Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World
Yesterday, I learned the basics of the “Repulse Monkey” Tai Chi form. It is basically a way to gracefully retreat or walk backward, like a monkey would I suppose. While I certainly did not perform the move gracefully (I bumped into my chair a few times), after a few attempts I did begin to feel
There is something deeply gratifying about coming up with an insight that no one else has thought of. If you’ve ever been in a situation where you were helping someone work through a problem, and you’ve said or asked something that caused the other person to say “wow, I hadn’t thought about that before!” you
Yesterday, I had an opportunity to put the Taoist advice I wrote about it in practice. In January, I submitted applications for grad school to study religion. I applied to two programs, (a PhD and a MTS – Masters in Theological Studies) at one school. I was rejected in February for the PhD program, which
I’ve never really felt the need to be a part of a group. For example, I’m from the Boston area, which of course, means I’m supposed to be a Red Sox fan. Nominally, I’m a fan, but honestly, I don’t really care about baseball. The thought of going to a baseball game with thousands of
I’m still working on grad school apps so I’m holding off on publishing my “real” posts, but a question came to mind this morning that I thought would be interesting to pose to my readers. Much of modern advice is predicated on the idea that your current life situation is shitty, or at least, unsatisfactory, and
Here’s a quick recap on my third week of Hinduism: Daily Puja (Bhakti Yoga) This past week I’ve been inconsistent about making my offering to Ganesh. My girlfriend’s mother had been visiting and staying with us and my shrine is right next to where she sleeps, so I didn’t want to disturb her in in the
As part of my Judaism month, I am practicing “Daf Yomi” which means I’m studying one one page of Talmud per day. The Talmud is difficult to explain, but basically, it is a group of rabbis debating what pieces of the Torah mean. It’s like a blog post with comments that span a thousand years.
My first Shabbat kicked off Friday evening. I went to a friend’s home for Shabbat dinner and was able to observe how his family practices the Jewish tradition. The next morning I spent two and a half hours (unintentionally) at a Shabbat service. I say unintentionally because I guess most people don’t show up for
I’ve traveled a bit in Europe and in the Middle East, and one of the most attractive cultural elements of these places are their café cultures. In Egypt, you can walk down any road and find what I call “old man cafes.” You will see old Egyptian men sitting outside of a small shop or
I’m sure most of you have made some kind of resolution for 2016, something that you feel needs correction and work. I’m personally back on a low-carb diet and I’m making sure to re-incorporate some of the ancient wisdom practices I abandoned after my experiments. But, most people fail at their New Year’s resolutions. A