Category Archives: Philosophy

“Fable” by Ralph Waldo Emerson [w/ Audio]

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The mountain and the squirrel  
  Had a quarrel;  
 And the former called the latter ‘Little Prig.’
 Bun replied,  
 ‘You are doubtless very big;         
  But all sorts of things and weather  
  Must be taken in together,  
  To make up a year  
  And a sphere.  
 And I think it no disgrace  
  To occupy my place.  
 If I'm not so large as you,  
  You are not so small as I,  
  And not half so spry.  
 I'll not deny you make  
  A very pretty squirrel track;  
  Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;  
 If I cannot carry forests on my back,  
  Neither can you crack a nut.’

PROMPT: Expensive Meal

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Daily writing prompt
What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?
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I can’t remember, but it’s never been worth it. Seems like the more one pays for a meal, the hungrier one leaves it. Enjoy your “foam reductions” if you like, but it’s not for me. I’ll take street food any day — cheap, filling, flavorful street food. It’s got character and doesn’t try too hard.

My palate may be unrefined, but — also — I’m no sucker.

PROMPT: 30 Things

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Daily writing prompt
List 30 things that make you happy.
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1.) love; 2.) a glorious turn of phrase; 3.) discovery; 4.) walking; 5.) swimming; 6.) stumbling upon an interesting and / or novel idea; 7.) movement; 8.) travel; 9.) street food; 10.) quiet; 11.) health; 12.) recognition that when things are at their very worst, they must get better — because everything is impermanent; 13.) an intense stretch; 14.) Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass;” 15.) undiscovered country; 16.) the hanging moment; 17.) a mystery-laden world; 18.) a moment of flow; 19.) a mountain path; 20.) a clear stream; 21.) the way of non-adversariality; 22.) a thing stripped to its simplest form; 23.) the moment breath turns the tide; 24.) animals being animals; 25.) a brief instant of free fall; 26.) the recognition that something that used to cause me angst or fear no longer does; 27.) when body, movement, and the world fall into alignment; 28.) first contact with someplace / something new; 29.) connection; 30.) the first sign that the struggle is paying off.

Wen Fu 11 “Banal & Sublime” [文赋十一] by Lu Ji [陆机] [w/ Audio]

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Some shoots and stalks stand out --
   Taller than the masses.
  Their form eludes pursuit,
   Sound slips through, like gases.
  Great lines are always disjunct:
   Don't weave with mid'ling lyrics.
 They're pent up and peerless:
   Chop them? A win that's pyrrhic.
 Jade flecks make mountains shimmer,
  Pearly waters enchant.
 The thicket mustn't be clipped
  If Kingfisher's glory, grant.
 Stitched words end under snow,
 Work the weft, steady and slow.

The original in Simplified Chinese is:

或苕发颖竖，离众绝致。
形不可逐，响难为系。
块孤立而特峙，非常音之所纬。
心牢落而无偶，意徘徊而不能揥。
石韫玉而山辉，水怀珠而川媚。
彼榛楛之勿翦，亦蒙荣于集翠。
缀下里于白雪，吾亦济夫所伟。

BOOKS: “A Journey to Inner Peace and Joy” by Zhang Jianfeng [Trans. by Tony Blishen]

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A Journey to Inner Peace and Joy: Tracing Contemporary Chinese Hermits by Zhang Jianfeng (2015-04-07)A Journey to Inner Peace and Joy: Tracing Contemporary Chinese Hermits by Zhang Jianfeng by Unknown Author
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site

In 1993, Bill Porter (a.k.a. Red Pine) came out with a book called “Road to Heaven” that documented his experiences meeting with hermits in rural China. For many, both in and certainly out of China, the continued existence of this lifestyle might have come as a surprise. This book follows up over twenty years later, showing that Buddhists and Daoist hermits are still alive and well in the mountains of interior China.

The book not only offers beautiful descriptions of the lands where these men and women live, but also insight into their mindsets and how they live such minimalist lives. It’s a light and compelling look at individuals like those one might read of in “Outlaws of the Marsh,” only living in the present day (though living lives not unlike their historical counterparts did more than a thousand years ago.)

The book offers many color photos of the hermits and the landscapes in which they live.

I’d highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the way of reclusive existence.

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“‘Truth,’ said a traveller” [Poem XXVIII] by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]

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“Truth,” said a traveller, 
 “Is a rock, a mighty fortress; 
 “Often have I been to it, 
 “Even to its highest tower, 
 “From whence the world looks black.”

“Truth,” said a traveller, 
 “Is a breath, a wind, 
 “A shadow, a phantom; 
 “Long have I pursued it, 
 “But never have I touched 
 “The hem of its garment.”

And I believed the second traveller; 
 For truth was to me 
 A breath, a wind, 
 A shadow, a phantom, 
 And never had I touched 
 The hem of its garment.

PROMPT: Future Travel

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Daily writing prompt
What are your future travel plans?
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I plan to travel to the future one minute at a time.

At least until they invent a time machine that can transport something bigger than a subatomic particle, and only milliseconds into the future at that.

PROMPT: Modern Society

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Daily writing prompt
What would you change about modern society?
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In short, I think we need to foster emotional intelligence and not just academic intelligence, and we need to rebuild social interaction in a super-tribal world (i.e. a world too big for everyone to know everyone else.) [But do the latter without the xenophobia.]

To elaborate:

First, I think we need some true coming-of-age experience that facilitates a sense of self-empowerment. This would not just be collecting envelopes of cash and dancing a dance or reciting a prayer, but something more akin to being dropped in the woods for a week. Of course, this would require engaged parenting and skill acquisition and not just leaving kids with video games and social media. It seems like a lot of our present problems result from people with no sense of empowerment or the emotional intelligence that comes therefrom. Such people may have passed all the tests but still have “imposter syndrome” and the like.

Second, we need some sort of way to build tribal-scale groups in which people interact with a small group of others repeatedly — in person and face-to-face. The challenge is that this needs to be done without increasing xenophobia, which is already trending the wrong way. I think there is a problematic tendency to be virtually engaged but not personally engaged with others in humanity. Even in I, who am intensely introverted, the social impulse remains, but we live in a world where people can successfully dropout.

Some people get one or both of these experiences in any number of ways, but it seems like an ever-increasing segment of the population lacks confidence (even if they had a 4.0 gpa the whole way through their formal education,) and lacks human interaction (even if they have 2000 social media “friends.”)

BOOK: “Ma” ed. by Ken Rodgers & John Einarsen

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Ma: The Japanese Secret to Contemplation and Calm: An Invitation to AwarenessMa: The Japanese Secret to Contemplation and Calm: An Invitation to Awareness by Ken Rodgers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Tuttle

Release date: October 27, 2025

My introduction to the concept of ma came as a young martial arts student, where it was thought of as distancing, but not distancing in a static sense — rather in a way that incorporated timing as well [so, more of an interval in space-time.] I would later hear the term applied to domains such as joke telling in which perfection of pause could be as critical to a laugh as the words that comprised the joke. This book expanded my understanding to numerous realms I’d never much considered before such as architecture, photography, and gardening. (Incidentally, this book does contain a chapter addressing the martial arts aspect of ma, though not the comedic ramifications of the concept.)

I haven’t seen any other books that focus entirely on this concept. Ma is often mentioned in books on Japanese philosophy and aesthetics but rarely with such depth and singular attention. If there are other books that drill down into the concept in this way, I doubt they are as readable as this one (that is, I suspect such a book would be intensely philosophic and scholarly.) So, this book seems to have a solid niche.

There were a couple chapters that took my thinking on the subject to entirely new places. One was on ma in the domain of virtual reality. This raised interesting metaphysical considerations. Another was about the Heart Sutra and how the translations used have led to longstanding misunderstandings of that work.

If you are interested in art and or philosophy, I’d highly recommend this book.

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PROMPT: Comfort Food

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Daily writing prompt
What’s your go-to comfort food?
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It depends on where I am. I recently discovered that my Busan comfort food is “Hotteok with seeds.” In Central Asia, it’s tandoor bread — by whatever name it’s called in the local tongue. In Tblisi, it’s khinkali. In Peru, a lomo saltado is a beautiful thing. Chicago is the only place I’ll eat a hotdog, but I do love one there.

As a traveler, I find it’s important to not get attached to any one thing. If you crave a bagel, you’re great if you’re in New York or Tel Aviv, but if you insist on one in Hyderabad, it will be a sad experience. But, by the same token, if you order Chicken Biryani in Des Moines, expect to be underwhelmed (or — if not — to pay an exorbitant amount, either way it’s depressing.)

Probably the single most widespread comfort food would be whatever the local dumpling is, be it called mo-mo, khinkali, pierogi, dim sum, etc. All quite unique, but with an underlying familiarity.

So, in the immortal words of (the apparently quite slutty) Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, “If you can’t be with the one you love… love the one you’re with.”