28 Sep, 2022
In 2019, my then-neighbour was sorry to hear about my imminent relocation. At her age (then 98), all her friends and relatives had already passed away. As a helpful neighbour, I provided some sense of security. A year before, she had expressed her regrets for outliving everyone. A few days ago, my mother suddenly said that she had never expected to reach 88 next...
20 Sep, 2022
Each day, I find / get / have new inspiration for writing these blogs. After all these years, it's hard to answer these basic questions: What is inspiration? Why do we get it? Where does it come from? How do we get it? Who gets inspiration and who doesn't? Most of all, inspiration is a mystery. Like others (eg, FD), I have my views. These views of mine are similar...
5 Sep, 2022
Many articles argue that human societies look a lot like ant colonies. Ants have a caste system which is similar to our job specialization. "The typical colony consists of one or more egg-laying queens, numerous sterile females (workers, soldiers) and, seasonally, many winged sexual males and females." (Wiki) There are much more ants than humans: one million...
16 Aug, 2022
My recent blog on the 7 pillars of Wisdom, including Frans de Waal's comment on my August 4 diagram, has created some turmoil in my mind. In my view, the main difference between animals and humans is having (no) beliefs. In my view, an Awakening is about losing your beliefs. Can we have no beliefs? I consider myself a centrist and a pragmatist using common sense...
11 Aug, 2022
The diagram in my August 4 blog received a comment from Frans de Waal, a Dutch primatologist: "I think I have known nonhuman primates with great wisdom." My initial reply to him was: "If Wisdom is the absence of (human) beliefs then you have a point." Then it hit me: what is Wisdom? My answer qualifies as a negative definition, similar to my March 2022 blog: What is...
4 Aug, 2022
There is a Dutch saying: "A donkey does not bump into the same stone twice." I didn't see foreign equivalents. An alleged quote by Albert Einstein states: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” The key difference between animals and humans is (not) having beliefs. Recently, I noticed this question: If Humans Are the...
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