The Useless Tree

Taoism

  • The Tao Te Ching as Wiki

         For Christmas my sister gave me a gift card to the local book store.  Yesterday I went over and picked up four books – and my daughter came along and got one for herself.  Among my pile was… Continue reading

  • Letting Go

         A haunting story in yesterday’s Modern Love column in the NYT.  Katherine Friedman recounts an airplane mishap – a scary plunge, the oxygen masks come down, a crash seems imminent – that suddenly reverses, leaving her and her… Continue reading

  • Calling Attention to Reality

         This is a small operation, a modest blog.  I do not attract the kind of attention that the big blogs get; if I have 200 unique visitors a day, that’s good for me.  So it was somewhat surprising… Continue reading

  • Taoist Parenting

        In a NYT story today, Michael Winerip asks: "But When Is There Time to Be a Kid?"  It is a fairly common litany of over-programming of children.  He describes the frenetic pace in one household: The family lives… Continue reading

  • Our Children, Ourselves

        An article a couple of days ago in the NYT raises all sorts of ethical issues about birth and disability.  It draws from a piece in the journal Fertility and Sterility and describes a particular medical procedure: The… Continue reading

  • Confucianism v. Taoism in Chinese Popular Culture

        Roland, at ESWN, reminds us again of how debates about popular culture in can reveal significant changes in political – or, at least, potentially political – attitudes.   He posts a translation of a Southern Metropolis Daily piece (original… Continue reading

  • Prison

         Here’s a depressing thing: U.S. Prison Population Sets Record Associated Press Friday, December 1, 2006 A record 7 million people — one in every 32 U.S. adults — were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the… Continue reading

  • A Taoist Thought For Those Traveling Today

    You can know all beneath heaventhough you never step out the door,and you can see the Way of heaventhough you never look out the window. The further you explore, the less you know. So it is that a sage knows… Continue reading

  • Modern Love: Learning the Limits

       A sad yet beautiful column today by Wendy Paris.  It is sad because it chronicles her two miscarriages.  She had waited to try to have children, waited for her career to take shape, for her relationships to sort out,… Continue reading

  • Did Chuang Tzu Make A Will?

        The short answer is "no."  Chuang Tzu almost certainly did not make a will because he knew that when his life ended he would be swept back into the limitless Way and that his worldly loved ones and… Continue reading