Author: Andrew Taggart
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The Heart, The Rational Mind, And The Ego
Setup Let the heart be that which is distinct not just from the ego but also from the rational mind. The Heart Moreover, let the heart be the name provisionally given to “the knowing with which one knows.” This knowing is unified (there is no dissensus), simple (there is no complexity), indubitable (there is no…
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The Apparent Impossibility Of Being With ‘It Is So’
Is there anything more to say, really, than: “It is so?” Yet words, dipped in fire, leap out of the void, then singe the earth. Yet thoughts pitch and whir and whirl, putting us in a trance. Yet feelings itch and inch forward, subtly or acutely denying this. It is apparently impossible to meet and…
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We Cannot Confront Thought At The Level Of Thought
We cannot confront thought at the level of thought. Imagine that there is a still pond. Now imagine that the slightest–or, in some instances, the most volatile–stirring or agitation disturbs the surface of the pond. In this analogy, the stirring or agitations are what we rather inaptly (approximately) call “feelings.” The full-fledged forms–here, waves and…
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The Sage Just Falls Asleep: On Neither Trying Not To Try Nor Not Trying To Try
In The Tao is Silent, Raymond Smullyan once summarized Daoism thusly: The Sage falls asleep not Because he ought to Nor even because he wants to But because he is sleepy. “Trying not to try” is only a paradox until it isn’t. The Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi has it right. When we love something or enjoy something…
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‘Everything Seemed Perfect…’
Everything seemed perfect. Or at least it was supposed to be. No, you know that it’s perfect, don’t you? Besides, other people tell you–at brunch, at dinner parties–that you have it really good. There’s, as the gods and goddesses see it, only one tiny problem. One little thing that’s been overlooked or left out of…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 