A Solipsistic Taoistian

Photo courtesy of Tauno Tohk. From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/toehk/4080079150

 

Teacher Yu asks, “ What do you think Taoism is about?”

Solipero replies, “Doubtlessly, it’s about the Tao.”

Taoist Musings: Truck Driver

Black Vulture, taken by Mdf, can symbolize either me or the Tao

Lord of the Great Way, let me write what may seem contrived, clauses pinned with awkward rhymes, and inspire others to their own precious poesy; and also to some new, unkempt lines–call them yellow and dashed, literally not literary, and rolling metal oncoming-passed, actually but automotively, for in essence, isn’t a truck driver a sage, turning her wheels only to the wage. Thus, the Way is to get paid, the ears to drown out the paved, and the eyes always to gaze at the roads no different from ten miles ago, though I concede the trucker’s eyes may be strained as the summer sets that even the doctor would prescribe 40 pills of Percocet.

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These musings are the pain-killed poetic and taoist fusing, so I hope my fun of writing this transfers to you an equal amusing.

Our Approach to Eastern Philosophy

If you’ve been reading this blog for some time, then you might know that Yang and I take a more analytically-inclined approach to eastern and western philosophy. Ideally, what this entails is similar to developing a formula or working through an algorithm, but instead the work is done with propositions (there is no clear cut cardinality and arithmetic…and people think philosophy is easy!). Sometimes, though, time doesn’t allow for fully explaining everything such that the most coherent and strong view is formed or readily apparent, so we think it might suffice to introduce ideas into eastern philosophical discussion. This can be seen with Yang’s post about morality in Taoism.

Spontaneity in a Push-up Competition

(By Stoyan Vassev) Our favorite fighter Rigondeaux who seems to fight spontaneously, within his limits.

My brother and I—believe it or not—were on our high school’s football team. Although we will have left the team to focus more on school and boxing, we invested ourselves in it, and with the help of our coach, we at one point surpassed most of our peers in strength (speed, not so much).

Thoughts on Implicit Bias

Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez

In The Zhuangzi, it is written that Confucius says there are two decrees in the world. One is fate and the other is duty. I’m not sure exactly what he means by fate – whether it is determinism involving no free will, propensities mental or physical, or simply death – but it is written that an example of fate is that a son would love his mother, presuming normativity. To put this more generally, the decree of fate is that some things are the way that they are. The second decree that he mentions, the decree of duty, is that a subject would serve under his ruler, that is, one is subject to certain things.