Monthly Archives: January 2011
Triangulations’ Nutrition Keys
Heeding a ‘challenge’ from Michele Obama, the US food industries are voluntarily adding new, simpler labels on the front of food packages to show four cautionary ingredients in food. Apparently previous labels were too complex for the average consumer — … Continue reading
Filed under Religion
Buddhist Readiness
I have started reading a fantastic book called, “The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the mind and the Myth of the Self”. You can see how simple-minded I am by choosing only echo-chamber reading material. Anyway, I never really talk … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Happiness Correlates
Correlations to Happiness None Money (if >poverty) Physical Attractiveness Intelligence Parenthood Age Gender Moderate Health Social Activity Religiosity Strong Genetics Love and Relationship satisfaction Work Satisfaction Studies on happiness are teaching us a lot. Here is a chart to summarize … Continue reading
Filed under Science
Sharings 1/29/11
Some sharings: Rhythm & Music in a village in Guinea. My kids loved this ! 11 min The Heart Sutra : Hard core screaming Rage Music version of the Heart Sutra from Japan. Look, you make chanting nonsense a magic … Continue reading
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Yoga Gratitude
Many years ago, I did graduate work in Comparative Religion. In one of my first courses, we were given the assignment to do some anthropology of religion — we were to investigate any local religious group which was foreign to … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
Buddhist Faith
This post is mainly for Christians to help them explore how others use the word “faith”. Doing comparative studies between different religions –especially very different religions– allows an insight that cannot be had by only in-house, confessional studies. Believe it … Continue reading
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Righteous Blindness
With now with exactly 100 votes on my “Rhetoric vs Craziness” poll, I see readers largely (85%) agree with me that it was the craziness that was most important element in the analysis with rhetoric taking a distant second. Nonetheless, … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy, Religion
Third Eye: WéiQí, Medicine and Conversation
As I teach my son WéiQí, I am trying to teach him to develop a third-eye — a way to seeing (usually outside of the normal temptations of his mental habits). The third-eye allows him to understand these two important … Continue reading
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Rhetoric vs. Insanity
Here is an article about a crazy lady (left) who slaughtered a dog for chewing on her Bible. Some atheist blogs blame Christianity for this horrendous act. Similarly, recently a crazy dude (right) shot a US congresswoman. Some Democrats blame … Continue reading
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Does Culture Exist?
In many of my posts I contend that talking about “Christians”, “Buddhists”, “Muslims” and others as a group is often highly distortive. I contend the same is also true of large-scale secular cultures — these generalizations are an abstract fabrication. … Continue reading
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Responses to Strangeness
We all respond to strangeness or foreignness in different ways. Below are some personal stories of how my family has responded to strangeness. My Parents Visit Japan My parents had the exact opposite temperaments in many ways. My dad was … Continue reading
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Invisibility Cloaks: “Faith”, “Mindfulness” and “Research”
“Faith” is a word that Christians throw around to cover all sorts of different situations — they must have 7 different uses of that word. It is a comfort word for Christians — it is a holy signal. Likewise, many … Continue reading
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WeiQi’s Third Eye
WeiQi, unlike most other games, seems to demand skillful use of both aspects of mind — the analytic, careful, algorithmic side (left brain) and the big-picture, artistic, feeling side (right brain). When playing, a player can often feel which side … Continue reading
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Mind Modules vs. Ideological Systems
A major theme on Triangulations is to show the value of understanding ourselves in terms of simple mental units (modules) instead of large ideological/theological systems. People tend to identify themselves and evaluate others in terms of systems: religious, political, ideological … Continue reading
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Amulets for Buddhists and Atheists
McMahan, in his book “The Making of Buddhist Modernism“, takes effort to show how Modern Buddhists may wish to envision themselves as non-superstitious, but that the majority of Buddhists, both now and historically, have had no qualms with superstition. One … Continue reading
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Your Meditation Saddle
When I was in 5th and 6th grade, my neighborhood friends affectionately nicknamed me “professor” (well, I want to remember it as ‘affectionate’). I earned the title partly because I was the annoying kid in their class who asked a … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy, Religion
The Human Nature Myth
We often use expressions like, “Well, that’s human nature” or “Its only human nature” and more. But perhaps we should protest the phrase “Human Nature” because it is often used to imply there is only one such kind of nature … Continue reading
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Spice up your comments with HTML!
The diagram below is for HTML beginners who are not familiar with how to use HTML code to spice up their comments. Today, let’s start with these three simple HTML codes. Below is an example how I used HTML code … Continue reading
Filed under Blogging
I speaks wrong English
The same people deluded by “The Definition Myth” are also deluded into think that there is such a thing as “correct” English. This dictionary website shows how wrong my English is. Because according to them, out of the 100 most … Continue reading
Filed under Linquistics
English Exceptions are the Rules
Unlike German and Spanish, reading English requires understanding that exceptions are the rules. Here is a fun list of different sounds from the same letters. It reminds me of how people can have similar outward religions (spellings) but have completely … Continue reading
Filed under Linquistics
Nature is not Beautiful, Life is not Suffering
Beautiful Termite Structure Ugly Termite Structure I just read a post where someone raved about how beautiful nature is. The sentence, “Nature is beautiful” can have different meanings for different people. If uttered by a microbiologist looking through a microscope … Continue reading
Filed under Buddhism, Philosophy, Religion, Uncategorized
Argentinian Films on the Dirty War
My Project I watched five Argentinian films concerning the disappeared (desaparecidos) in the “Dirty War” from 1970 – 1983. Below I will give a few impressions of the films. I hope the list inspires others to explore. These are my … Continue reading
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Buddhist Apologists
Inspired by: “The Making of Buddhist Modernism” by David L. McMahan, 2008. (see my Index post) In chapter 2, “The Spectrum of Tradition and Modernism”, McMahan creates five fictional (yet typically realistic) portraits of very different types of Buddhist believers: … Continue reading
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The Making of Buddhist Modernism
This will be the anchor index for my posts for the following book: Title: “The Making of Buddhist Modernism” (amazon) Author: David L. McMahan Publication: Oxford University Press 2008 (320 pgs) David McMahan is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at … Continue reading
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Filed under Buddhism
Filtering out Ourselves
I love images to express thoughts. Here I show myself as a cloud (fuzzy bundle) of all sorts of habits, beliefs, likes and dislikes. Depending on the filters people use when they look at me, only certain salient traits will … Continue reading
Filed under Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Religion
WéiQí (a board game)
This is an Index post for my writings on WéiQí (wiki here). Updated to and including my 08/2011 posts Play WeiQi: links to help you start playing Third Eye: Weiqi, Medicine and Conversation WeiQi’s Third Eye: Analytic, Big-Picture, both or … Continue reading
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The Myth of Definitions
I am writing this post because I see many debates centered on differences in definitions. Some people approach their word-impasses by mistakenly trying to debate the “real” definition of the word. But words don’t have “real” definitions. It is in … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy
