Daily writing prompt
What’s a time you followed your gut and it turned out to be exactly right?
I was hungry, so I ate some food, and I wasn’t hungry afterwards. It actually happens with regularity.
PROMPT: Followed Your Gut
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Tag Archives: Philosophy
PROMPT: Advice
Daily writing prompt
What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?
Make decisions 25% more nervy than you currently see yourself having the courage to pull off.
Also, develop some uniquely human skill for the time (you are likely to see) when ai/robotics does all productive tasks better, faster, and more efficiently than humans. (Think nursing, philosophy, sex work, cage fighting, etc.)
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PROMPT: Inspired
Those who reached the escape velocity necessary to truly write their own stories: e.g. Drukpa Kunley, Diogenes the Cynic, Hánshān, Ikkyū, Socrates, and the various Avadhuta.
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PROMPT: Happiness
That it’s a worthy object of pursuit, as if it is a stable state. I think both the Taoists and the Buddhists have instructive views on the matter. In Taoism, the Yang contains the seed of Yin and one flows inexorably into the other. In this view, the rock bottom worst life has to offer is a time to rejoice because the light will follow. Whereas, when one thinks life is the best it can get, a fall will come. As for Buddhism, our happiness may reflect an illusion that we’ve momentarily achieved our desires, when desires are inherently great white whales. Aim for contentment. Experience happiness when it comes.
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BOOK: “Shuhari” by Nobuo Suzuki
Shuhari: The Three-Step Japanese Path to Lifelong Growth and Success by Nobuo SuzukiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Release date: August 11, 2026
I was introduced to the concept of “shuhari” as a student of Japanese martial arts, and over time I discovered it to be one of the most useful concepts for personal growth and development. Shuhari is by no means exclusive to martial arts and is applied to arts in the broadest sense — really to endeavors of any type (as is true in this book which references not only martial arts, but literary arts, graphic arts, cinematic art, and even sciences.) The idea is this: one begins by repetitively practicing what one is taught in as close to an exemplary fashion as possible (shu,) then one starts adapting the principles one has cultivated to changing and unpredictable circumstances (ha,) and finally one abandons the forms and embraces the spontaneous (ri.) In short, we follow the rules (shu,) break the rules (ha,) and abandon the rules (ri.)
Recent years have seen a flood of books on cultural life philosophies, starting and continuing with those of the Japanese culture, but venturing out into Scandinavian (Sisu and Lagom,) Goan (Susegad,) and many others. One could easily fill a shelf each with the popular books on “ikigai” or “ganbatte.” It’s kind of a surprise to see that it’s taken this long to venture into the invaluable concept of “Shuhari.” It is an idea whose time has come to go global.
In a broad sense, this is a book on learning and creativity, and I’d highly recommend it for anyone looking to reevaluate their approach to learning and / or creating.
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BOOK: “Saiweng Lost His Horse” [塞翁失马] by Qixia Yu
Saiweng Lost His Horse 塞翁失马: A Story about Life and Values by Qixia YuMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Author Amazon Page
This bilingual illustrated book tells the famous Taoist story often referred to as “good news? bad news? who’s to say?” (or words to that effect.) The story, originally contained in the Huainanzi (i.e. The Book of Master Huainan,) shows a wise old farmer subjected to the ups and downs of life. The old man’s neighbors are always surprised when the farmer neither celebrates positive events or bemoans negative ones — realizing the truth contained in the taiji symbol (yin / yang symbol) that the seed of the light is always in the dark and vice versa.
The book contains text in Simplified Chinese, pinyin, and English. It also has pretty illustrations. It’s very kid’s book-like (i.e. short, illustrated, and formatted as such;) though the story, itself, is not particularly juvenile.
I was surprised when this would not open on my laptop “Kindle for PC” reader as another book in this series had. (I like to read illustrated works (and Chinese writings) that way as it’s generally easier to take in than on my phone or Kindle because the big screen is easy to see and enlarge as necessary. That said, I was quite pleased with the ease with which I could magnify the text on my Kindle device. I had none of the frustration reading it on Kindle that I frequently have had with graphic novels and such in the past.
I enjoyed reading this story and found it quite helpful to me as a Chinese language learner. I’d highly recommend it for those learning to read Chinese.
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PROMPT: Won’t Live to Witness
Daily writing prompt
What’s something you’d love to see in the future, but know you probably won’t live to witness?
I would love to see an era in which AI and robotics frees up humans to work on the project of being better humans physically, mentally, creatively, emotionally, artistically, etc.
However, I suspect that on the way to that point there will be periods of dystopia, chaos, and quasi-Armageddon. As near as I can tell, it will involve the invention of a new form of economy (and possibly governance,) which I haven’t seen anyone discussing in the merited depths.
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FIVE WISE LINES [June 2026]
When I was younger I could remember anything,
Mark twain
whether it had happened or not;
but my faculties are decaying now and soon
I shall be able to remember only the things
that never happened.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
Plutarch [paraphrased]
but a fire to be kindled.”
Judge a man by his questions
Voltaire
rather than his answers.
Resist much, obey little.
Walt whitman; “To the states“
People don’t take trips —
John steinbeck
trips take people.
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PROMPT: Fear and Self-Doubt
Feel it but don’t feed it. I feel whatever emotional sensation it brings with my whole attention, but don’t ruminate — i.e. don’t let the mind go into worst-case scenario building or pity partying or self-criticism. Use the sensation as an anchor for one’s awareness. This honors the source of consternation while recognizing that one’s mental (/ emotional) experience of an event is not the event, itself — i.e. that one has influence over one’s experience even when one has zero influence over the event. Gain confidence with the small emotional experiences and work toward the big ones.
This was the great gift I received in being taught sakshi bhava, the yogic practice of dispassionate witnessing.
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PROMPT: Question Reality
I have them all the time. When I was actively working on lucid dreaming / dream yoga, I was particularly attuned to them (as the practice necessitates.) The most common instance is when one sees something in one’s environs that one has never noticed before. It would happen all the time when I was living in Bangalore because it was such a visually chaotic and rapidly changing place that I could walk down a street ten times and not notice an unusual sign or building facade, and then — POW! — the moment I saw it I was in utter disbelief that it could have been their all the time.
I haven’t discounted (nor accepted) the simulation hypothesis, and I suspect whatever the world is, it’s not precisely any of the things we’ve thought it to be.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 