Stephen Mitchell's Tao te Ching Tranlation

 Tao te Ching

by Lao Tzu 

Translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1988

Section: Tao

1
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

2
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

Transgenderism or Gender Dysphoria?

Here is a story from where I used to live, Fairfax County, Virginia, about parents who want to confront the school board there about sex education, including transgenderism, so called. The extremist school board decided to table that discussion until later in the summer, presumably when more concerned parents will be away on summer vacation. The story tends to support my theory that government schools are no place of children (see my political agenda here). The story provides an adequate jumping off point for me to pontificate on my views concerning gender dysphoria.

I prefer to use the term "extremist" above rather than "liberal" because that's what these people are, they're extreme. Normal, middle-of-the-road, middle-class people have ceded the language over to the extremists, which gives them a huge advantage in the war over social policy. They call themselves nice words like "liberal" and "progressive," while calling these middle-of-the-road people "conservative."

Same with "transgenderism." Such a newfangled term sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? It gives the whole thing an air of legitimacy. But what is it really? 

It's really a mental illness called "gender dysphoria."

My beef is not with people with gender dysphoria. These are people with a mental disorder who are due all the love and empathy that anyone else deserves. And it's a free country. People can do what they want with their lives. It's a crazy world out there and it's easy to get confused. People need to have the space to figure it out. Children are another matter, of course. Parents need to guide their children, not government school employees, and children need to wait until they're adults to make life-altering decisions like this.

Elon Musk Laments Low Birthrate: Letterman-style list to Solve the Problem

Elon Musk recently lamented the low birthrate in the industrialized world. Musk took Italy as an example, where the birthrate fell last year to its lowest level ever. There will be no Italians on the Italiian pennensula, Musk says, if things don't change. He also cited Japan declining population to make his point.

According to Musk, “Most people believe that we have too many people on the planet. This is an outdated view.” Convincing people otherwise seems to be his only solution to the perceived problem.

I would like to offer a few more. Regardless of their views on how more people might adversely affect the environment and other possible negative ramifications of population growth, people can't keep from having sex, and sex will lead to higher birthrates if left to its own devices. The problem is, it is not.

I'm tempted to arrange these items from last to first in the manner of David Letterman's old Top Ten List, but there are only four so it's not all that dramatic (or funny, except maybe the last one). Aw, heck, I'll do it that way anyway. Here goes. Top 4 ways to increase the birthrate:

If I Were to Run for Office, This Would Be My Agenda

I'm not likely to run for office, but if I did this would be my agenda. I wanted to go ahead and get the list out there now. This is a work in progress. I'll flesh it out little by little later. I'm not sure I would find a constituency, but I wouldn't really care. I would just run on this agenda and let the cards fall where they may.

1. Overturn Roe v. Wade

The abortion issue is what's called a wedge issue--the ultimate wedge issue, it seems--that inures to the benefit of the Republican party and ultimately rich people of both parties. Abortion splits the middle class right down the middle. Half of those middle-class people vote Democrat, the other half Republican. This allows rich people and evangelicals to control the Republican party and rich people, poor people and kooks (mostly kooks) to control the Democratic party. The result of this division has been the resolute decimation of the middle class over the last 5 decades since Roe v. Wade was decided.

Without Roe v. Wade, both parties would have to tailor their respective platforms and policies in favor of the middle class, rather than the rich and the poor. Franklin Roosevelt was the first politician to harness the power of the middle class, and he won four terms in office, followed by a fifth for his Vice-president, Harry Truman. The run was only ended by General Eisenhower, a war hero, who was a Republican, but whose policies were in no way different from those of Roosevelt/Truman, and who was anchored by a Democratic Congress throughout his eight years in office. He was followed by eight more years of Democratic hegemony. This was an era of unparalleled prosperity. A return to a pre-Roe national political landscape would invite back those years of growth and  stability. It would make both parties much more sensible.

Middle-class people tend to be rather no-nonsense in their approach to life. The extremes of the social liberals that have a stranglehold on Washington, DC today would take a back seat to normal, middle-of-the-road middle-class values. This would be the best thing for the poor, as well. A thriving and attainable middle-class to which they can aspire and thrive is far more effective at raising them out of their poverty than any government giveaway program could ever be.

2. Expand the Definition of Religion

Realizing and legally recognizing through court precedent that certain worldviews hold no distinction from historical religions would go a long way toward leveling the playing field of politics and education. Religions like LQBTQ+, Climate Change and even Science in general currently are allowed to indoctrinate throughout society with impunity, particularly in schools. "Outing" them as religions would mean they could no long fly beneath the radar. People would still be able to practice these nihilistic and atheistic religions but they would no longer be allowed to use the airwaves to proselytize and preach that their way is the truth and all other religions are false.

The "Ahhhh" Moment

People talk about the "Ah-ha!" moment, but you hear less often about the "Ahhhh" moment. It's something that you might want to try to work into your schedule at least once a day. Maybe even more often if you can.

I have an Ahhhh moment every morning I go to the beach. It usually happens as pre-dawn I hit the apex of the A. Max Brewer Memorial Bridge. I don't know who A. Max Brewer is/was, but I sure like his bridge. Here is a picture of my morning commute. You can just make out the edge of the Indian River (which is actually a lagoon). Majestic. Ahhhh.

Take Yourself By the Shoulders

The other day, I saw a woman outside a Publix grocery store. She was sitting in the shade smoking a cigarette. She might have been waiting for the bus, which was fully open and unattended a few feet away, to return to service.

The expression on the woman's face made me want to take her by the shoulders and shake her and say, "Ask for more from life! Just ask!"

A little while later, I wanted to take myself by the shoulders and say, "Ask for more from life! Just ask!"

Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay

You Can Do What You Want

I grew up going to church, where I learned a lot about the Bible. One of the lines from the Bible that has stayed with me is Psalms 37:4:  

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

I'm quoting it here not as authority, but because it came to mind as I thought about what it means to live a successful life. It's pretty much a tiny little success formula, isn't it? One that might make a lot of sense once we break it down. 

But what does it actually mean? And how does Sammy Hagar, the Red Rocker (pictured left, courtesy of Cigar Aficionado), figure into the equation? Let's take a look.

Take a Breath

 1. Press the play button.

2. Take a breath.

3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 as needed.

Brace for Impact

A couple of the phrases I remember from my Navy days were, "Standby for heavy rolls," and "Brace for impact." 

The first would be announced when the ship was in the trough of a wave. When the waves rolled through, so would the ship from side to side, sometimes violently if the waves were big enough. We always tried to keep the ship's bow (nose) pointed toward the waves, or away from them, but we couldn't always do that for a variety of reasons. And when we couldn't, it could be a real problem.

They would announce: "Brace for impact," when we were about to hit something, like land or an iceberg or another ship. This never actually happened on any ship I was on but we ran drills for everything and that phrase came up in some of those drills. In which case you would have to grab something and hold on tight.

It's one thing to standby for heavy rolls and brace for impact externally, but it's quite another to do so internally. Another word for this phenomenon is "worry." Or "anxiety." And it can cause real health problems. What does such internal bracing accomplish? Does it help the situation in any way? Or does it merely cause physical discomfort?

What to Eat

How do we answer this question, "What to eat?"

Do we look around for the latest diet fad and read the book? Do we sign up for one of the weight loss programs and let someone tell us what we should eat?

Here's an idea: listen to your body. Maybe it knows exactly what to eat.

How would you go about listening to you body? What would that look like? It might look something like this:

Kirkus Review of License to Ill

When you self-publish a novel, you want to find ways to lend credibility to it, a way to say the book is worth reading. One way to do that is to have a reputable agency review it. Kirkus is a pretty respected reviewer. Here's what they had to say about License to Ill. I think it's pretty accurate.

Two lawyers attempt to overturn Obamacare on spiritual grounds in this debut novel.

Jerry Riggs is chief counsel to the speaker of the House and, as a Republican, is exasperated with his party’s failure to effectively oppose Obamacare. He’s especially angry at the GOP’s hypocritical complicity: Senate Minority Leader Mack McCormick openly criticized the Affordable Health Care Act but simultaneously ensured its protection from legislative assault in deference to his close ties to the health care industry. But an unusual opportunity to attack Obamacare surfaces when Sebastian Vogel, an old law school classmate of Jerry’s, files a suit against the federal government, requesting a religious exemption from the act’s individual mandate. His argument is a strikingly odd one, not premised on any adherence to institutional religion but instead on a general spirituality that interprets sickness and health as states of consciousness rather than medical conditions: “We’ve mapped out the DNA and found that it doesn’t explain everything….Could that be because there’s a spiritual aspect to disease?” Jerry reluctantly teams up with Vogel—his New-Age conversion strikes the chief counsel as incoherent at first—because he sees a real possibility to strike a blow at an otherwise impregnable law. But when Vogel’s home is set on fire by an arsonist, the stakes become perilously clear—a billion-dollar industry has taken notice and is prepared to kill to protect its profits. Meanwhile, Jerry struggles with his own mounting health problems—overweight and underexercised, he’s developed a serious heart condition that requires surgery, precisely the circumstances that led to his father’s death. Wright inventively combines political intrigue, humor, and philosophical meditation in an unusually policy-wonkish thriller. The author certainly stretches the outer limits of plausibility—and readers’ credulity—but in a way artful enough that the plot never descends into outright absurdity. Vogel’s form of spirituality can be irksomely enigmatic, but he still delivers some memorable insights. The whole narrative is a kind of conservative fantasy—a spiritually inspired but legitimate way to topple Obamacare—so it’s possible those readers unsympathetic to the Republican cause will find it tough to be sensitive to Jerry’s plight.

A witty and refreshingly original political drama.

Blurb for License to Ill

I need to bring you up to speed on some of the developments concerning my latest novel, License to Ill (see cover/link to the right). Both License to Ill and The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder (look to the right) are novels that uses an entertaining story to convey spiritual principles.

I imposed upon my friend Roger Johns, author of an excellent mystery set in Baton Rouge, LA, called Dark River Rising (St. Martin’s Press-Minotaur Books), to read License to Ill and write a "blurb" for it, which he graciously agreed to do. A blurb is a quote from another author that usually goes on the cover or somewhere on the interior to help get people excited about reading the novel.

Here's what Roger wrote for me:

Big money, political intrigue, a very inventive story with plenty of action, and characters you won’t soon forget make License to Ill a flat out page-turner.

 Thanks, Roger! I'll get the cover updated soon in order to get this blurb on there.

Your Car Can Be a Great Place to Meditatate . . .

. . . as long as you don't close your eyes.

If you have to deal with rush hour traffic or have a long commute everyday, use that time to your benefit. For heaven's sake, turn off the music--it's not bringing you peace, it's programming you--and turn off talk radio--it's designed to get you spun up.

Just because it's rush hour doesn't mean you have to be in a rush. Hang out in the slow lane. Let people in, let people pass you. It won't make an appreciable difference in your arrival time, but it will make an appreciable difference in your blood pressure and it will give you space to look inward instead of outward.

Pay attention to your breathing, one breath at a time. In, out, rest. Your breath is always happening now. This is the simplest of meditations. It brings you to the present moment very quickly and easily. And what problems do you ever have right now?

Good to Be Back!

It's been a few years since I've done any blogging as I made a few changes in my life, changing jobs, moving from Kentucky to Tennessee and now to the Washington DC area. I was also writing a 2nd novel (see to the right). Meditation and Life Coaching has continued with each new locale.

During this hiatus, I experimented with another blog format that just didn't work for me. It was too complicated. And so now I'm back.

It's good to be back! I'm going to try to post something uplifting for you every weekday, even if it's something simple like this.

The Münchhausen Trilemma

For a brief moment, my next novel, now called License to Ill, was going to be called The Obamacare Trilemma, and it was going to have the below inscription, both in German and English at the beginning. Even though I've changed the title, I'm going to keep the inscription because it's still very much apropos to the story and it sets the right tone because it's so funny (I think).

This may be the only place you can find the English translation of the Barron von Münchhausen bootstrapping story anywhere (see below), which is a little odd because the Münchhausen Trilemma is such an important philosophical issue.

For a more complete understanding of the concept, I invite you to click on the link and read, but for my purposes The MünchhausenTrilemma demonstrates that rationality (i.e. thinking) must have input from some source other than itself. Rationality is like a calculator in that it requires a finger from somewhere to press the buttons.

The input comes from consciousness. Rationality is but a tiny subset of our larger consciousness. Feelings bubble up into ideas (rationality) and those ideas become words for the very limited purposes of communication and the creation of labor-saving devices. Those feelings come from our connectedness to all that is, not from our own thinking.

That's why a so-called "rational" approach to life (as opposed to a consciousness-based approach to life) is considered bootstrapping. It does not allow for this input from all that is. It simply assumes that the thinking started up on its own. That the calculator pressed its own buttons.

[As always, you need not take my word for any of this. Go into your body and make your own determination as to the nature of reality.]
The world of Science (what I would call the Religion of Science) would have you ignore this point. As stated aptly on Rationalwiki.org:

The Münchhausen Trilemma is a problem in philosophy that all statements can be questioned and then need evidence. This problem has been well known in philosophy for thousands of years, but rarely gets addressed because it breaks the legs of philosophy, science, and any other possible approach to reality.

I would disagree, however, that the Münchhausen Trilemma breaks the legs of "philosophy" and "any other possible approach to reality." It only breaks the legs of rationality-based philosophies and approaches to reality. If so-called reality is an illusion, all falls into place. I would certainly agree, though, that the Münchhausen Trilemma breaks the legs of science.

The story behind the below quotation is interesting.

Connection Between Observation and the Material World

A friend of mine sent me the following video about an interesting new technology. Isn't it interesting that everything we look for . . . we find?

Perhaps there's more of a connection between the act of observation and our "discoveries" than we realize. Maybe we're actually creating the world, rather than discovering it. I talk about this in The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder.

Latest 5-Star Review of The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder

I'm listening to the Reds game while I write this. I just had to turn down the sound on another cancer commercial. Ask yourself what they're selling in those commercials and realize that healthcare providers, like all corporations, are actively about the business of expanding their markets. Think about that and you will turn down the sound on all such commercials too. That's the topic of my next book, the current working title of which is The Obamacare Experiments.

In the meantime, I have this other book out there called The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder, and my friend and colleague, Thomas Cothran, has been so kind as to post a review on Amazon. While Thomas gave the book five starts, in the review he also says of what you might call its philosophical argument:

"I'll let the reader make their own decision about the merits of this worldview. (The enemy of this metaphysics is Aristotle.) For my own part, I remain cheerfully Aristotelian.

In other words, The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder in essence lays the responsibility for all the woes of modern society squarely at the feet of Aristotle's rationalism, and young Thomas--who's favorite philosopher is Kierkegaard but doesn't recognize that Kierkegaard was anti-Aristotilian too--remains unconvinced.

Not to worry. I've challenged my good friend to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for himself, a challenge to which he has agreed. We shall see if he remains cheerfully Aristotelian after that.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks, Thomas!

Remembering Pee Wee Reese on Jackie Robinson Day

As I listen to Marty Brennaman and Jim Kelch broadcast the
Reds game on this, MLB's Jackie Robinson Day, when all players wear number 42 in commemoration of this day in 1947 when the color barrier was abolished, it's easy to get a little choked up thinking about Cincinnati's important connection to that important season--and the Kentucky connection to it. 

And I do . . . get choked up about it, I mean . . . every year, I do. It's such a beautiful story about a Kentucky boy demonstrating nothing more than simple kindness.

And changing the world thereby.

Success - Writing and Publishing

Following is the meat of a post to a friend on Facebook in response to a question about publishing:

My last book was self-published, so I didn't work with a publisher on that one. It was actually my 8th novel and I tried a little to get some of the other ones published but never really delved deeply enough into it.

In some ways, I wish I would have tried to do more with them, but then again I think something inside made me want to wait to mature as a writer and as a person. And no regrets, there is only now. And speaking of now, I've written a 9th novel, working title The Obamacare Experiments, and now I'm pursuing a traditional publisher for that one more rigorously.

Find an Editor

One thing I've come to understand is that you have to invest in your product. That means you need to seek out a professional editor. It's expensive but it must be done, for four reasons.

First, it's the best way to learn. It's like hiring a tutor.

Second, writing is a collaborative process. It is very rare when a person can just write something down and have it published (maybe impossible). You need that professional with credentials. Why? So you will trust their recommendations. Preferably, you should find one from NYC with publishing experience, again expensive, but worth it.

One more piece of advice on the selection I might offer: if you're a woman, find a male editor and vice versa. This is not a hard and fast rule, by any means, but in my own research (anecdotal though it may be) I found that this dynamic seems to lend itself to creation of a better product . . . food for thought.

Emails About Kierkegaard

I know what you're thinking: "Gee, Todd, your life must be pretty dull if you're exchanging emails about a Danish philosopher from the 19th century." Ok, ok, I hear you, but hear me out.

Let me give you a little background on how this email came about. A couple of friends of mine read my book, The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder, and one of those friends described my book to the other as, "out there." Which is about the best review a writer can hope for. Why? Because this means that the book contained ideas and concepts that the reader didn't necessarily agree with (or thought he didn't), and yet it was written well enough that he was able to get through it, he was able to finish the book. That's big! I couldn't really hope for more.

This fellow, I'm told, is also a big fan of Søren Kierkegaard, the aforementioned 19th century Danish philosopher (these are the upper crust circles of people who actually have favorite philosopher that I run in, folks, what can I tell you?). So much so, in fact, that he named his child after him (Søren, not Kierkegaard). Which I think is pretty cool because it's a pretty cool name, only I hope he didn't use the o with the slash through it (ø), which would probably get a little annoying for the kid.

Anyway, I was only vaguely familiar with the philosophy of Kierkegaard  (I'm a novelist, after all, not a philosopher, or worse a "philosophizer" as Robert Persig puts it in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), so after the conversation I went on line and brushed up on it, and lo and behold, what did I find but that the depressed Dane agreed wholeheartedly with everything in The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder! He professed, you see, Kierkegaard did, a similar brand of what has been labelled "existentialism."

I had always heard the term bandied about and had an idea what it meant, but not until now did I make the connection between the "existence" in "existentialism" and "being" and "consciousness." These are all exact synonyms. What Kierkegaard was talking about, what Eckhart Tolle is talking about, what I'm talking about in The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder--it's all the same thing.

And now from the email . . . Oh, and be sure to check out the link to the exercise mentioned a couple of times below so you know exactly what we're talking about when we talk about existence.