Know the truth, and it will set you free.

See the truth clearly, then speak it.

Aim, then fire.

Yin, then Yang.

By necessity all outward-pushing activity - Yang-things - are surrounded by inward-pulling activity - Yin-things.  The quality of the words are determined by the knowledge and presence of mind that happens before them.  The quality of the ( Read more... )

You are the whole ocean, not just the surface.  The surface may be stormy, full of foul-tasting spray, and if you hang out there too long, you'll be sick.

But if you sink, if you walk on the bottom, you can just float in the gentle currents and watch with fascinated detachment as all the things drift by.

But most people do not sink naturally.

In ( Read more... )

Oh, too good to not post (and not sure how I missed it before, since it's not very new) - the Dalai Lama wrote a list of eighteen guidelines for Better Living, and every single one of them had me bouncing in my chair.

These fall under "things you may please remind me of at any time, and no matter how annoying it is, I will thank you"!

And just to ( Read more... )

Ooooh, I can't not put this up:  So wonderful!  An excellent fellow named JMR Higgs (and points to you, sir, for the spiffy three-letter first name…very nice in the Age Of Acronyms) has written a comprehensive side-by-side of two of my favorite books to talk about*:  The Illuminatus! Trilogy and Atlas Shrugged.

It's a fun, dead-on accurate and ( Read more... )

There are approximately ten thousand posts backed up in my brain right now, but I've no idea when I'll get a chance to write them, so instead you get one of the (many!) good bits from the Tao Te Ching:

In dwelling, be close to the land.

In meditation, go deep in the heart.

In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.

In speech, be true.

In ruling, ( Read more... )

(No, that question wasn't meant to sound filthy, but bonus points to you if it did I guess.  ;)

I've been thinking a lot about that "last inch" lately - the immediate reference in my mind is to V for Vendetta, but it goes farther than that - and yes, times are crazy, as tend to be those that spur such thinking.  Here are some of those thoughts, and ( Read more... )

My friend Scott K., who is a regular spouter of wisdom, recently shared with me this gem from a conversation he had with someone who was attempting to - hold your breath for this one - support the Randian "philosophy" espoused in The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.  I'm thrilled to re-post his arguments here, because a) they're very good, if not ( Read more... )

Yes, yes, there are exercise (new plan, woot!) and sleep updates (still polyphasic, adjustment symptoms present but minimal) - but there's also something more important to talk about, so Imma do that for a minute first.

I think I've found a major piece of the difference between being a Good vs a Bad person.  Now, quick, two caveats:

• I'm totally ( Read more... )

New quote added to the Random Quotes scroller:

"Seven Deadly Sins:
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Science without humanity
Knowledge without character
Politics without principle
Commerce without morality
Worship without sacrifice."  - Mahatma Gandhi

I like this more complete formulation of a "sin"…as a Catholic child I was ( Read more... )

ON is OFF.

Or rather, ON is a natural state; OFF is something getting in its way.  To get to ON, you drop the stuff that's holding you in OFF - you take the OFF off.

The secret to mastery is to part the curtain of your own thinking; to get your mind out of the way so that you can interact directly, swim without a wetsuit, use all that sensory ( Read more... )