Latest Posts
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Mind Wandering
Looks like psychologists have empirically confirmed a part of Zhuangzi: But now that researchers have been analyzing those stray thoughts, they’ve found daydreaming to be remarkably common — and often quite useful. A wandering mind can protect you from immediate… Continue reading
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Beauty and Power on China’s Silk Road
A piece I wrote for the Kyoto Journal just came out, and it is available on-line here. It is based on some posts I did here a couple of years ago, with some nice pictures added… Continue reading
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Diversion
The blog has been quiet of late because I was on a bit of a holiday. My wife and I took our daughter and her cousin to the new Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios in Florida. It was… Continue reading
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In case you’re wondering if fewer posts is a bad thing…
To work at learning brings more each day. To work at Way brings less each day. Less and still less, until you're doing nothing yourself. And when you're doing nothing yourself, there's nothing you don't do. To grasp all beneath… Continue reading
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Sun Tzu and the World Cup
I’ve watched a couple of World Cup matches (US/England; Brazil/NK; some of Spain/Switzerland) and Sun Tzu has come to mind…. On first thought, it is a bit difficult to apply Sun Tzu to soccer (football…). The battle situations that he… Continue reading
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Reflections on an English Goalkeeper
Wow. A day after I post about the World Cup, the vagaries of Tao are revealed to the fullest. The English clearly outplayed the US on Saturday but Robert Green the English goalkeeper let through an improbable score that allowed… Continue reading
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World Cup Tao
I haven’t blogged on sports lately but the just-begun World Cup has brought athletic competition to mind… As I have noted in the past, I am a Taoist NY Yankees fan. Some might find that paradoxical (how could a Taoist… Continue reading
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Welcome Beliefnet visitors…
… and thanks to Rod Dreher for the link. For those interested in the intersection of Confucianism and Christianity, which I have not blogged about recently, let me bring up two posts from the archives. Christianity or Confucianism: Which Engenders… Continue reading
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Answering the Gaokao with the Daodejing and Zhuangzi
The big national college entrance exam – the dreaded gaokao – has just finished in China. Danwei has a collection of some of the various essay questions posed in different provinces. As I read through them I thought that one,… Continue reading
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American Paranoia and Confucius Institutes
The Daily Show has figured out the limits of Confucian soft power, at least in the US: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Socialism Studies www.thedailyshow.com http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:311739 Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 