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ToV 11 – Taoists and Topologists

Click on image for interactive Wolfram Demonstration

There’s an old math joke says: a topologist can’t tell the difference between a coffee cup and a doughnut (pausing while you look up topology and doughnuts, or sigh and wonder what is wrong with me). To a Taoist however, the coffee cup has a useful sort of emptiness the doughnut does not, and that’s what this stanza is getting at:

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

It’s a hard concept (and a big Taoist one) to get your head around: the use of emptiness, the value of nothing.Read More »ToV 11 – Taoists and Topologists

Day 19 – minding my own business

It occurs to me, there might be more peace in my life if I minded my own business more. Not that I’m an interfering busybody so much as I may have an over developed sense of empathy. I’m saddened to see other people suffering (especially when their monkey mind has got them on the ropes), and I’m often cautious about acting in ways that will hurt or upset people.

Forgetting of course, some of the best lessons I’ve learned have arisen from times I’ve been upset or deeply hurt. Who am I to try and shelter people from those experiences?Read More »Day 19 – minding my own business