Chui the artisan could draw as precisely as if he had used a circle and square. His fingers moved with the changes without requiring the attention of the mind. His Tower of Intelligence was intact and not impeded. The feet are forgotten when the shoes fit. The waist is forgotten when the girdle fits….
The memory remains when I was twelve or thirteen years old. That memory shimmers, a glow of experience from a time which by and large I cannot recall. The Engineering School at Duke University sponsored an annual open house for an evening. The community was invited to observe and to admire the work which…
I joined an online book club at the beginning of the year. I was motivated by the accountability entailed by membership. At the end of every month a zoom session, moderated by Jared Henderson, a philosopher-convener is offered to members. I figured this was sure to motivate me to read each of the monthly…
…what is noble and what is base is determined by what the time requires –there is no absolute rule. A battering ram can be used to storm a city wall but it cannot be used to fill a small hole. –the uses of the implements are different. “therefore the saying, ‘Shall we not follow…
Well then,may I consider heaven and earth as greatand the tip of a hair as small? “No,”replied the Ruo of the North Sea. “The capacities of things cannot be defined,time never stops,all is in constant flux,and the ends and the beginnings of thingsare never the…
The ancients who tended to the taoabided in calmto nourish their wisdom,butthey did not dependon their wisdom in their actions.It can be said that they preserved their calmwith wisdom.When wisdom and calmfoster one another from innate nature,harmony and order emerge. Virtue is harmonyand tao is order. Zhuangzi trans by Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong,…
To be simple, pure, clear, still, level, and constant; to be impartial without action and in action to be aligned with heaven— this is the way to sustain the spirit. The swords made at Wu and Yue are kept in a box and rarely used since they are valuable. But the subtle spirit moves…
Saturday and it is bitter-cold today. It is colder in Minneapolis, 11 degrees F. A quiet question comes over and over. Would I be willing to stand alongside friends and others who live around me to oppose the roundup and extradition of immigrants from their homes and places of work? Would I oppose the…
This is a poem written by Renee Nicole Good. She is dead. She was a mother. She was many things… Renee left these words behind. They are for you and I to consider: what manner of person would choose these words, express this description of life. Also for you and I to consider: what…
It is Saturday, raining and the sky hints of snow to come. I do not mind rain in wintertime, or any time. Trees need water, a subsurface soaking. Lately rain seems to come less frequently, sometimes weeks pass with little to no moisture. Like it or not we (humans) belong to Nature, we are…
