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i enjoy writing poetry

i also enjoy philosophizing

random thoughts from a tao apprentice

determinism requires all things to be divined within a context and to define the future of all things;
the tao requires all things to be divined without a context and to be defined by the future of all things

existentialism denies external purpose and embraces nothingness;
the tao denies external nothingness and embraces purposelessness

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if an infinite number of possibilities exist, what are the odds that for the solution to any one possibility there would not exist a mathematical formula?

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from the tao, the only death is life; the only disease is immortality; the only fear is joy; the only pain is feeling fine;
human is all things the tao can never be and nothing the tao hasn't been

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i can look in my daughter eyes and know that i've only myself to blame or thank and (i hope) she'll look in mine the same

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the tao is to nothingness as a metaphor is to infinity

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A Koan from the Telecom Corridor

A technician in an office building walks into his co-worker's cubical and sees her sitting there, typing on a computer.
The technician asks her "how it's going?"
"It's going all-right" she says, not looking up.
"How can you tell?" the technician asks.
"How can you ask?" replies the co-worker, who has stopped typing but continues to stare blankly ahead towards her computer screen.
"Because I couldn't" the technician responded, quizzically.
"Couldn't what?" asked the co-worker, becoming interested and beginning to look up in the direction of the technician.
"Tell," replied the technician.
"Tell what?"
"How it's going."
"But you did," said the co-worker, smiling serenely.
"Did what?" asked the confused technician.
"Tell."
"Tell what?"
"How it's going."
"How did I do that," pleaded the technician, "especially since I just told you I couldn't tell how it's going and because of that I was motivated to ask you how in the first place?"
The co-worker moved her head in a gentle rhythmic pattern, side to side. She slowly closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair as if listening to a distant or non-existent sound that causes tranquil sleepiness.
"I'll tell you," the co-worker said quietly. "You were able to tell how it's going by asking me."
"But I'm not convinced that you know how it's going, thus I was compelled to ask how you could tell."
"And I'm not convinced that you want to know how I can tell how it's going, thus I was compelled to ask you how you can ask."
"Why wouldn't I want to know how you can tell how it's going?"
"Why wouldn't I know how to tell how it's going?"
"Because I couldn't."
"But you did."
"Yes, I remember," droned the technician, sarcastically. "Supposedly I was able to tell how it's going by asking you. The only problem with that is that you still haven't convinced me that you know how to tell."
"Then you must also remember that you still haven't convinced me you want to know how I can tell."
"But I just asked you, didn't I?"
"And I just told you, didn't I?"
"Yes . . . wait, no, you didn't tell me how you know how to tell how it's going. You never did. "The technician was looking intently at the co-worker, silently demanding her full attention. "I want an answer right now! How can you tell how it's going, and please don't worry about whether or not you're convinced I really want to know; just kindly answer the question?" The technician held his steely gaze onto the eyes of the co-worker.
The co-worker took a small breath and seemed to become resigned to answering this one simple question posed so succinctly by the technician.
"I can tell how it's going because . . ."
"How, how, HOW???" cried the technician.
"Only because you asked me," she said, as she lay comfortably in the bottom of a small wooden boat in a still mountain lake. A pleasant breeze whistled through the peaks.

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intrinsic goodness would be where i could be a proponent of goodness with no external reasons nor internal motivations other than for the sake of being good (e.g. not because i fear judgement, damnation, condemnation – not because i desire praise, promotion, celebration). sometimes i wonder if this goal is just a psychodelic pipe dream.