Thoughts and Desires“Thoughts weaken the mind. Desires wither the heart.” (Lao Tzu) The Tao Te Ching (Chapter 12) reminds us that thoughts and desires are not the way to go. However, it’s interesting to note that they both origina...

Looking Twice at a Heisenberg Quote“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” That’s a quote attributed to the physicist Werner Heisenberg. He also gave us Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle whi...

Silence Speaks“Those who know don’t talk. Those who talk don’t know.” (Lao Tzu) Sounds witty, doesn’t it? This is the Tao Te Ching (Chapter 56). Interesting how know-it-alls tend to be talkative. After all, how else can...

Follow the Floor LightingYou likely recognize these words. It’s from the safety announcement we all sit through every time we’re on an airplane. “In the unlikely event of an emergency... follow the floor lighting…” It somehow reassures...

Just Three Things“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.” (Lao Tzu) Well, that sounds simple. But do I have the patience to let it sink in? And do I have the compassion to respond from a point of view other than my...

Just Three Things“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.” (Lao Tzu) Well, that sounds simple. But do I have the patience to let it sink in? And do I have the compassion to respond from a point of view other than my...

Hidden But Always PresentRemember autostereograms? They were big in the 1990s. Computer-generated images looking like a kaleidoscope of colored bits shaken into rows and columns. Look at them and you see just the 2D bits. But rela...

Phantoms?“Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self." (Lao Tzu) How often we imagine futures in which we are better off in one way or another. Such futures are surely to be hoped for. But wait, what if the fu...

What Is Reality?Big question, isn’t it? I like Philip K. Dick’s answer. “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” Dick was a novelist and science fiction writer but I don’t think there’s much fiction in h...

Beyond Our Senses“Look, and it can’t be seen. Listen, and it can’t be heard. Reach, and it can’t be grasped.” (Lao Tzu) What is this? A riddle? Whatever it is, it can’t be seen, heard, or grasped. Is it nothing or is it...