Category: parables
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The starting point of philosophical self-reflection
Philosophical thinking begins in severance, in cleavage, in destruction and loss. Something once as familiar as morning light has fled, and its return is in doubt. Our feet, once paddles, have morphed into trunks. Severance begets pain, pain shuddering, and shuddering puts forth philosophical words: self-reflective words, ungainly words, coarse concepts, bedraggled thoughts. Oh but…
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Friday meditation: On dreams of old friends (a parable)
Last night I dreamt of an old friend. I had popped my head into a shop despite my reticence about window shopping. It was something I never did. There among the sweaters I saw my old friend. “Jules!,” a young man cried out to another, as if it’d been years since they’d seen each other.…
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Epicurus’ argument against the fear of death
Tonight when I was sitting on my roof reading my paperback copy of Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge, I looked over at my neighbor’s garden. The trees were straight and leafy, the flowers were orange and contented. Yet who was looking after them? During all the time I’d spent up here not once had I…
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A scholar was visiting an old monk…
A scholar was visiting an old monk. The monk filled the scholar’s teacup full, but kept on pouring. The scholar finally exclaimed, “It is full. No more will go in!” “Like this cup,” said the monk, “you are overfull with your own opinions. I cannot show you the way of Zen.” Compiled by Marc de Smedt. The…
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The tale of the precocious boy
There’s an old story about a young boy who grows up in a farming town. Year in year out, the parents barely hang on. It’s hard work this farming life, with each year farming folk being replaced by big business. Farmers grumble and say it is what it is and get back to work. The…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 