the art of emptiness
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There is a story about a guy who wanted to be a master Zen Monk. He showed up at the monk’s doorstep begging for the master monk to teach him. Teach him to be enlightened.
He said, “I’ve read lots of books and listened to lots of monks teach. I’m ready to be taught by you.”
The master monk smiled and asked him to sit down. (NOTE: If an old school Zen Monk ever smiles and asks you to sit down, you’re probably screwed!)
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how to free your mind
Some rights reserved by IsaacMao
I’ve been reading The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore. It’s a fascinating book that picks up where Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene left off 30 odd years ago. Towards the end of the book, Blackmore talks about how our minds are constantly under attack by different ideas or memes. Actually, she contends that our minds are nothing more than various ideas fighting for dominance, and that there isn’t an “I” hiding in the middle of it at all. She contends that the “self” is just an illusion, a construct in the way that Buddhism talks about the illusion of the self.
In the last chapter she gives two methods for slipping out of the grasp of the memes and breaking free from the illusion of the false self. A recipe for escaping your mind.
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4 quick and easy ways to erase problems
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When you want to make something vanish or disappear using sleight of hand or illusion techniques, you usually have two ways of doing it. Either you make it look like it’s gone or it’s never really there.
With the problem of “problems,” about how to get rid of them and steer clear, you have to realize that there aren’t any problems to begin with.
the secret guide to knowing yourself
Some rights reserved by Jerry Reynolds
People make a big deal about getting to know “themselves.” It’s a useful tool to figure out how we tick, why we make the decisions we do and what’s really going on inside our heads.
But can you really ever hope to know “yourself” or are we just mysterious processes the truth of which you can only ever guess at?
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how not to have fun in a sensory deprivation tank
I step out of the towel and towards the coffin sitting in front of me. I
look around and wonder if this is safe.
Where I am is the basement of some Swedish Massage Therapist. And I’m naked.
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chalkboard rapport theory
Reading a book on dog training and was struck by a useful packet of information that works great with dogs but even better with the human species.
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