your god, of course.
Naturally, no one can truly advise another person how to establish an inner soulful connection. It is something each of us must stumble upon ourselves, usually after first stumbling through a few dead ends. However, it may help to examine the emotional lay of the land. I find the nearer I get to Right Comprehension, the more at ease I am able to be (see Buddha’s Fourth Noble Truth, p.604). Of course, Right Comprehension is not your normal type of understanding. Normally, when you understand something you can draw upon that knowledge when needed. Right Comprehension is more of a contemporaneous knowing, which only protects me as long as I am touching it. Right Comprehension is quite like maintaining balance; the moment you lose the awareness, you topple over.
Finally, this brings me back to the question, “Can we pull the plug?” I say we can’t until we connect with our internal ‘soul mate’… and even then, only when we have a living connection with ourselves—our original self. When that line goes dead, we’ll quickly turn to external resources and plug in.
Texting: Can we pull the plug on our obsession? (Excerpts with commentary)
Ninety percent of American adults own cell phones and seems to be using them 90 percent of the time. “These days, the minute that people are alone, at a stop sign, at the checkout line in a supermarket, they panic, they reach for a phone,” said MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle. She says high-speed connections have left us more disconnected than ever.
I doubt that. The disconnection we experience is much more systemic. I suspect it is a side effect of a thinking mind.
Turkle’s book, “Alone Together,” surveyed hundreds of people about their plugged-in lives. Her conclusion: We have lost the art of conversation. “An 18-year-old boy talks about how he always would rather text than talk. He says, ‘I’ll tell you what’s wrong with having a conversation – it takes place in real time, and you can’t control what you’re gonna say.’”
The need to control life is innate, as is the fear of being unable to control it. All this is just another way of expressing that fear. I feel the same about writing something down in pen rather than pencil, which I can erase and redo. Life is often more interesting when we can be a bit more spontaneous. To the extent the art of conversation allows for that, it will never be lost. Many conversations I hear are mundane, structured, predictable, safe… hardly an art. I’m not deriding such conversations; such are essential for social connection. I just wouldn’t call it art.
“Is it too strong to call this an addiction?” asked Spencer. So where would we all be if suddenly we didn’t have any of these precious little devices? If we had to give up all smartphones, BlackBerries and iPads, what would happen? Could we even function? Researcher Sergey Golitsynskiy and his colleagues asked students around the world to go without their cell phones for 24 hours. “It ended up being the most horrible experience many of them had ever in their life, according to what they self-reported to us. Seventy percent of them quit the experiment, saying they simply couldn’t do it. “They felt a tremendous amount of boredom. They were bored without it,” said Golitsynskly.
I watched “The Beverly Hillbillies” every week when I lived in Bangkok Thailand (early 60’s). It was a cultural connection, a touch of home. The power would often go out during the show and I’d freak out just like these kids going without their cell phones. This is about the pain of cutting off connection. The cell phone is no more relevant than any other external thing upon which a person depends for connection. With maturity comes an increasing sense of internal connection. Indeed, that may be a truer definition of maturity.
Nicholas Carr, who writes about technology and culture, says, “I think we become obsessive in our desire to keep checking Facebook updates and texts and emails.” Carr believes there’s a scientific reason why these devices are our favorite vices: “People have a primitive instinct to want to gather information, to want to know everything that’s going on around them. And you can kind of see how that would help you survive back in cavemen and cavewomen days. Where it becomes a problem is when we create this new world for ourselves where there’s unlimited amounts of information. We can’t stop this compulsive checking.”
I can agree with this up to a point. However, the thing we are really driven to “gather” is not information per se, but the sense of connection that information offers… or rather, a false or pseudo sense of connection. As chapter 47 reveals,
“The trend is toward ever more connection, ever more distraction,” said Carr. So would it be smart to throw away our smartphones? UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small thinks not. He’s used the latest imaging techniques to see what happens in the brain when people surf the web. He says “your brain on a book” and “your brain on Google” are very different brains.
Dr. Small doesn’t deny that these devices sometimes distract, but he says brain scans show they also can help sharpen our minds. “We took a group of older people, and many of these people had never searched online before. And we just had them search online for an hour a day for a week. And we saw significant increases in brain activity, especially in the frontal lobe – the thinking brain.”
Dr. Small concludes noting how these devices can both distract and sharpen the mind. Not surprisingly, there is no mention of the common downside of the human mind. For instance, chapter 18 notes, When intelligence increases, there is great falseness. Even more enlightening is chapter 71’s blunt, Realizing I don’t know is better, not knowing this realization is disease. I assume the disease precludes our species from truly accepting either observation. As it happens, age allows many of us in on the secret… Then we die, replaced by youngsters who must retrace our steps, just as we’ve retraced those who came before us. Like the carbon cycle or the water cycle, this wisdom cycle is a wonder to behold.
Networks of Networks of… 3419
The Science News report, When Networks Network, is striking in its implications so you may want to read it first. Go to, http://www.centertao.org/media/Networks-of-Network.pdf.
This research hints at humanity’s gradual cognitive evolution toward what I would call a small ‘t’ Taoist (p.154) point of view. Research like this, along with quantum theory, nudges secular common sense towards a more spiritual sense in a wonderfully non-sectarian way.
I can’t help but feel that science will eventually end up with the Taoist-like worldview serving as at least one pillar of its long sought after Great Unifying Principle. Naturally, that may not occur for a few millennia, although in the broad view that’s nearly ‘tomorrow’. It won’t have the Taoist brand name either I assume, as that word carries too much secular baggage. After all, The name possible to express runs counter to the constant name, as chapter 1 confesses.
Similarity is the root of difference
Realizing that what initially appears to be separate is fundamentally an interconnected whole is the Taoist view. As chapter 56 says, This is called profound sameness. Correlations can help reveal that seamless whole (See p.565). “When Networks Network” reminds me of chapter 47…
Seeing Nature’s way doesn’t mean that you know all the bits and pieces, mind you. Knowing the process is enough. Rain offers a good example. Without knowing the water cycle, one might think that rain comes from the rain gods that live in those puffy white pillows in the sky. By knowing the water cycle, I can sense the flow of Nature’s way: Water evaporates from a warm ocean, it rises, wind blows it, it cools, it condenses and falls as rain upon my head. No, I don’t know the history of any particular drop of water that wets my head, but in knowing the process, I need never look out the window for answers.
This corresponds to the benefit for adopting a symptoms point of view (p.141). I don’t need to trace back each cause and effect, symptom by symptom, to some ancient origin. I simply need to maintain a healthy ongoing awareness that my life’s experiences are in fact symptoms of deeper layers that chapter 21 hints at, Indistinct and suddenly, among which exist a shape.
Ponder this image of the body’s interacting networks (right). Maintaining some awareness that this is occurring continually under my skin, and even more importantly, under your skin, helps ground me. Otherwise, my lazy mind’s instincts just zero in on the surface and make snap judgments, which are typically just projections of my own needs and fears. Feeling there is infinitely more here than meets the eye makes it much easier to embrace chapter 71’s Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Ironically, truly knowing I don’t know is boundless knowing, or as chapter 10 puts it, When understanding reaches its full extent, can you know nothing? Sure, this is fleeting. It comes and goes because at the end of the day, my emotions always return to stir up confident, even if transient, “knowing”. I’m just grateful for the occasional peek at Nothing.
“It’s the Economy Stupid” 4074
Do you remember that pithy campaign comment from James Carville, “It’s the economy stupid”? I wonder if he knew how deeply universal economics is. Indeed, why don’t educators put this at the top of their list of the necessary education every child should receive? Could it be they don’t know?
Economics is survival for all living creatures on the planet. It is true that only humans use economic activities like exchanging money for goods and using a banking system to facilitate the process. However, these are merely emergent properties (p.121) of the economic reality of life itself. Economics is survival. Realizing how and why it influences every aspect of life is a gateway to deep knowledge.
As chapter 67 points out:
Notice that there is no mention of the 3R’s in chapter 67. As important as reading, writing, and arithmetic are, their significance pales in comparison with economic knowledge… and thrift in particular. Few things are as stressful as the failure of an individual’s or a family’s economic fitness. When a cultures’ economy goes awry, political upheaval follows without fail, as history from pre-Roman times onward demonstrates. If you know your world history well, you have countless examples to ponder.
Politicians on both sides tell their fervent supporters what they want to hear, not the stark whole truth, economic or otherwise. Given the low priority economics has in education, I imagine most politicians don’t know all that much about economics themselves. Either way, politicians only divulge as much truth as they feel people can tolerate, and they skew the facts on the rest as much as they can get away with. Why? Because, how we feel—our emotion—runs the show.
Feeling drives thinking. First desire and worry bubble up from emotion… from the needs and fears we feel. Next, we rationalize our point of view to support those emotional biases. Economic common sense (reality) is the first casualty of the fog into which we dream ourselves. We succumb to an illusion that we think we know, when in fact we only think what we feel… and we feel, “Sure, I can afford this. I’ll spend now and pay later”. Contrast this desire-laden folly with these excerpts…
Not to catch sight of what suits desire, enables people’s heart to avoid confusion. #3
See simply, embrace the plain, and have few personal desires. #19
With desire choosing anything, of doing I see no satisfied end. #29
Taking this, the wise person desires non desire #64
Clever financial innovations make modern foolish behavior possible. Credit flies in the face of nature. Nature is 100% pay-as-you-go. Sure, we could bend the rules of nature a little and not suffer greatly, but we don’t know when to stop. Given the opportunity, gluttony usually appears to rule our behavior. As I’ve often said, in the wild we rarely if ever had an opportunity for gluttony. Civilization enables us to indulge ourselves until it hurts. Believing, either individually or culturally, that we can circumvent nature’s laws is arrogant and profoundly ignorant. As Chapter 71 brutally acknowledges… Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. The irony is that religions have proscriptions against breaking their version of their god’s laws. Sure, sometimes these coincide with nature’s law, but in the end miss the main point… not knowing this knowing is disease.
NPR’s Planet Money program did a few short segments on economics and politics. Search for these via Google, and listen to them in order. Each is only a few minutes, and may be an eye opener. Again, shouldn’t basic economics be taught from kindergarten on up? I did so with my two boys and it really helps them stay grounded…
1) A Tax Plan That Economists Love (And Politicians Hate)
2) Two More Policies Economists Love And Politicians Hate
3) The Candidate Is Fake; The Consultants Are Real
4) Watch Our Fake Presidential Candidate’s First Real Ad
Siren’s Song of Politics 11161
The noblest purpose of politics is the pursuit of the “perfect” compromise which bitterly opposing factions can live with, if not heartily support. This is true for keeping the peace in any civilization. Put simply, the intimate social connection and mutual understanding common among our hunter-gather ancestors is not possible given civilizations’ hierarchical social system. Civilization requires gobetweens, and politicians serve that purpose… ideally.
Modern times have seen an exponential increase in people seduced by desire’s dead end promises. A good example of this is the ability to borrow now and pay later. Such putting of the cart before the horse is totally opposite to nature’s way. Granted, our innate urge to get more than we are willing to give is normal animal nature. Our dilemma is that civilization makes the unbalanced pursuit of this possible.
A politician’s promises parallel this by offering us what we desire without requiring adequate payment. This is the Siren’s song of democracy. As chapter 29 cautions us, With desire choosing anything, of doing I see no satisfied end. Self-interests also blind politicians as each side faults their counterpart’s flawed principles. How can such loyal officials supporting one side sincerely consider the other side?
Admittedly, political dysfunction is also a natural result of tribal instincts. Even if political leaders wanted to be more balanced and impartial, they couldn’t. A leader can go only so far in seeking the middle ground—compromise—before their followers lose faith and abandon them. Truth is, effective leaders actually follow the needs and fears of their followers. This is like a dog chasing its tail.
Intelligence deceives
The certainty of belief in anything is the primary cause of great falseness (a.k.a., hypocrisy). They go hand in hand. Human intelligence brings about naming; naming gives rise to beliefs; beliefs result in the disease chapter 71 describes quite literally as, Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Furthermore, this all begins with our disconnection from nature. As chapter 18 observes…
The second line, When intelligence increases, there exists great falseness, exposes the hypocrisy endemic within any type of politics, including organized religion, for the affectation they actually are. Nature’s ‘self-so’ is otherwise, as chapter 25 suggests, And the way follows that which is natural and free from affectation. Civilization’s institutions, or rather we their creators, are unavoidably hypocritical. We base our institutions on ideals that promise us what we desire, not on reality. Then, at some point, fear always overrides our idealistic facades. Nonetheless, civilization requires such cultural devices to give large populations faith in the social order.
Using the way to fool people
Chapter 65 offers some insight into politics and religion. It begins with, Of ancients adept in the way, none ever use it to enlighten people, They will use it in order to fool them. Of course, fooling the people these days is a lot harder due in large part to the ‘information age’. Having politicians fooling the people a lot less now may sound great on the surface. However, ‘we the people’ masses can’t handle reality’s truth either, like the fact that every advantage comes with a cost. By the way, I assume our hunter-gatherer ancestors who lived intimately connected to nature would have intuitively known and accepted that. So naturally, fooling the people isn’t referring to them.
‘Fooling the people is actually vital when trying to unite a poorly connected society, which defines civilization overall (see The Tradeoff, p.549). Thus, there is a natural utility in political and religious leaders’ ability to offer simplistic answers to irresolvable issues.
The simplest wrong answer works
History shows that no one truly knows what they are doing, or how the future will unfold. Humanity makes it up as it goes along. However, people fear uncertainty and crave answers, yet there is no true answer. If no answer suffices, the simplest wrong answer is the most palatable. Only when we share a common ground of expectations— the simplest wrong answers— are we able to stumble along as amicably as possible. Now, thanks to the Internet—especially to social media’s ‘shock’ hyperbole—many people gulp down “alternative facts”, which weaken a society’s dominant mainstream political and religious storylines.
Isn’t life a learning process?
Will humanity ever accept the simple fact that we always end up paying for every advantage. Acknowledging this would help us achieve some degree of lasting political stability. One possibility for this lies in the steadily increasing median age of the human population.
If nothing else, life is a learning process. People, as of yet, simply don’t live long enough to learn how to accept nature on her terms. We begin as infants, naively relying on our parents to provide us what we need with no strings attached. In adulthood, we seem to retain that naïve expectation in many subtle ways. Politicians use this ignorance to fool the people. This can’t change until people discover that realizing I don’t know is better, and accept their limits as chapter 32 warns, Man handles the realization to stop. Knowing to stop [he/she] can be without danger. Only through a long life of living and loss does this become increasingly possible. I don’t imagine this will happen until the human race’s median age approaches 100 years old. Ah, we must be patient! Until then, we at least need to get on the same page story-wise, as divorced from reality as that may be. Yet, is even that possible now?
Economics is the fulcrum upon which politics balances
Civilizations’ borrow now and pay later approach to economics occurs nowhere in nature. Political stability hinges on how well a society’s economics aligns with natural law. Naively thinking we can escape the consequences of circumventing natural law shows the depth of our naiveté. As chapter 16 reminds us, Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results. Sure, if we knew when to stop, we could conceivably get away with some borrowing from the future… Indeed, if we knew when to stop, most of our self-inflicted difficulties would diminish. Again, as chapter 32 reminds us, Knowing to stop [he/she] can be without danger. Incapable of this, we get the politics we deserve and lose the treasures chapter 67 reveals…
I have three treasures of which I hold and protect:
The first I call kindness,
The second I call thrift,
The third I call not daring to act before all below heaven.
The fact is, our fiscal folly is natural. How could any species, given the chance, resist an opportunity to borrow from the future to pay for the pleasures of the present? In fact, we borrow now with vows of paying afterward in many ways other than financial. Examples include more exercise, better diet, broader education, and really the doing of anything that we feel we ought to do at some point. The Siren’s promise of short-term pleasure is irresistible. Thus, Buddha’s Fourth Noble Truth cautions, “There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent upon what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty”. Sorry Buddha, that’s just no fun!
Consensus is the mainstay of political stability
Given 2009’s Great Recession, I couldn’t understand how the political leadership could be pushing through health-care in the midst of a broken tax system, home foreclosures, huge job losses, and a massive national debt. Even worse, one side pushed through their sweeping health reform bill with no consensus from the other side. Such a “My way or the highway” approach on major issues paves the way to a broken system. In the turmoil, I’d hear the Democrats say the failure to reach a compromise was the Republicans’ fault. Predictably, the Republicans said the same thing about the Democrats. Who is right?
All I can say is that the side that has the majority in both houses and the presidency holds all the cards and is the larger entity. The Taoist view is clear on who is more responsible for finding middle ground. As chapter 61 notes, For this reason, the larger, using the lower position, normally takes in the smaller. The arrogance that the larger commonly feels owing to the power it wields, makes using the lower position difficult and rare. Such magnanimity requires a saintly degree of political leadership.
The Health Care Reform Act is an example of broken politics: 219 Democrats voted for the House bill, while 176 Republicans and 39 Democrats opposed it. It squeaked by 220 to 215. In the Senate, it also just squeaked by with all 60 Democrats voting for it, versus no Republicans, as I recall. Such a complete lack of consensus isn’t healthy for a democracy. That is how autocracy governs.
I’ve always felt we should have publicly funded health-care like the rest of the world. Thus, I would support such reform whole-heartedly, but never if that meant pushing it down the throats of half the country. What I want personally pales in comparison to the critical need for compromise in a democracy.
Reality is inescapable
Facing the truth, or rather impartially considering the facts, doesn’t mean we must actually give up our heart, our feeling, our emotional biases. Nevertheless, that is how impartially facing the facts will intuitively feel! Any attempt to consider the other side feels treasonous, and so we turn away, make our skewed judgments, and dream on. Naturally, having emotional bias to steer thought never works for long.
Coming as close to an impartial balanced view as possible is my only long-term answer. The closer I come to that, the more constant my sense of well-being. You might say, no gain without pain… here it is the pain of self-disloyalty… a cognitive divorce from emotional bias… a belief suicide.
Thought, and the belief it spawns, is the real culprit that knocks my life off balance. Realizing I don’t know, as chapter 71 reminds, allows me to nip much imbalance in the bud. I simply challenge anything I feel I am favoring or believing to be true at each moment. Such preferences are my ‘canary in the coal mine’. It is easy to know them, hear them, heed them, and rigorously seek out the other side. Easy, yet as chapter 70 cautions, Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do. Under heaven none can know, none can do. Okay, it’s not so easy, yet what is my alternative?
Bottom line
Certainly, we are stuck with this unalterable reality on many levels. Fortunately, chapter 3 offers a way out of this predicament for each individual: Doing without doing, following without exception rules. Following what, you ask? For me that means following reality—nature—as it is, not as I want it to be. This is why I call the Taoist approach to life a “religion” of last resort.
Undecided? You bet! 4418
Up until today, I have remained undecided whom to vote for President. Searching for a photo to accompany this post, I came across this one. It highlights the chorus of ridicule I’ve heard aimed lately at the undecided ‘wishywashers’ among us. Slinging ridicule back is tempting; however examining this from a symptomatic point of view instead will get me farther.
Support the Tribe
It is easy to see how tribal instincts influence public opinion. Which tribe are you on, the Democratic or the Republican? If you can’t decide, well, then you must not be one of us. If not one of us, then you are “un-American”. This kind of groupthink is endemic, although not usually as pigheaded and ignorant as this sign portrays. No, often the undecided are just scoffed at as fools unable to make up their minds about anything, from choosing between chocolate or vanilla to—heaven forbid—choosing between Romney or Obama.
It is especially ironic that many of the people who quickly and unquestioningly decide on which team they support also wish the two teams would cooperate enough to make government function efficiently. That is a perfect example of wanting to have it both ways! On one hand, the public gives Congress a bottom-of-the-barrel approval rating; on the other hand—through our blind partisan choices—we keep voting for those most likely to ensure we’ll continue to have a dysfunctional Congress. When a politician is certain he has your vote, what is his incentive to be fully honest or competent?
Decision’s Driver
When we decide between alternatives, what actually drives the decision? Is it free will that chooses, or is it our emotional bias rooted in need and fear that chooses? All evidence points to the latter. For example, take standing up to get a glass of water; I just did that because I was thirsty and wanted a glass of water. My need for water chose, not free will. The most I did was observe and record the experience just now. Any thirsty animal would have chosen to drink water. Only a human would observe, evaluate, and record the experience after the fact.
The only time such a mundane decision becomes worthy of ridicule is when I can’t decide if I want bottled or tap water, chilled or flavored water, or some other petty preference at which any thirsty desert nomad could justly scoff. However, being undecided about who to vote for isn’t a petty option. That said, desire and worry (a.k.a., need and fear) drive both the trivial and vital choices we make.
Facing up to desire’s pull is where the journey to wise decisions begins. As chapter 64 notes, Taking this, the wise person desires non desire. It helps to be as undecided as possible, weigh the ostensible facts as best we can, and know that every side out there wants to entrap us using our own desires as bait. Chapter 15 sums this approach well… He prepares as if fording a river in winter; as if like in fear of neighbors.
I suspect that if the polls were saying that 50-75% of the country was undecided about whom to vote for, politicians would have to either be more honest and competent, or step down and make way for those who were. As I’ve said before, we get the kind of government we earn and deserve. Government can’t possibly be more mature and responsible than the masses it governs… government is us.
Yes, this is a sobering picture, yet hope is on the distant horizon. See, Don’t trust anyone under 60 (p.193) and Core Issues of Human Nature: Ethics (p.594) for some of the silver linings I see.
And the Envelope Please
I finally decided, filled out my absentee ballot, and will hand it in tomorrow. Up until now, I just didn’t know which way to go. I like and dislike some aspects of both Romney and Obama. Also, as you can see, I don’t expect much to change. Congress is the branch of government that actually determines the country’s fate. There is a chance that Romney will be a little more adept at getting the opposing forces in Congress to cooperate more. Serving the lower position, as chapter 61 put it, appears to be Obama’s youthful weak point. Given a few more decades to mature would serve him well.
So, I voted for the Libertarian fellow who is certain to lose. If more people threw away their vote this way, perhaps politicians wouldn’t take the electorate for granted as much. As long as people vote their tribe, politics will be more like that of a children’s playground than the mature ideal for which we dream.
Discomfort and Pain 5314
The Science News’ article Hurt Blocker got me thinking about pain and the ways we deal with it. While this research is really about physical pain, the principle applies to all pain. How we deal with discomfort and pain results in many unintended consequences. We could avoid these consequences if we knew at what point in our avoidance of discomfort, we begin shooting ourselves in the foot. First, consider this excerpt:
Typically, pain is protective; it alerts you to impending or actual damage. Nociceptive pain (from the Latin nocere: to hurt or injure) delivers a red alert when you touch something dangerously sharp or hot. Nerve cells that sense this type of pain have a pretty high threshold, but once activated, the response is instantaneous: Your withdrawal reflex kicks in and you pull your hand away. Inflammatory pain, stimulated by immune system cells, occurs in response to injury. This pain warns you not to move a broken arm, giving the bone time to heal.
There’s potential danger that comes with the promise of a superior pain drug. Total pain blockers with few side effects could be abused by athletes or others who want to ignore an injury, allowing them to do even more damage. Such drugs might also quiet warnings of a new and serious condition, such as an intestinal obstruction or a stroke. As with the Pakistani children, living pain-free might even result in severe trauma and early death.
“If we have a really effective block, it could be dangerous,” Halegoua says. “We need pain.”
Where does discomfort end and pain begin is the first question that comes to mind. For the pain this article addresses, it depends on how hot the pan or how sharp the needle are, for example. However, we all encounter discomfort throughout life in innumerable ways that aren’t in themselves unhealthy, let alone dangerous. Yet, we appear to do all we can to avoid any and all discomfort as much as possible. This parallels the worry expressed in the article above about the athletes circumventing any discomfort that gets in their way. And, as the researcher said at the end of the article, “If we have a really effective block, it could be dangerous,” Halegoua says. “We need pain.”
Isn’t our unbridled and unquestioned quest for “really effective” ways to circumvent discomfort the underlying cause for much of our difficulty? Our instinctive attraction to pleasure drives us to make the living-of-life as comfortable and easy as possible. By itself, that’s not problematic. Pleasure pulls in and pain pushes away in all animals. However, humans are uniquely able to manipulate this natural process to the point of imbalance. As expected, this loss of balance results in a unique type of pain, sorrow, and suffering! It’s a neurotic vicious circle.
As chapter 16 cautions, Answering to one’s destiny is called the constant, knowing the constant is called honest. Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results.
And Buddha puts the problem this way…The Second Noble Truth is the cause of suffering. The cause of suffering is lust. The surrounding world affects sensation and begets a craving thirst that clamors for immediate satisfaction. The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in a net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain (p.604).
A prime objective of civilization is circumventing nature’s uncomfortable aspects… aspects that all animals in the wild endure. I find incorporating some voluntary discomfort into my daily life helps counterbalance the imbalances civilization brings about.
Certainly, I’m a normal pleasure loving, pain hating animal just like everyone else. However, I’ve learned that letting the natural pleasure versus pain instinct dominate my civilized life often backfires. As Buddha pointed out, “pleasures are the bait, the result is pain”. Sustaining an awareness of this innate vulnerability gives me at least some pseudo free will to manage life better. (See, A case for pseudo-free will at the end of Free Will: Fact or Wishful Thinking?, p.587)
Sustaining such awareness is essential. The hitch here lies in how fear quickly overrides awareness! This often begins in subtle sub-awareness and gains momentum until we finally notice. By then, it is often too late. All we notice then is the fear. Thus, nipping this in the bud is crucial. As chapter 64 puts it, Its peace easily manages, Its presence easily plans, Its fragility easily melts, Its timeliness easily scatters. In other words, “A stitch in time saves nine”.
Chapter 16 sums up the whole awareness issue perfectly…
Devote effort to emptiness, sincerely watch stillness.
Everything ‘out there’ rises up together, and I watch again.
Everything ‘out there’, one and all, return again to their root cause.
Returning to the root cause is called stillness,
this means answering to one’s destiny;
Answering to one’s destiny is called the constant,
knowing the constant is called honest.
Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results.
Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial,
Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural,
Natural therefore the way.
The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself.
Of Free Will, I Am 6477
Free will and I have had a life-long journey together. For the first forty years, I “knew” I had free will. I could do anything I set my mind to. Such certainty is particularly strong in youth, and naturally so! Around age forty, I began to look for biological evidence of free will. Any clear example not explained by universal biological processes would do.
My doubts grew deeper as I failed to find any unequivocal evidence for free will. I also began noticing various ways the free will ideal serves society. Did I not see this before because it is all too obvious? Honestly, I assume my need to believe I had free will blinded me to the obvious. (See, John Cleese, A Taoist? (p.144) and Beware: the Blind Spot (p.300)
Dream without limit
Thanks to cognition (thought), we can effortlessly dream up solutions to whatever bothers us in real life. We can easily imagine perfect solutions in our mind’s eye, yet we are stuck living in our physical reality—the real world. We are trapped between the real world and a world we envision possible… the ideal “if only” world.
This ideality of our mind vs. the reality of our body is deeply disconnecting, often causing us great stress. No wonder we tightly embrace the free will “solution”. “Just do it” is the free will button we push to break the logjam of life. “Just do it” promises to transform the real world into our image of what it should be.
New Year’s resolutions are a straightforward example of how this process plays out. Hopeful ideals prompt us to make our promises for the year to come. Later, when our resolution wavers, we chalk it up to bad luck, poor timing, or human weakness. Any excuse we can dream up will do as long as it lets our belief in free will remain intact. “Next time will be different”, we tell ourselves. Oddly, we never seem to get it.
The sense of free will, whether implicit or implied, is the result of feeling a real need to resolve a real world issue, combined with an imagined way to make it happen. This is essentially need + thought. As I put it earlier, desire = need + thought. (See How the Hoodwink Hooks, p.100.) Essentially then, free will = need + thought as well. The connection between desire and free will is very close indeed. Among other things, this means that each time we satiate a desire, we automatically reinforce any belief we have in free will. You might say, free will = desire. Emotion, especially need and fear, in concert with thought create our blind spot. Because animals don’t think, they experience no such blind spot. Unlike us, they experience no disconnection between an ideal world and their real world.
The Free Will of “I am”
The observation above didn’t just come out of thin air. Some recent experiences have led me to rethink free will, especially evident in a conversation with Brian, who believes in free will. I told him I found the idea of free will, either explicit or implied, to underlie all affirmational spiritual literature to some extent… including most translations of the Tao Te Ching (i.e., much less than the literal Chinese). However, not believing in free will doesn’t mean I am a Nonbeliever, as it were. As I said, I don’t see any evidence that is not attributable to simpler biological causes. This changed with Brian’s comment: “I can’t agree about there being no free will, that’s just where I am at present”. His words, “I am at present” prodded me to see free will in a newer and deeper light.
Like Schrodinger’s Cat (p.149), free will seems like it is there when you look, otherwise it is in a state of indeterminacy. In other words, saying or thinking “I am” makes the ‘half-dead, half-alive cat’ of free will come alive. Saying “I” plus “__(a verb)__” awakens the sense of free will. The sense of free will doesn’t appear until I think or say “I”. In moments absent of “I”, free will must be indeterminate. In other words, free will manifests itself in the act of observation of “I”. The Zen kōan (公案), “the sound of one hand clapping” suggests one characteristic of this weirdness. Even better, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” The reality of “I” lies in the thought of “I”. Without the thought, there is no “I”. Likewise, without the listener, there is no sound, and without the eye, there is no color (1).
Now then, what about the existence of free will in other people? It only exists when their subjective experience of “I” brings it alive. Alternatively, and more socially important, free will comes ‘alive’ only when you feel another person experiences the same quality of being, the “I”, that you do. This makes sense when you consider that society doesn’t regard young children or animals as being self responsible, i.e., of having free will.
In addition, perhaps free will originates not so much in “I am” as in “I desire”. Desire fundamentally determines what we see. The observer’s eye that peeks in to see whether the cat is alive or dead is similar to how “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. When I am impartial, truly neutral, how can I possibly choose sides and know whether anything is or isn’t — it’s both! In the same way, I know free will is and is not. This is quite a special awareness, for at-the-moment of knowing Nothing, knowing everything comes naturally.
The Arrogance of ‘I Am’
The perception ‘I am’ also separates the individual from the rest of creation. Each living thing has the innate drive to maintain self-integrity, from the single cell on up… and perhaps on down as well. To “Strive on diligently” as Buddha put it (see “… Strive On Diligently”, p.218). This intrinsic self does not give itself life. The unique human capacity for creating the illusion of an objective self — the ‘I am’ — disunites us emotionally from reality’s cosmic background. Subsequently, our innate survival instincts bustle about to shore up and protect that Self-illusion. Chapter 7 sums it up well…
(1) Of course, the physics of sound and color are still there, but the subjective experience of an objective reality is absent when “I” is not present. As chapter 56 has it, This is called profound sameness.
A Taoist Creed 6726
If Taoism had a creed(1), what would the specific cornerstone of such a creed be? For example, the Christians have “to love” as a cornerstone of their creed: to love thy God, to love thy neighbor, to love thy enemy, and so on. Before you read on, come up with a few of your own suggestions as though you were taking a quiz.
The Problem
I see a major reason for the lack of a Taoist creed. To paraphrase chapter 1, The [creed] possible to express runs counter to the constant [creed] I feel my Taoist creed is to allow myself to live a virtuous life. That feels odd to say, yet not surprisingly, this parallels the meaning of the words “Tao”, “Te”, “Ching” (i.e., way + virtue + engage in). It is not that those words tell me what my Taoist path should be, but rather what an examined life can turn out to be. Even so, I can’t agree with Socrates’ bold statement “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Unless he was speaking for himself personally, then I may agree for specific reasons. Anyway, I better first break down the meaning, in “word-for-word” style, of the words Tao, Te and Ching, or as it is now written in Chinese pinyin, Dào, Dé, and Jīng.
Dào (Tao) (道) = road, way, path; channel, course; way, path; doctrine, principle; Taoism, Taoist; superstitious sect; line; say, talk, speak; think, suppose.
Dé (Te) (德) = virtue; morals; moral character; heart; mind; kindness.
Jīng (Ching) (经) = manage; deal in; engage in; constant; regular; scripture; pass through; undergo; as a result of; after; through; stand; bear; endure.
In the Eye of ‘I’
The most unambiguous word is Dào: road, path, think, speak, way. Jīng is also clear enough. I’ve always seen Jing translated to mean scripture, i.e., the Dao De Scripture. That’s fine, although I find deeper meaning in the active connotations: manage; deal in; engage; pass through; endure. Conversely, Dé is the most ambiguous word: virtue; morals; moral character; heart; mind; kindness. I feel Dé closely parallels what Christ was getting at with his love teachings. Most of these Dé definitions depend on the ‘I’ of the beholder and are emotionally loaded. For instance, morals and virtue take on meaning from the creed and dogma of the believer-beholder. The clearest of these Dé meanings is kindness since we can see examples of kindness among social species throughout nature.
What is Dé in the eyes of this Taoist beholder? According to the dictionary, virtue also means “a quality that is good or admirable, but not necessarily in terms of morality”. So, what human quality does everyone on the planet admire? After years of world travel(2), I concluded this “good” to be personal integrity. It runs silent and deep in people regardless of local factors like religion, education, wealth, and age. It is also something hard to put my finger on… but that’s not going to stop me! First, I’ll set up the criteria as I see it.
The Criteria
At some level, or under certain circumstances, I find everyone despises hypocrisy and dishonesty. I’m guessing this is the result of a fairness instinct, certainly common in higher social animals (3). Hypocrisy and dishonesty are especially irksome if we’re the victim. We’re a lot more forgiving when it is our own hypocrisy or dishonesty. However, I think we’re usually unaware of the discrepancy. Our desire driven blind spots and our clever rationalizations that justify our own hypocrisy generate this double standard.
There’s No Escape
The Holy Grail of greater personal integrity lies with the person who is more consistent, at least in recognizing, if not dropping, their double standards. We are all engaged in this path, either deliberately or by dint of unintended consequences (i.e., the stress of wanting it both ways).
There is no escape from life’s lessons. The more you sleep in life’s class, the more you flunk your grade level and have to repeat that grade. You see, it is not making mistakes that are problematic, it is continuing to make the same mistakes throughout life. That’s why my doctrine must be: wake up, pay attention, and be as rigorously self-honest as humanly possible.
Karma?
It’s like Karma, only this cyclical fate occurs moment to moment, day to day, year after year rather than rebirth after rebirth. This is fortunate in that there is plenty of time to wake up, yet, unfortunate for there is only each moment now to wake up. Alas, it is easy to keep waiting for the next moment. (See You are Immortal!, p.391, for the “rebirth” aspect of Karma)
(1) For all I know, formal Taoist sects have their dogmas and creeds, but that doesn’t count here. Centertao’s brand of Taoism is like Protestantism, albeit, Protestants rely on the Biblical Word. We are almost the opposite, at least in our reliance on any word or name claiming to be the constant. That makes having any formal creed or dogma oxymoronic.
(2) I spent 15 years traveling around the world (Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Australia) wandering by way of much hitch-hiking and working odd jobs when money ran out. This open-ended and on-the-ground level experience gave me an opportunity to get to know the people behind their cultural façade. I became adept at discerning the ‘original person’ from the ‘cultural person’, undoubtedly due to my own innately acultural nature. I see people as having two personalities, ‘original’ and ‘cultural’. Meeting people one on one, the ‘original’ stands out, while meeting people in a group with their fellow compatriots, the ‘cultural’ person stands out.
(3) We have long been locked away in a prison of belief (p.591) from which science is gradually helping to liberate us… in particular, our belief that we are above instinct and capable of free choice. Spiritual paths both prop up these beliefs and attempt to help us cope with the consequences of those beliefs. It is an ironic undertaking.
It is notable that Buddha’s Four Truths, taken alone, are largely result of natural science aimed squarely at humanity. However, one must search their own personal experience for the evidence to prove them true. That said, modern science helps greatly by gathering empirical proof for us as well… and we need all the help we can get!
Here are two Science News reports that point to our fairness instinct. If you’re interested, google [Unfair Trade and Ape Aid: Chimps share altruistic capacity with people].
I just saw a report on 60 Minutes that really demonstrates the fairness instinct, and shows how it is the basis for what we as adults do. Of course, they didn’t come right out and call it the fairness instinct. Science moves slowly… but surely. Check out the progress. Google [The Infant Cognition Center at Yale]. Watch the Baby Lab video clip, What your baby knows might freak you out.
Dumbfounding 3745
The Science News Science Stats left me dumbfounded, so I read it again… I’m still dumbfounded. Does it really say, “… calorie intake may be the bigger contributor to Western obesity”? What are they thinking? What else causes obesity?
I have noticed over the years, a growing effort to find genetic causes for why some people get fat easier than others. Certainly, in the end, every facet of our lives has a genetic basis. What I detect however, is a trend to single out genetics in particular as a major reason for obesity (1).
Why Not ‘Just Say No’?
Highlighting genetics as a major reason for obesity conveniently circumvents addressing the free will ‘just say no’ dogma. Perhaps challenging the free will myth directly is too risky, culturally speaking. Truth is, genetics and circumstances pretty much account for every aspect of human nature, or at least the observable tangible ones.
My response to the obesity issue has often been, “Just go to Ethiopia, and see how many fat people you see”. In all my travels, I only saw obese people aplenty in wealthy, well-fed countries. Simply put, the amount you eat will make you fat if that consumption exceeds the calories you burn. Is this not simply biology? When the energy in exceeds energy out, it gets stored as fat. Some people burn more energy (higher metabolic rate) than others do, and so they can eat more without gaining weight. Others are simply taking in more than their body needs and thus storing the excess as fat… for a rainy day that never comes now.
Getting older has a sure-fire effect on one’s metabolic rate. That is nature’s safeguard in the wild; an older animal can’t hunt or gather as vigorously as a younger one, so nature lowers their metabolism, which lowers their daily caloric requirement. That is great if you’re living in the wild, but problematic for anyone living in the affluent circumstances of civilization.
Yes, It is Genetic
We are not different from other animals in regards to eating tasty food. When dairy cows are given unbridled access to rich tasty feed (alfalfa, sorghum) they will eat continuously until it kills them. Grazing in the wild is self-limiting in natural ways so they never over eat. Cows did not evolve to eat such rich food. Likewise, we did not evolve to eat nor have access to the rich food we consume now.
Food is a business. Sellers are motivated to make their offering as rich and tasty as possible. Buyers, having evolved no natural restraints to rich and tasty foods, easily over eat if they have money and access. Indeed, in the wild, our innate drive to eat as much rich and tasty food as we can find, is a survival necessity. We still have that instinct; only the circumstances have changed. Now we too can actually eat until it kills us.
The Farce of Free Will
It is ironic that we maintain the myth of free will in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. I now see the ideal of free will (p.587) as wishful thinking, which helps support the ‘they should’ emotions that we feel. Our ability to imagine ourselves, and especially others, able to decide and just say “No” overwhelms empirical observation. We are in denial as a species. Naturally, this is also genetic.
(1) I balk at the victim aspect of this genetic reasoning, especially as we are so unwilling to concede that we are instinct driven animals, with genetics and circumstances accounting for everything we do — good or evil. So far, such rigorous self-honesty eludes us; double standards rule our day. As the Tao Te Ching says, When cleverness emerges there is great hypocrisy (D.C. Lau) and When intelligence increases, there is great falseness (Word for Word). Our clever intelligence enables us to deftly circumvent and deny reality!
The Truth vs. The Middle 3710
The Chinese language uses dual characters (1) as shown here (right). While searching for background on this, I stumbled onto this article… google [Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction (1999)].
This Abstract of the article succinctly portrays a noticeable difference in the way East and West view reality. (photo: self + right = nature)
Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction
by Kaiping Peng, Richard E. Nisbett – American Psychologist , 1999
Chinese ways of dealing with seeming contradictions result in a dialectical or compromise approach—retaining basic elements of opposing perspectives by seeking a “middle way.” European-American ways, on the other hand, deriving from a lay version of Aristotelian logic, result in a differentiation model that polarizes contradictory perspectives in an effort to determine which fact or position is correct. Empirical studies showed that dialectical thinking is a form of folk wisdom in Chinese culture: Chinese preferred dialectical proverbs containing seeming contradictions more than did Americans. Chinese were also found to prefer dialectical resolutions to social conflicts, and to prefer dialectical arguments over classical Western logical arguments.
Furthermore, when two apparently contradictory propositions were presented, Americans polarized their views and Chinese were moderately accepting of both propositions. Origins of these cultural differences and their implications for human reasoning in general are discussed.
Consider the following statements about recent scientific discoveries: Statement A. Two mathematicians have discovered that the activities of a butterfly in Beijing, China, noticeably affect the temperature in the San Francisco Bay Area. Statement B. Two meteorologists have found that the activities of a local butterfly in the San Francisco Bay Area have nothing to do with temperature changes in the same San Francisco Bay Area. What would be your intuitive reaction to these statements? Do you see an implicit contradiction between the two pieces of information? What strategy would you use to deal with such contradictions? What is the rationale for using such a strategy? Does your cultural background affect your reasoning and judgments about contradiction… [end of abstract]
By the way, I noticed all the citations these authors used for the article. Academia requires such mountains of detail. Where does genuine knowing lie… in the details or in the big picture? A blend of both is the only way to come close, yet unfortunately, the mind tends to favor one or the other. Without details, the big picture is too amorphous to distinguish, yet without the big picture, the details blind us to the larger context. Whichever side you favor, look to the other for balance.
(1) Chinese characters are monosyllabic which typify the fundamental nature of the character and encapsulate a related range of ideas. Combining two characters produces something like our polysyllabic word “international”. Here are a few examples:
guójì (国际) international.
guó (国): country; state; nation; of the state; national; of our country; Chinese; a surname.
jì (际): border; boundary; edge; between; among; inter-; inside; occasion; time.
ziran (自然): natural world; nature; naturally; in the ordinary course of events; of course; naturally
zi (自): self; oneself; one’s own; certainly; of course; from; since
ran (然): right; correct; so; like that.
tiānxià (天下): land under heaven – the world or China.
tiān (天): sky; heaven; overhead; day; a period of time in a day; season; weather; nature; God; Heaven
xià (下): below; down; under; underneath; lower; inferior; next; latter; second; downward; descend;
The Why of It 5119
Probing into the why of it feels like jumping into a bottomless well of mystery. This is certainly the epitome of quixotic quests. However, there is the survival reward of seeing life as close to its actuality as humanly possible. Exploring the why of it promises a glimpse into nature’s secrets. This is one of the joys of science. Deeper down, from a symptoms point of view (p.141), all the answers we come across reflect more about us than about anything ‘out there’. In other words, we travel much of life’s journey looking ‘out there’ until we end up looking ‘in here’.
What is the Point?
I also feel a need to share with others what I notice, even though I assume very few people will be interested. The irony here is that many of those people probably know what I’m saying already… intuitively anyway. So, what is the point? Primarily, the need to share what we notice in life is a primary social instinct, serving either as gossip or as words of warning. (photo: baby lab research)
Coming Home to Instinct
Research at Yale’s Infant Cognition Center, a.k.a., The Baby Lab, offers some clues as to what’s ‘in here’. This is another step toward alleviating ourselves from our immense ignorance — the myths, misinformation, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations that we have hauled around throughout history. For video reports, YouTube: Born good? Babies help unlock the origins of morality. For still more, Google [The Moral Life of Babies, Are Babies Born Good?]
‘How’ vs. ‘Why’
Wondering what, when, why, who, or how are the ways we peer into life’s mystery. Of these, why and how are the most cognitively intense, and as such, the most uniquely human. Of these two, why is the innermost. Conversely, how is more active, practical, and closely tied to “just do it… here’s how”. Adults know how to deal with children’s how questions much easier than their endless why questions. “Why?” asks why do it. All my life I’ve noticed wide spread resistance to questioning why. Religion, politics, and other cultural institutions all emphasize how we should do life a certain way, not why. Moreover, if they address why, the answers are invariably shallow. Cultural institutions, whether mainstream or cultist, have a very low tolerance for why. Why?
Why easily sows the seeds of rebellion, heresy and anarchy. Why endangers the hierarchical social structure and threatens authority (1) at every level. Why challenges the status quo, whereas how helps sustain a status quo. How is mechanical, easy, habitual, routine—it shelters us from the void and the fear that the unknown why engenders. We educate people to know how, not why. We feel why just opens a can of worms, i.e., more questions. Despite any lip service to the contrary, educational infrastructure is almost by definition set up to discourage seeking out the why of it. Finally and most significantly, why is without end—there is no ultimate answer to the mystery of existence. Asking why takes courage.
Wondering why is the essence of childhood, not adulthood—adulthood clamors more for how to. Why is also the essence of science—pure science anyway. Life, in the realm of why, constantly evolves and adapts to changing facts on the ground. Keeping as closely connected to why as possible helps me to practice what I preach. I have known how for many decades, it is only through an unrelenting concern for why that I am able to walk-the-walk to any meaningful degree. Chapter 16 maps this journey…