Category: philosophical counseling
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Is Zen About Exerting Oneself To The Point Of Tears?
It is a common misunderstanding to think that Zen practice is so effortful that one must exert oneself to the point of tears. This is not so, yet it is is understandable. Chan (Chinese Zen) masters have, especially in the work entitled The Chan Whip, impressed upon their students the need to remain vigilant at…
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We’re Groundless
You can doubt pretty much everything today. There are Flat-earthers who doubt that the earth is a sphere. There are carnivore dieters who reject all food except for beef (or liver), salt, and water. There are anti-vacciners for whom the injection of COVID-19 vaccine, were such to exist, would be tantamount to poisoning one’s children.…
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There Are Two Unconformable Truths About The Aged In Modern Culture…
There are two unconformable truths about the aged in modern culture. One is that they are not wise, just old. The other is that they are not allowed to die nor do they want to. It’s not, in fact, wise to assert that “with experience comes wisdom,” and it’s a shame that it’s not true…
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Wrong Ways And The Other Way
Everything we have done so far to end our dis-ease, our suffering, our discontent (dukkha) hasn’t worked. Hasn’t worked because it cannot work. See this clearly. Doing the same thing over and over again isn’t insanity or stupidity. It’s ineffectuality. Could it be that every approach is bound to do nothing but heighten dukkha or…
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Wisdom Is Not Always Pretty
It often comes as a surprise to learn that your pen pal, upon his moving close to you, is not a close friend of yours. Only in retrospect does it now dawn on you that writing or speaking by phone was the glue that held the friendship, as it was, together. You only knew so…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 