Todd Wright Now

My New Book: The Big Granola: An Enlightened Mystery Is Finally Out!

2026-03-07T11:20:00.009-05:00

Well, folks, my new book is finally out! It's called The Big Granola. It's a funny Florida neo-noir mystery with an enlightenment theme. I hope you'll take a look at it on Amazon.

It's the story of Holden "Max" Cash, "an FBI washout," who retires on a disability at the age of 35 to Florida's Space Coast, where he generally feels sorry for himself and plays small-stakes tournament poker to pass the time. From within this milieu, he gets drawn into a murder investigation of a poker pro named Ursula Morand, and he suddenly has a new identity as a private investigator, whether he likes it or not.

Soon, a rocket billionaire is implicated in the killing and the story is off to the races.

Ultimately, all my books (3 so far, with a couple on the way) are about encounters with more or less enlightened individuals and how that plays out in a person's life. In this case, Max Cash meets Big Granola, a poker pro who appears to be enlightened, but may actually be a suspect. Max has to sort that out.

Here's what the back of the book says:

From Florida's quirky Space Coast, private investigator Holden "Max" Cash is hired to untangle a Miami murder that reeks of rocket billionaire cover-up and corporate rot. Clues lead through smoky poker rooms to the glittering facades of the powerful—yet every trail seems to circle back to nothing.
Then Max meets Big Granola, the laid-back poker pro whose enlightened gaze cuts through the bluff like sunlight through the humid Florida haze. But is he sage or suspect? What begins as a routine case morphs into something deeper—a collision of hard-boiled cynicism and quiet revelation. Max's hunches sharpen into soul-deep intuition, illusions crack, and the truth emerges, not from evidence alone, but from seeing clearly for the first time.

The blurb goes on to ask: "In a world built on lies and high stakes, can a jaded, wise-cracking detective wake up before the house takes everything?"

Can he, indeed!

In this new day of AI, it must be said that the entirety of the interior text was created by me alone. I refused all help from AI! But a new day has truly dawned. AI has made it extremely easy for a one-man-band like myself to produce a high-quality product, providing quality graphics and commercial writing that rival the big publishing houses at a price that has long-since been completely unaffordable.

Take a look. I hope you like it and give it a read. I would love to hear your thoughts and feelings about The Big Granola. It's available in both paperback and Kindle varieties.

Stephen Mitchell's Tao te Ching Tranlation

2025-06-18T08:11:00.001-04:00

Tao te Ching

by Lao Tzu

Translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1988

Section: Tao

1
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

2
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

3
If you overesteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.

The Master leads
by emptying people's minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.

Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.

4
The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.

5
The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.

The Tao is like a bellows:
it is empty yet infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

Hold on to the center.

6
The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.

It is always present within you.
You can use it any way you want.

7
The Tao is infinite, eternal.
Why is it eternal?
It was never born;
thus it can never die.
Why is it infinite?
It has no desires for itself;
thus it is present for all beings.

The Master stays behind;
that is why she is ahead.
She is detached from all things;
that is why she is one with them.
Because she has let go of herself,
she is perfectly fulfilled.

8
The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

9
Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.

10
Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from you own mind
and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.

11
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

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

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.

12
Colors blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart.

The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.

13
Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
you position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.

14
Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.

Above, it isn't bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.

Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.

15
The ancient Masters were profound and subtle.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it;
all we can describe is their appearance.

They were careful
as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory.
Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice.
Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley.
Clear as a glass of water.

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?

The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.

16
Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their return.

Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.

If you don't realize the source,
you stumble in confusion and sorrow.
When you realize where you come from,
you naturally become tolerant,
disinterested, amused,
kindhearted as a grandmother,
dignified as a king.
Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,
you can deal with whatever life brings you,
and when death comes, you are ready.

17
When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.

If you don't trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.

The Master doesn't talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!"

18
When the great Tao is forgotten,
goodness and piety appear.
When the body's intelligence declines,
cleverness and knowledge step forth.
When there is no peace in the family,
filial piety begins.
When the country falls into chaos,
patriotism is born.

19
Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won't be any thieves.

If these three aren't enough,
just stay at the center of the circle
and let all things take their course.

20
Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!

Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don't care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.

Other people have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.
I alone drift about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other people are sharper;
I alone am dull.
Other people have a purpose;
I alone don't know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.

I am different from ordinary people.
I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.

21
The Master keeps her mind
always at one with the Tao;
that is what gives her her radiance.

The Tao is ungraspable.
How can her mind be at one with it?
Because she doesn't cling to ideas.

The Tao is dark and unfathomable.
How can it make her radiant?
Because she lets it.

Since before time and space were,
the Tao is.
It is beyond is and is not.
How do I know this is true?
I look inside myself and see.

22
If you want to become whole,
let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight,
let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.
If you want to be reborn,
let yourself die.
If you want to be given everything,
give everything up.

The Master, by residing in the Tao,
sets an example for all beings.
Because he doesn't display himself,
people can see his light.
Because he has nothing to prove,
people can trust his words.
Because he doesn't know who he is,
people recognize themselves in him.
Because he has no goal in mind,
everything he does succeeds.

When the ancient Masters said,
"If you want to be given everything, give everything up,"
they weren't using empty phrases.
Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.

23
Express yourself completely,
then keep quiet.
Be like the forces of nature:
when it blows, there is only wind;
when it rains, there is only rain;
when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.

If you open yourself to the Tao,
you are at one with the Tao
and you can embody it completely.
If you open yourself to insight,
you are at one with insight
and you can use it completely.
If you open yourself to loss,
you are at one with loss
and you can accept it completely.

Open yourself to the Tao,
then trust your natural responses;
and everything will fall into place.

24
He who stands on tiptoe
doesn't stand firm.
He who rushes ahead
doesn't go far.
He who tries to shine
dims his own light.
He who defines himself
can't know who he really is.
He who has power over others
can't empower himself.
He who clings to his work
will create nothing that endures.

If you want to accord with the Tao,
just do your job, then let go.

25
There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.

It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.

The Tao is great.
The universe is great.
Earth is great.
Man is great.
These are the four great powers.

Man follows the earth.
Earth follows the universe.
The universe follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.

26
The heavy is the root of the light.
The unmoved is the source of all movement.

Thus the Master travels all day
without leaving home.
However splendid the views,
she stays serenely in herself.

Why should the lord of the country
flit about like a fool?
If you let yourself be blown to and fro,
you lose touch with your root.
If you let restlessness move you,
you lose touch with who you are.

27
A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his mind open to what is.

Thus the Master is available to all people
and doesn't reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
and doesn't waste anything.
This is called embodying the light.

What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man's job?
If you don't understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.

28
Know the male,
yet keep to the female:
receive the world in your arms.
If you receive the world,
the Tao will never leave you
and you will be like a little child.

Know the white,
yet keep to the black:
be a pattern for the world.
If you are a pattern for the world,
the Tao will be strong inside you
and there will be nothing you can't do.

Know the personal,
yet keep to the impersonal:
accept the world as it is.
If you accept the world,
the Tao will be luminous inside you
and you will return to your primal self.

The world is formed from the void,
like utensils from a block of wood.
The Master knows the utensils,
yet keeps to the the block:
thus she can use all things.

29
Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it can be done.

The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.

There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.

The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.

30
Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men
doesn't try to force issues
or defeat enemies by force of arms.
For every force there is a counterforce.
Violence, even well intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.

The Master does his job
and then stops.
He understands that the universe
is forever out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the current of the Tao.
Because he believes in himself,
he doesn't try to convince others.
Because he is content with himself,
he doesn't need others' approval.
Because he accepts himself,
the whole world accepts him.

31
Weapons are the tools of violence;
all decent men detest them.

Weapons are the tools of fear;
a decent man will avoid them
except in the direst necessity
and, if compelled, will use them
only with the utmost restraint.
Peace is his highest value.
If the peace has been shattered,
how can he be content?
His enemies are not demons,
but human beings like himself.
He doesn't wish them personal harm.
Nor does he rejoice in victory.
How could he rejoice in victory
and delight in the slaughter of men?

He enters a battle gravely,
with sorrow and with great compassion,
as if he were attending a funeral.

32
The Tao can't be perceived.
Smaller than an electron,
it contains uncountable galaxies.

If powerful men and women
could remain centered in the Tao,
all things would be in harmony.
The world would become a paradise.
All people would be at peace,
and the law would be written in their hearts.

When you have names and forms,
know that they are provisional.
When you have institutions,
know where their functions should end.
Knowing when to stop,
you can avoid any danger.

All things end in the Tao
as rivers flow into the sea.

33
Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough,
you are truly rich.
If you stay in the center
and embrace death with your whole heart,
you will endure forever.

34
The great Tao flows everywhere.
All things are born from it,
yet it doesn't create them.
It pours itself into its work,
yet it makes no claim.
It nourishes infinite worlds,
yet it doesn't hold on to them.
Since it is merged with all things
and hidden in their hearts,
it can be called humble.
Since all things vanish into it
and it alone endures,
it can be called great.
It isn't aware of its greatness;
thus it is truly great.

35
She who is centered in the Tao
can go where she wishes, without danger.
She perceives the universal harmony,
even amid great pain,
because she has found peace in her heart.

Music or the smell of good cooking
may make people stop and enjoy.
But words that point to the Tao
seem monotonous and without flavor.
When you look for it, there is nothing to see.
When you listen for it, there is nothing to hear.
When you use it, it is inexhaustible.

36
If you want to shrink something,
you must first allow it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something,
you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to take something,
you must first allow it to be given.
This is called the subtle perception
of the way things are.

The soft overcomes the hard.
The slow overcomes the fast.
Let your workings remain a mystery.
Just show people the results.

37
The Tao never does anything,
yet through it all things are done.

If powerful men and women
could venter themselves in it,
the whole world would be transformed
by itself, in its natural rhythms.
People would be content
with their simple, everyday lives,
in harmony, and free of desire.

When there is no desire,
all things are at peace.

Section: Te

38
The Master doesn't try to be powerful;
thus he is truly powerful.
The ordinary man keeps reaching for power;
thus he never has enough.

The Master does nothing,
yet he leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary man is always doing things,
yet many more are left to be done.

The kind man does something,
yet something remains undone.
The just man does something,
and leaves many things to be done.
The moral man does something,
and when no one responds
he rolls up his sleeves and uses force.

When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos.

Therefore the Master concerns himself
with the depths and not the surface,
with the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusions go.

39
In harmony with the Tao,
the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creature flourish together,
content with the way they are,
endlessly repeating themselves,
endlessly renewed.

When man interferes with the Tao,
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatures become extinct.

The Master views the parts with compassion,
because he understands the whole.
His constant practice is humility.
He doesn't glitter like a jewel
but lets himself be shaped by the Tao,
as rugged and common as stone.

40
Return is the movement of the Tao.
Yielding is the way of the Tao.

All things are born of being.
Being is born of non-being.

41
When a superior man hears of the Tao,
he immediately begins to embody it.
When an average man hears of the Tao,
he half believes it, half doubts it.
When a foolish man hears of the Tao,
he laughs out loud.
If he didn't laugh,
it wouldn't be the Tao.

Thus it is said:
The path into the light seems dark,
the path forward seems to go back,
the direct path seems long,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true steadfastness seems changeable,
true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest are seems unsophisticated,
the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish.

The Tao is nowhere to be found.
Yet it nourishes and completes all things.

42
The Tao gives birth to One.
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.

All things have their backs to the female
and stand facing the male.
When male and female combine,
all things achieve harmony.

Ordinary men hate solitude.
But the Master makes use of it,
embracing his aloneness, realizing
he is one with the whole universe.

43
The gentlest thing in the world
overcomes the hardest thing in the world.
That which has no substance
enters where there is no space.
This shows the value of non-action.

Teaching without words,
performing without actions:
that is the Master's way.

44
Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success of failure: which is more destructive?

If you look to others for fulfillment,
you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.

Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.

45
True perfection seems imperfect,
yet it is perfectly itself.
True fullness seems empty,
yet it is fully present.

True straightness seems crooked.
True wisdom seems foolish.
True art seems artless.

The Master allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come.
She steps out of the way
and lets the Tao speak for itself.

46
When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.

There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.

Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.

47
Without opening your door,
you can open your heart to the world.
Without looking out your window,
you can see the essence of the Tao.

The more you know,
the less you understand.

The Master arrives without leaving,
sees the light without looking,
achieves without doing a thing.

48
In pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao,
every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.

True mastery can be gained
by letting things go their own way.
It can't be gained by interfering.

49
The Master has no mind of her own.
She works with the mind of the people.

She is good to people who are good.
She is also good to people who aren't good.
This is true goodness.

She trusts people who are trustworthy.
She also trusts people who aren't trustworthy.
This is true trust.

The Master's mind is like space.
People don't understand her.
They look to her and wait.
She treats them like her own children.

50
The Master gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and her has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
He doesn't think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day's work.

51
Every being in the universe
is an expression of the Tao.
It springs into existence,
unconscious, perfect, free,
takes on a physical body,
lets circumstances complete it.
That is why every being
spontaneously honors the Tao.

The Tao gives birth to all beings,
nourishes them, maintains them,
cares for them, comforts them, protects them,
takes them back to itself,
creating without possessing,
acting without expecting,
guiding without interfering.
That is why love of the Tao
is in the very nature of things.

52
In the beginning was the Tao.
All things issue from it;
all things return to it.

To find the origin,
trace back the manifestations.
When you recognize the children
and find the mother,
you will be free of sorrow.

If you close your mind in judgements
and traffic with desires,
your heart will be troubled.
If you keep your mind from judging
and aren't led by the senses,
your heart will find peace.

Seeing into darkness is clarity.
Knowing how to yield is strength.
Use your own light
and return to the source of light.
This is called practicing eternity.

53
The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.

When rich speculators prosper
While farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn-
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.

54
Whoever is planted in the Tao
will not be rooted up.
Whoever embraces the Tao
will not slip away.
Her name will be held in honor
from generation to generation.

Let the Tao be present in your life
and you will become genuine.
Let it be present in your family
and your family will flourish.
Let it be present in your country
and your country will be an example
to all countries in the world.
Let it be present in the universe
and the universe will sing.

How do I know this is true?
By looking inside myself.

55
He who is in harmony with the Tao
is like a newborn child.
Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak,
but its grip is powerful.
It doesn't know about the union
of male and female,
yet its penis can stand erect,
so intense is its vital power.
It can scream its head off all day,
yet it never becomes hoarse,
so complete is its harmony.

The Master's power is like this.
He lets all things come and go
effortlessly, without desire.
He never expects results;
thus he is never disappointed.
He is never disappointed;
thus his spirit never grows old.

56
Those who know don't talk.
Those who talk don't know.

Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.

Be like the Tao.
It can't be approached or withdrawn from,
benefited or harmed,
honored or brought into disgrace.
It gives itself up continually.
That is why it endures.

57
If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.

58
If a country is governed with tolerance,
the people are comfortable and honest.
If a country is governed with repression,
the people are depressed and crafty.

When the will to power is in charge,
the higher the ideals, the lower the results.
Try to make people happy,
and you lay the groundwork for misery.
Try to make people moral,
and you lay the groundwork for vice.

Thus the Master is content
to serve as an example
and not to impose her will.
She is pointed, but doesn't pierce.
Straightforward, but supple.
Radiant, but easy on the eyes.

59
For governing a country well
there is nothing better than moderation.

The mark of a moderate man
is freedom from his own ideas.
Tolerant like the sky,
all-pervading like sunlight,
firm like a mountain,
supple like a tree in the wind,
he has no destination in view
and makes use of anything
life happens to bring his way.

Nothing is impossible for him.
Because he has let go,
he can care for the people's welfare
as a mother cares for her child.

60
Governing a large country
is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it with too much poking.

Center your country in the Tao
and evil will have no power.
Not that it isn't there,
but you'll be able to step out of its way.

Give evil nothing to oppose
and it will disappear by itself.

61
When a country obtains great power,
it becomes like the sea:
all streams run downward into it.
The more powerful it grows,
the greater the need for humility.
Humility means trusting the Tao,
thus never needing to be defensive.

A great nation is like a great man:
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults
as his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy
as the shadow that he himself casts.

If a nation is centered in the Tao,
if it nourishes its own people
and doesn't meddle in the affairs of others,
it will be a light to all nations in the world.

62
The Tao is the center of the universe,
the good man's treasure,
the bad man's refuge.

Honors can be bought with fine words,
respect can be won with good deeds;
but the Tao is beyond all value,
and no one can achieve it.

Thus, when a new leader is chosen,
don't offer to help him
with your wealth or your expertise.
Offer instead
to teach him about the Tao.

Why did the ancient Masters esteem the Tao?
Because, being one with the Tao,
when you seek, you find;
and when you make a mistake, you are forgiven.
That is why everybody loves it.

63
Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.

The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn't cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her.

64
What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.

Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.
The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.

65
The ancient Masters
didn't try to educate the people,
but kindly taught them to not-know.

When they think that they know the answers,
people are difficult to guide.
When they know that they don't know,
people can find their own way.

If you want to learn how to govern,
avoid being clever or rich.
The simplest pattern is the clearest.
Content with an ordinary life,
you can show all people the way
back to their own true nature.

66
All streams flow to the sea
because it is lower than they are.
Humility gives it its power.

If you want to govern the people,
you must place yourself below them.
If you want to lead the people,
you must learn how to follow them.

The Master is above the people,
and no one feels oppressed.
She goes ahead of the people,
and no one feels manipulated.
The whole world is grateful to her.
Because she competes with no one,
no one can compete with her.

67
Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.

I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

68
The best athlete
wants his opponent at his best.
The best general
enters the mind of his enemy.
The best businessman
serves the communal good.
The best leader
follows the will of the people.

All of the embody
the virtue of non-competition.
Not that they don't love to compete,
but they do it in the spirit of play.
In this they are like children
and in harmony with the Tao.

69
The generals have a saying:
"Rather than make the first move
it is better to wait and see.
Rather than advance an inch
it is better to retreat a yard."

This is called
going forward without advancing,
pushing back without using weapons.

There is no greater misfortune
than underestimating your enemy.
Underestimating your enemy
means thinking that he is evil.
Thus you destroy your three treasures
and become an enemy yourself.

When two great forces oppose each other,
the victory will go
to the one that knows how to yield.

70
My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.

My teachings are older than the world.
How can you grasp their meaning?

If you want to know me,
look inside your heart.

71
Not-knowing is true knowledge.
Presuming to know is a disease.
First realize that you are sick;
then you can move toward health.

The Master is her own physician.
She has healed herself of all knowing.
Thus she is truly whole.

72
When they lose their sense of awe,
people turn to religion.
When they no longer trust themselves,
they begin to depend upon authority.

Therefore the Master steps back
so that people won't be confused.
He teaches without a teaching,
so that people will have nothing to learn.

73
The Tao is always at ease.
It overcomes without competing,
answers without speaking a word,
arrives without being summoned,
accomplishes without a plan.

Its net covers the whole universe.
And though its meshes are wide,
it doesn't let a thing slip through.

74
If you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
If you aren't afraid of dying,
there is nothing you can't achieve.

Trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpenter's place.
When you handle the master carpenter's tools,
chances are that you'll cut your hand.

75
When taxes are too high,
people go hungry.
When the government is too intrusive,
people lose their spirit.

Act for the people's benefit.
Trust them; leave them alone.

76
Men are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.

77
As it acts in the world, the Tao
is like the bending of a bow.
The top is bent downward;
the bottom is bent up.
It adjusts excess and deficiency
so that there is perfect balance.
It takes from what is too much
and give to what isn't enough.

Those who try to control,
who use force to protect their power,
go against the direction of the Tao.
They take from those who don't have enough
and give to those who have far too much.

The Master can keep giving
because there is no end to her wealth.
She acts without expectation,
succeeds without taking credit,
and doesn't think that she is better
than anyone else.

78
Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.

Therefore the Master remains
serene in the midst of sorrow.
Evil cannot enter his heart.
Because he has given up helping,
he is people's greatest help.

True words seem paradoxical.

79
Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else,
there is no end to the blame.

Therefore the Master
fulfills her own obligations
and corrects her own mistakes.
She does what she needs to do
and demands nothing of others.

80
If a country is governed wisely,
its inhabitants will be content.
They enjoy the labor of their hands
and don't waste time inventing
labor-saving machines.
Since they dearly love their homes,
they aren't interested in travel.
There may be a few wagons and boats,
but these don't go anywhere.
There may be an arsenal of weapons,
but nobody ever uses them.
People enjoy their food,
take pleasure in being with their families,
spend weekends working in their gardens,
delight in the doings of the neighborhood.
And even though the next country is so close
that people can hear its roosters crowing and its dogs barking,
they are content to die of old age
without ever having gone to see it.

81
True words aren't eloquent;
eloquent words aren't true.
Wise men don't need to prove their point;
men who need to prove their point aren't wise.

The Master has no possessions.
The more he does for others,
the happier he is.
The more he gives to others,
the wealthier he is.

The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master leads.

The "Ahhhh" Moment

2021-05-17T12:53:00.009-04:00

People talk about the "Ah-ha!" moment, but you hear less often about the "Ahhhh" moment. It's something that you might want to try to work into your schedule at least once a day. Maybe even more often if you can.

I have an Ahhhh moment every morning I go to the beach. It usually happens as pre-dawn I hit the apex of the A. Max Brewer Memorial Bridge. I don't know who A. Max Brewer is/was, but I sure like his bridge. Here is a picture of my morning commute. You can just make out the edge of the Indian River (which is actually a lagoon). Majestic. Ahhhh.

If it doesn't happen there, it will likely happen in conjunction with my first sighting of water fowl, like this one.

Or these guys.

Or these Pelicans, the P-3 Orions of the Animal Kingdom. These guys are all business, on patrol. They should should wear those slouchy pilots covers with the inner tension bands removed.

Or this one. This is one big ass bird, because I'm a long way away from him.

[As an aside, I didn't even know there was such a thing as an ASS bird, big or small. What I've also recently learned is that there are no medium ASS birds, only big ASS birds and small ASS birds. But I digress.]

This is probably not an ASS bird at all, in fact, but rather the Great Egret or the Great Blue Heron. My bird watching skills are not sufficient to make a confident identification. But seeing it brings on that Ahhhh sensation, like when a child finally stops crying and decides to get on with life. Deep breath and full exhale. Life is good.

If not by the time I see my first water bird, than by all means, if I make it to my desk on time, when this happens:

If you achieve this Ahhhh moment frequently, chances are you are in what I call the upward spiral. The world around you is a reflection of your inner state. When the inside feels good, the world around you reflects that back to you making you feel even better.

There is also the downward spiral. You are not conscious of your inner state and it generally feels bad. That bad feeling is reflected in the world around you and your inner space feels worse. And worse. And worse. Until something gives way. Until you become conscious of your inner state. That's really all it takes to turn the downward spiral into an upward spiral.

Lots of things can help you achieve the Ahhhh moment. Some people use drugs, alcohol, sex, music and many others to get to their Ahhhh moment. This can lead to addition.

But it really doesn't take anything at all. You can begin to become aware of your inner state regardless of your surroundings or circumstances. Then take pleasure in watching them change for the better.

Take all of the foregoing as a hypothesis and experiment. Start to become aware of your inner state, how you feel. Allow yourself to feel better--don't resist it--like that child who has cried himself out. Use every part of your body, like this. Feel good, have as many Ahhhh moments as you can and see what happens.

*****************

If you want to know more about living consciously, schedule a Health & Wellness Coaching Session today. We can do it in person (if you live in the Florida Space Coast area), virtually or by phone. The life you change just might be your own.

Learn more about living consciously by reading my novel, License to Ill (available on Amazon.com). It demonstrates a life transformed by consciousness.

Read also my novel, The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder (also available on Amazon.com). It's a study of some of the greatest self-development books of all time. Read my book, then read all the titles detailed in it. It's an excellent place to start!

Take Yourself By the Shoulders

2021-05-07T11:17:00.000-04:00

The other day, I saw a woman outside a Publix grocery store. She was sitting in the shade smoking a cigarette. She might have been waiting for the bus, which was fully open and unattended a few feet away, to return to service.

The expression on the woman's face made me want to take her by the shoulders and shake her and say, "Ask for more from life! Just ask!"

A little while later, I wanted to take myself by the shoulders and say, "Ask for more from life! Just ask!"

Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay

You Can Do What You Want

2021-05-05T13:24:00.003-04:00

I grew up going to church, where I learned a lot about the Bible. One of the lines from the Bible that has stayed with me is Psalms 37:4:

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

I'm quoting it here not as authority, but because it came to mind as I thought about what it means to live a successful life. It's pretty much a tiny little success formula, isn't it? One that might make a lot of sense once we break it down.

But what does it actually mean? And how does Sammy Hagar, the Red Rocker (pictured left, courtesy of Cigar Aficionado), figure into the equation? Let's take a look.

Couple of questions come to mind. How does one go about delighting oneself in the Lord? What does that mean? Where is the Lord? And how does one find the Lord in order to delight in the Lord?

As with all writings of this kind (Tao te Ching is also one of my favorites), you have to consult your own soul (or spirit) to fully grasp it. You have to feel it, in other words. Which may help us answer our questions above. Find out where your soul is, and perhaps you've located the Lord too. (Go back and click that link you just passed up to find out where your soul is). Maybe delighting yourself in your own soul (or inner-body) is delighting yourself in the Lord.

Delighting yourself in you own soul? As opposed to what? Delighting yourself in your own mind. One is real (soul) one is a virtual space (mind) and thus, not real.

Now we can try to figure out the second line of the stanza, the part about giving you the desires of your heart. This phraseology indicates a double-edged sword, does it not? It could mean that the Lord gives you whatever you want. But it could also mean that the Lord is the one who put those desires there.

So let's experiment then. If the former is the case, there's nothing for you to do but delight yourself in your own soul and see what happens. If the latter is the case, you'll have to figure out how to delight yourself in your own soul, then actually go for what you want most in life without fear or compromise.

You will have proven your hypothesis in this latter case if, when you've gone for exactly what you want, the Lord (the Positive Universe might be another name to use) lays out a straight path for you, removes obstacles, provides connections and opportunities. Conversely, you might also lend credence to your hypothesis if you DON'T go for what you want most and you experience obstruction, struggle and dissatisfaction. This may not be proof exactly or your hypothesis, but it might be more encouragement to actually give the experiment a conscientious attempt.

I watched an interview of John Mellencamp by Sammy Hagar a few years back and something that Sammy said has stuck with me. Sammy said (@ 8:40 on the below video): "I'm like you. Man, I went around dirt poor, on food stamps, welfare, with a baby, playing music and thinking I was--I'm okay. It was like, hey, this is fine, you know?"

It sounds like Sammy just did what he wanted regardless of his circumstances and it seems to have worked out pretty well for him. He never took his eye off the desires in his heart.

I'm also reminded of Larry David, one of my heroes. In an interview for GQ magazine, he seems to contradict the premise of this post. Larry says of his early days in comedy, “This whole ‘happiness from the inside’ thing…where's it coming from? What am I feeling good about? You have to have some sense of accomplishment.”

But in reading the article and following Larry's career, I've noticed that he never did anything except exactly what he wanted to do in the world of show business, and doors have always opened for him. The biggest of those doors, of course, was when Jarry Seinfeld invited him to work on a sitcom pilot.

My own experience is that I've spent many years NOT doing what I really wanted to do. Finally, I've retired from government service and moved to Florida, something I've wanted to do for a long, long time.

My own personal experiment with doing exactly what I want to do continues. I'll keep you posted on how it works out. I gotta say, so far, so good.

Take a Breath

2021-05-04T21:01:00.002-04:00

1. Press the play button.

2. Take a breath.

3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 as needed.

Brace for Impact

2021-04-27T09:19:00.003-04:00

A couple of the phrases I remember from my Navy days were, "Standby for heavy rolls," and "Brace for impact."

The first would be announced when the ship was in the trough of a wave. When the waves rolled through, so would the ship from side to side, sometimes violently if the waves were big enough. We always tried to keep the ship's bow (nose) pointed toward the waves, or away from them, but we couldn't always do that for a variety of reasons. And when we couldn't, it could be a real problem.

They would announce: "Brace for impact," when we were about to hit something, like land or an iceberg or another ship. This never actually happened on any ship I was on but we ran drills for everything and that phrase came up in some of those drills. In which case you would have to grab something and hold on tight.

It's one thing to standby for heavy rolls and brace for impact externally, but it's quite another to do so internally. Another word for this phenomenon is "worry." Or "anxiety." And it can cause real health problems. What does such internal bracing accomplish? Does it help the situation in any way? Or does it merely cause physical discomfort?

In a wider view, it may be that the world around you, the so-called "real world," isn't real at all, but rather is a mere reflection of your inner state. Have you ever considered that possibility? If this is the case, such internal bracing or worry isn't just causing you physical issues, it may actually be keeping you from a better life.

How might one go about proving this one way or the other? Answer: Stop worrying and see what happens.

That makes the next question how do you stop worrying? You have to figure out where this internal bracing hits you. Become conscious of that. Does it cause a tightening in your stomach? Your heart? Your abdomen? Your knees? Take a moment and think what you worry most about. Where is it hitting you? Allow yourself to feel it. Don't judge it, just allow it to be there.

This awareness will dissolve it little by little each time you feel it consciously. Take this as a hypothesis and give it a try, experiment with it.

At the bottom eventually you'll find an unconscious fear that has nothing to do with the thing you think you're worrying about. Once you make this unconscious fear conscious, it can no longer control you. You will be able to let it go for good. This process may take a while but it will be worth it all along the way.

And perhaps smoother seas will lay ahead.

*****************

If you want to know more about living consciously, schedule a Health & Wellness Coaching Session today. We can do it in person, virtually or by phone. The life you change just might be your own.

Learn more about living consciously by reading my novel, License to Ill (available on Amazon.com). It demonstrates a life transformed by consciousness.

Read also my novel, The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder (also available on Amazon.com). It is a study of some of the greatest self-development books of all time. Read my book, then read all the titles detailed in it. It's an excellent place to start!

Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay

What to Eat

2021-04-26T13:03:00.001-04:00

How do we answer this question, "What to eat?"

Do we look around for the latest diet fad and read the book? Do we sign up for one of the weight loss programs and let someone tell us what we should eat?

Here's an idea: listen to your body. Maybe it knows exactly what to eat.

How would you go about listening to you body? What would that look like? It might look something like this:

1. Put everything you think you "know" about nutrition out of your head. Where did you get that information anyway? How do you know it's accurate?

2. Wait until you're hungry. And if you can help it, don't wait until you're "hangry," that's probably waiting too long. When you get hangry, you're body is probably telling you that you've waited a little too long.

When we have regimented meal schedules, that's an example of our minds dictating to our bodies what's best for it. Better to wait and see when your body wants to eat rather than interfering with its preferences.

3. When your body is hungry, stop and reflect upon what it's hungry for. Often, I will stand in my kitchen trying to figure out what would taste best to me at that moment. That's how one's body gets this information to our hands. Take your time with this.

This is where step one comes into play. Your body might want ice cream, but the nutrition chart might dictate meat and two veggies. Toss out the food chart. Listen to your body. It needs whatever ice cream has in it at that moment. Give it what it's asking for.

3. Stop when it no longer tastes good. Eat consciously. Don't let your mind wander to other things. Savor the taste of what you're eating at that moment. When your body has had enough of that particular item, you will know it. Stop--not another bite--and move on to the next food item that you select in the same way. Or if you feel satisfied, wipe your mouth and hands and go on with your day.

If you're in a position where you have to sit down to a meal, don't feel obligated to eat some of every item or to clean your plate. These habits might be more polite or better for your bank account and starving children in China, but not necessarily for your body. And if there's something else you're hungry for, ask!

In nutrition, as in all things, listen to your body. It knows all. Don't allow mind to dictate to it.

*****************

If you want to know more about living consciously, schedule a Health & Wellness Coaching Session today. We can do it in person, virtually or by phone. The life you change just might be your own.

Learn more about living consciously by reading my novel, License to Ill (available on Amazon.com). It demonstrates a life transformed by consciousness.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay.

Kirkus Review of License to Ill

2018-04-06T09:09:00.000-04:00

When you self-publish a novel, you want to find ways to lend credibility to it, a way to say the book is worth reading. One way to do that is to have a reputable agency review it. Kirkus is a pretty respected reviewer. Here's what they had to say about License to Ill. I think it's pretty accurate.

Two lawyers attempt to overturn Obamacare on spiritual grounds in this debut novel.

Jerry Riggs is chief counsel to the speaker of the House and, as a Republican, is exasperated with his party’s failure to effectively oppose Obamacare. He’s especially angry at the GOP’s hypocritical complicity: Senate Minority Leader Mack McCormick openly criticized the Affordable Health Care Act but simultaneously ensured its protection from legislative assault in deference to his close ties to the health care industry. But an unusual opportunity to attack Obamacare surfaces when Sebastian Vogel, an old law school classmate of Jerry’s, files a suit against the federal government, requesting a religious exemption from the act’s individual mandate. His argument is a strikingly odd one, not premised on any adherence to institutional religion but instead on a general spirituality that interprets sickness and health as states of consciousness rather than medical conditions: “We’ve mapped out the DNA and found that it doesn’t explain everything….Could that be because there’s a spiritual aspect to disease?” Jerry reluctantly teams up with Vogel—his New-Age conversion strikes the chief counsel as incoherent at first—because he sees a real possibility to strike a blow at an otherwise impregnable law. But when Vogel’s home is set on fire by an arsonist, the stakes become perilously clear—a billion-dollar industry has taken notice and is prepared to kill to protect its profits. Meanwhile, Jerry struggles with his own mounting health problems—overweight and underexercised, he’s developed a serious heart condition that requires surgery, precisely the circumstances that led to his father’s death. Wright inventively combines political intrigue, humor, and philosophical meditation in an unusually policy-wonkish thriller. The author certainly stretches the outer limits of plausibility—and readers’ credulity—but in a way artful enough that the plot never descends into outright absurdity. Vogel’s form of spirituality can be irksomely enigmatic, but he still delivers some memorable insights. The whole narrative is a kind of conservative fantasy—a spiritually inspired but legitimate way to topple Obamacare—so it’s possible those readers unsympathetic to the Republican cause will find it tough to be sensitive to Jerry’s plight.

A witty and refreshingly original political drama.

Blurb for License to Ill

2018-04-05T10:54:00.003-04:00

I need to bring you up to speed on some of the developments concerning my latest novel, License to Ill (see cover/link to the right). Both License to Ill and The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder (look to the right) are novels that uses an entertaining story to convey spiritual principles.

I imposed upon my friend Roger Johns, author of an excellent mystery set in Baton Rouge, LA, called Dark River Rising (St. Martin’s Press-Minotaur Books), to read License to Ill and write a "blurb" for it, which he graciously agreed to do. A blurb is a quote from another author that usually goes on the cover or somewhere on the interior to help get people excited about reading the novel.

Here's what Roger wrote for me:

Big money, political intrigue, a very inventive story with plenty of action, and characters you won’t soon forget make License to Ill a flat out page-turner.

Thanks, Roger! I'll get the cover updated soon in order to get this blurb on there.

Your Car Can Be a Great Place to Meditatate . . .

2018-04-04T09:30:00.000-04:00

. . . as long as you don't close your eyes.

If you have to deal with rush hour traffic or have a long commute everyday, use that time to your benefit. For heaven's sake, turn off the music--it's not bringing you peace, it's programming you--and turn off talk radio--it's designed to get you spun up.

Just because it's rush hour doesn't mean you have to be in a rush. Hang out in the slow lane. Let people in, let people pass you. It won't make an appreciable difference in your arrival time, but it will make an appreciable difference in your blood pressure and it will give you space to look inward instead of outward.

Pay attention to your breathing, one breath at a time. In, out, rest. Your breath is always happening now. This is the simplest of meditations. It brings you to the present moment very quickly and easily. And what problems do you ever have right now?

Pay attention to the silence. It may be uncomfortable at first but you'll get used to it, and then you won't be able to do without it. Roll down the window and pay attention to the road and traffic sounds. They are happening here and now. Anytime you're doing that, you're bring more presence into your life and therefore more peace.

Go into your body. Feel your feet from the inside. Feel that tingle? That's your soul. Feel your hands. Feel your legs, your torso, arms, neck, head. Put it all together. Feel that inner glow. Your soul is always in the moment. It's alive and eternal right now.

Pay attention to your mind. Still the thoughts running through your head one moment at a time. There is a peaceful pause, but then here come the thoughts again. You notice it--that's awareness rising. Try for two moments this time. Then three. The gaps in thinking get wider and soon you're in your driveway or the parking lot at work feeling refreshed.

And you will have gained a little bit of understanding about the nature of reality: that it is good.

Photo from Wikipedia (By B137 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48998674)

Good to Be Back!

2018-04-03T09:45:00.000-04:00

It's been a few years since I've done any blogging as I made a few changes in my life, changing jobs, moving from Kentucky to Tennessee and now to the Washington DC area. I was also writing a 2nd novel (see to the right). Meditation and Life Coaching has continued with each new locale.

During this hiatus, I experimented with another blog format that just didn't work for me. It was too complicated. And so now I'm back.

It's good to be back! I'm going to try to post something uplifting for you every weekday, even if it's something simple like this.

The Münchhausen Trilemma

2014-07-11T09:28:00.001-04:00

For a brief moment, my next novel, now called License to Ill, was going to be called The Obamacare Trilemma, and it was going to have the below inscription, both in German and English at the beginning. Even though I've changed the title, I'm going to keep the inscription because it's still very much apropos to the story and it sets the right tone because it's so funny (I think).

This may be the only place you can find the English translation of the Barron von Münchhausen bootstrapping story anywhere (see below), which is a little odd because the Münchhausen Trilemma is such an important philosophical issue.

For a more complete understanding of the concept, I invite you to click on the link and read, but for my purposes The MünchhausenTrilemma demonstrates that rationality (i.e. thinking) must have input from some source other than itself. Rationality is like a calculator in that it requires a finger from somewhere to press the buttons.

The input comes from consciousness. Rationality is but a tiny subset of our larger consciousness. Feelings bubble up into ideas (rationality) and those ideas become words for the very limited purposes of communication and the creation of labor-saving devices. Those feelings come from our connectedness to all that is, not from our own thinking.

That's why a so-called "rational" approach to life (as opposed to a consciousness-based approach to life) is considered bootstrapping. It does not allow for this input from all that is. It simply assumes that the thinking started up on its own. That the calculator pressed its own buttons.

[As always, you need not take my word for any of this. Go into your body and make your own determination as to the nature of reality.]
The world of Science (what I would call the Religion of Science) would have you ignore this point. As stated aptly on Rationalwiki.org:

The Münchhausen Trilemma is a problem in philosophy that all statements can be questioned and then need evidence. This problem has been well known in philosophy for thousands of years, but rarely gets addressed because it breaks the legs of philosophy, science, and any other possible approach to reality.

I would disagree, however, that the Münchhausen Trilemma breaks the legs of "philosophy" and "any other possible approach to reality." It only breaks the legs of rationality-based philosophies and approaches to reality. If so-called reality is an illusion, all falls into place. I would certainly agree, though, that the Münchhausen Trilemma breaks the legs of science.

The story behind the below quotation is interesting.
The Münchhausen Trilemma has its roots in a tall tale attributed to Baron Münchhausen, but none of the philosophy websites anywhere on the internet (as far as I could find) actually provided the story. They simply said that the story was a tall tale attributed to Hieronymus Carl Friedrich Baron von Münchhausen, better known simply as Baron Münchhausen.

It took a nice piece of internet sleuthery--if I may say so, myself--to figure out why this quotation never showed up.

The first known version of Baron Münchhausen's tall tales came out in German in a series of books called Vademecum fur lustige Leute (Handbook for Funny People) published between 1781 and 1783. But the most famous book of the Baron's tales was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen first published in English in 1785 by Rudolf Erich Raspe. The story of the Baron pulling himself out of a swamp by his own ponytail was nowhere to be found in that book.

[For a funny explanation of the Münchhausen Trilemma take a look at this video from The Big Bang Theory:

What could be simpler?]

In 1786, Gottfried August Bürger translated Rapse's book into German and added a few of his own tales to the mix. (In truth, these tales had almost nothing to do with the actual Baron Münchhausen and had been around for centuries before he came along). Working on a hunch, I found Bürger's version of the book and scoured the German text until I located the story.

So as I said, this may be the only place you can find the English translation of the Barron Münchhausen bootstrapping story anywhere. As such, this translation is my original copyrighted work. Please feel free to quote it with attribution and with a link to this webpage. I would like to see how much interest there is in it.

And now for the quotation, first in German then in English:

Ein andres Mal wollte ich über einen Morast setzen, der mir anfänglich nicht so breit vorkam, als ich ihn fand, da ich mitten im Sprunge war. Schwebend in der Luft wendete ich daher wieder um, wo ich hergekommen war, um einen größern Anlauf zu nehmen. Gleichwohl sprang ich auch zum zweiten Male noch zu kurz und fiel nicht weit vom andern Ufer bis an den Hals in den Morast. Hier hätte ich unfehlbar umkommen müssen, wenn nicht die Stärke meines eigenen Armes mich an meinem eigenen Haarzopfe, samt dem Pferde, welches ich fest zwischen meine Knie schloß, wieder herausgezogen hätte.

--Gottfried August Bürger, Wunderbare Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande Feldzüge und lustige Abenteuer des Freiherrn von Münchhausen, 1786

Another time, I wanted to jump my horse over a swamp, which initially didn’t seem as wide to me as when I was in the middle of my jump. Floating in the air, I turned to get back to the point of departure in order to get a better running start. On my second jump, however, I fell short of the other side and found myself up to my neck in the mire. There I would have surely perished, if not for the strength of my own arm, whereby I pulled myself out of the morass by my own ponytail, together with the horse, which I clasped firmly between my knees.

--Gottfried August Bürger, The Wonderful Sea Voyages and Land Campaigns and Funny Adventures of Baron von Münchhausen, 1786

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Connection Between Observation and the Material World

2014-06-29T15:40:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine sent me the following video about an interesting new technology. Isn't it interesting that everything we look for . . . we find?

Perhaps there's more of a connection between the act of observation and our "discoveries" than we realize. Maybe we're actually creating the world, rather than discovering it. I talk about this in The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder.

Latest 5-Star Review of The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder

2014-05-07T21:01:00.000-04:00

I'm listening to the Reds game while I write this. I just had to turn down the sound on another cancer commercial. Ask yourself what they're selling in those commercials and realize that healthcare providers, like all corporations, are actively about the business of expanding their markets. Think about that and you will turn down the sound on all such commercials too. That's the topic of my next book, the current working title of which is The Obamacare Experiments.

In the meantime, I have this other book out there called The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder, and my friend and colleague, Thomas Cothran, has been so kind as to post a review on Amazon. While Thomas gave the book five starts, in the review he also says of what you might call its philosophical argument:

"I'll let the reader make their own decision about the merits of this worldview. (The enemy of this metaphysics is Aristotle.) For my own part, I remain cheerfully Aristotelian.

In other words, The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder in essence lays the responsibility for all the woes of modern society squarely at the feet of Aristotle's rationalism, and young Thomas--who's favorite philosopher is Kierkegaard but doesn't recognize that Kierkegaard was anti-Aristotilian too--remains unconvinced.

Not to worry. I've challenged my good friend to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for himself, a challenge to which he has agreed. We shall see if he remains cheerfully Aristotelian after that.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks, Thomas!

Remembering Pee Wee Reese on Jackie Robinson Day

2014-04-15T23:51:00.000-04:00

As I listen to Marty Brennaman and Jim Kelch broadcast the
Reds game on this, MLB's Jackie Robinson Day, when all players wear number 42 in commemoration of this day in 1947 when the color barrier was abolished, it's easy to get a little choked up thinking about Cincinnati's important connection to that important season--and the Kentucky connection to it.

And I do . . . get choked up about it, I mean . . . every year, I do. It's such a beautiful story about a Kentucky boy demonstrating nothing more than simple kindness.

And changing the world thereby.

This is such a stirring story for me because those of us who grew up around here, we know this boy. A native of Meade County, Kentucky, near Louisville, he had a high school education. He was splicing lines for the Louisville phone company when his church team got the chance to play a league championship game on the field belonging to the minor league Louisville Colonels. Reese impressed the owner of the Colonels so much, he signed him.

The way kids got to the bigs back then, 1937, is difficult for present-day baseball fans to believe, what with the structured system that's developed over the years and all.

Pee Wee Reese was married to his wife Dottie for 57 years by the time he died in 1999. That figures. We know this humble, salt-of-the-earth fellow. There are a lot of 'em in these parts.

And those of us who grew up around here, we know this place, Louisville, where he came from. How can I say this? It has been something of a known quantity over the years. It is not a northern city.

When Pee Wee was young, his father showed him a tree where a black man had been lynched. An impression perhaps was made that day.

Louisville is the city out of which arose in the '50s the Louisville Lip, Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali, that icon who bore within his persona the tensions of the race relations of the times.

And Louisville in the 1970s saw the governor call out the National Guard in the face of violent protests to keep the busses running to desegregate its public schools.

We know this place. We can only imagine what it was like back when Pee Wee was growing up.

There has been some conjecture over the years as to whether Pee Wee, the shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers, actually walked over to Jackie Robinson, where he stood at the right of the diamond playing first base and put his arm around his shoulder and had a little chat with him to silence the booing and hissing Crosley Field stands in Cincinnati during that historic '47 season.

Some say it did happen, but it happened in Boston. Some say it happened the following year, either in Boston or Cincinnati. Some wonder if it ever happened at all.

This is difficult for present-day humans to believe, what with ubiquitous cell phone cameras and video and every single game televised live and digitally recorded for posterity, and all. But apparently, that's not the way it was in 1947.

A recent article in the Cincinnati Enquirer provides a credible eyewitness account of that shining moment in Pee Wee's life. A bat boy, 15 years old at the time (78 now), Ralph Tate, was assigned to retrieve the lumber of the visiting Brooklyn Dodgers that day at Crosley Field. Tate recounts:

“That’s when I saw Pee Wee Reese walk over to him. The whole place was booing and hollering and screaming. Jackie was at first base. Pee Wee walked over, put his arm around him and it just silenced the crowd.”

How that day began for Tate is one of those details you might miss on first pass because the writer doesn't comment on it, and it's effect is all the more powerful by the neglect. Let's see if you catch it:

Before the game, the Dodgers’ traveling secretary came to the bat boy and said: “I need someone to dress along side of you in the clubhouse. Are you OK with that?”

Tate, a 15-year-old freshman at St. Xavier High School, was quite fine with that. He was getting paid $3 a game, $3.50 for doubleheaders.

And he was living a dream. So, anyone could dress next to him.

“Well, that person came in and sat next to me, and it was Jackie Robinson,” Tate said. “You would not want to meet a nicer person.

“We became good friends over the years. He was one hell of a ballplayer. And he was so humble."

That's right, you guessed it: Jackie wasn't dressing with the players, he was dressing with the batboy. Here comes that choked up feeling again. And apparently, young Ralph Tate was one of those salt-of-the-earth types too. I told you, we have a lot of them around here. And it seems, so was Jackie.

Everybody wants to be associated in a positive way with historical events like this, but there's a quality to Mr. Tate's account, something in the way he tells the story that rings true. The article continues:

Reese’s move shocked some of his teammates, too. “Some of the Dodgers weren’t all that thrilled having Jackie on the team,” Tate noted.

As the drama unfolded at first base, the bat boy stood in the dugout next to Duke Snider, the Dodgers’ famed center fielder.

“Duke was injured, if I remember right,” Tate said. “He pinch hit later in the game.”

Tate remembered correctly. Snider struck out pinch hitting for the pitcher.

When Reese hugged Robinson, Tate remembered Snider saying these words: “Oh my God! This is unbelievable.”

This guy is 78 years old. I kinda doubt he's looking this stuff up on the Wikipedia. That's the kind of detail that puts you right there in the action, seeing it through a fifteen-year-old boy's eyes. Eyes that were forever changed.

I can only imagine what must have been running through Pee Wee's mind each game as he listened to the jeers and cursing and caterwauling blanketing the field from the stands. I wonder what lead him to that simple, beautiful gesture of kindness.

Later in life, Pee Wee said of that moment: "I was just trying to make the world a little bit better. That's what you're supposed to do with your life, isn't it?"

Salt of the earth. We have a lot of those around here, but you don't usually get to see them. So seldom are they center stage like this that when they are, we should celebrate them, I think . . . at least once a year . . . by getting a little choked up.

And maybe by trying to make our world just a little bit better where we can.

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Photo courtesy of FANDOM

Success - Writing and Publishing

2014-04-03T23:06:00.002-04:00

Following is the meat of a post to a friend on Facebook in response to a question about publishing:

My last book was self-published, so I didn't work with a publisher on that one. It was actually my 8th novel and I tried a little to get some of the other ones published but never really delved deeply enough into it.

In some ways, I wish I would have tried to do more with them, but then again I think something inside made me want to wait to mature as a writer and as a person. And no regrets, there is only now. And speaking of now, I've written a 9th novel, working title The Obamacare Experiments, and now I'm pursuing a traditional publisher for that one more rigorously.

Find an Editor

One thing I've come to understand is that you have to invest in your product. That means you need to seek out a professional editor. It's expensive but it must be done, for four reasons.

First, it's the best way to learn. It's like hiring a tutor.

Second, writing is a collaborative process. It is very rare when a person can just write something down and have it published (maybe impossible). You need that professional with credentials. Why? So you will trust their recommendations. Preferably, you should find one from NYC with publishing experience, again expensive, but worth it.

One more piece of advice on the selection I might offer: if you're a woman, find a male editor and vice versa. This is not a hard and fast rule, by any means, but in my own research (anecdotal though it may be) I found that this dynamic seems to lend itself to creation of a better product . . . food for thought.

Third, networking. When you're working with an editor, you're hobnobbing with an industry insider. No telling who they might talk to if they like your work. You have to make sure you find one that's plugged in, to a certain extent.

Fourth, the editor can help you figure out if your project has commercial value of if you need to move on to your next project.

For my editor, I went with a fellow Kentuckian who lives in NYC named Catherine Adams and she's doing a phenomenal job. I couldn't recommend her more highly. But I must say, the Tao or the Spirit, or call it what you will, led me to her virtual door. Not every editor is right for every author or every project. Take as much time as you need making your selection--it's a critically important decision.

Find a Marketing Guy

The next thing I would recommend is talking to a marketing guy. It will cost you about $300 but this person's advice will be more directed toward helping you to find an agent. You almost have to have an agent these days. Now read that sentence again but take out the word "almost."

When I finish with the editing in a few weeks or so, I plan on working with a guy named Mark Malatesta (http://literary-agents.com/). I haven't used him yet myself, but his website is extensive and free and has already pointed me in the right direction in many ways, so I feel good about what he will be able to do for me when the time comes.

Writing Conferences

Some people also like to go to writers conferences. I've been to one of them and they can be good once you get prepared per above. With those, look for the ones with a "pitch sessions" where you can talk to actual agents for a few minutes about your project. If you're prepared (see above), they just might bite.

Entrepreneurialism

With all of this you're looking at an investment in your product in the thousands of dollars. But you have to understand that half of writing is writing, the other half is business. You have to be entrepreneurial to succeed, which means risking money in the hopes of future gain. And you could come up empty, lose it all, with no royalties whatsoever to show for it.

Personally, I would rather fail completely than not really try. No meals will be missed. Everything will work out. The consequences of failure are not as dire as some fearful types would have you believe. And you will know that for the next project from personal experience--entrepreneurialism becomes easier and easier with each new attempt. And then one day you succeed and make the big bucks. That's how it works.

Look at it this way: you're asking other people to take a risk on you and your product. Have you done the same? Do you have the same faith in your work that you're asking them to have? In the business world they call this "having skin in the game." When you have taken a risk on your own product, you act differently and that comes through. It gets communicated. And you look at your own writing differently. You're more willing to evaluate it objectively and make necessary changes when you have money riding on it (funny how that works, isn't it?).

This is how it's done. Otherwise, you might as well buy a lottery ticket because that has about as much chance of success as going it alone. You've got to build your team to succeed. Fortunes are made by teams, not very often by individuals. An editor, a marketing coach, an agent, a publisher, a publicist, a lawyer, a web designer, a hairstylist . . . Start building your team.

Emails About Kierkegaard

2014-03-17T00:52:00.003-04:00

I know what you're thinking: "Gee, Todd, your life must be pretty dull if you're exchanging emails about a Danish philosopher from the 19th century." Ok, ok, I hear you, but hear me out.

Let me give you a little background on how this email came about. A couple of friends of mine read my book, The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder, and one of those friends described my book to the other as, "out there." Which is about the best review a writer can hope for. Why? Because this means that the book contained ideas and concepts that the reader didn't necessarily agree with (or thought he didn't), and yet it was written well enough that he was able to get through it, he was able to finish the book. That's big! I couldn't really hope for more.

This fellow, I'm told, is also a big fan of Søren Kierkegaard, the aforementioned 19th century Danish philosopher (these are the upper crust circles of people who actually have favorite philosopher that I run in, folks, what can I tell you?). So much so, in fact, that he named his child after him (Søren, not Kierkegaard). Which I think is pretty cool because it's a pretty cool name, only I hope he didn't use the o with the slash through it (ø), which would probably get a little annoying for the kid.

Anyway, I was only vaguely familiar with the philosophy of Kierkegaard (I'm a novelist, after all, not a philosopher, or worse a "philosophizer" as Robert Persig puts it in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), so after the conversation I went on line and brushed up on it, and lo and behold, what did I find but that the depressed Dane agreed wholeheartedly with everything in The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder! He professed, you see, Kierkegaard did, a similar brand of what has been labelled "existentialism."

I had always heard the term bandied about and had an idea what it meant, but not until now did I make the connection between the "existence" in "existentialism" and "being" and "consciousness." These are all exact synonyms. What Kierkegaard was talking about, what Eckhart Tolle is talking about, what I'm talking about in The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder--it's all the same thing.

And now from the email . . . Oh, and be sure to check out the link to the exercise mentioned a couple of times below so you know exactly what we're talking about when we talk about existence.

* * *

From the writing of Kierkegaard:

I ask for nothing better than to be known in our objective times as the only person who was not capable of being objective. That subjectivity, inwardness, is truth, that existing is the decisive factor, that this was the way to take to Christianity, which is precisely inwardness.

If my book is "out there" then so is Kierkegaard. He seems to have been mostly there. The above quote is precisely what my books are about. "Existence" or being or consciousness is indeed "the decisive factor." That's why its so important to do that exercise so you know exactly what existence is. Existence is God. To know existence is to know God and vice versa. This is what he is saying.

From Wikipedia about his views:

Humans cannot think out choices in life, we must live them; and even those choices that we often think about become different once life itself enters into the picture. For Kierkegaard, the type of objectivity that a scientist or historian might use misses the point—humans are not motivated and do not find meaning in life through pure objectivity. Instead, they find it through passion, desire, and moral and religious commitment. These phenomena are not objectively provable—nor do they come about through any form of analysis of the external world; they come about through inward reflection, a way of looking at one’s life that evades objective scrutiny.

Right on.

Kierkegaard wrote a lot. I was more familiar with his views on what has been called "angst" and "alienation." Even these I have only understood, it appears, in their popular sense, and maybe not how Kierkegaard meant them exactly.

But the problem is, these things are very simple. And when you write so much, the tendency is to obscure and obfuscate rather than to illuminate. When you write so much--even about God or consciousness or existence--you're still getting consumed in rationality and this is the opposite of "the decisive factor," as K. puts it. It's the opposite of the simple exercise that puts you in direct contact with reality, existence, God.

Do the exercise, it will teach you much more about existence than reading all the works of Kierkegaard. Or just take a conscious breath, it will teach you more than the entire Wikipedia article about Kierkegaard's philosophy.

You might also like: Eckhart Tolle for Christians

Kierkegaard photo courtesy of Per Crucem ad Lucem.

5 Stars from Portland Book Review for The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder!

2014-03-09T19:12:00.001-04:00

You may be wondering why I keep bringing up The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder. "Why don't you write another book already?" some of you may be thinking. Well, I have written another book. It's working title is The Obamacare Conspiracy and it goes to the editor on March 17th. I'm very excited about that.

But neither book is merely entertainment. They represent the latest generations in a long and hallowed genealogy that begins as far back as Plato's Dialogues, continues on through all the books about Jesus (he never wrote any himself), through St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and on into the present period with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Zen and the Art could be considered the father of The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder and the grandfather of The Obamacare Conspiracy.

These books unravel a philosophical conspiracy far more important to you and your life than The Da Vinci Code every could. They help you understand what may be missing in your life and how you can feel better--much, much better--without regard to what you believe (or don't believe) religiously speaking.

So the reason I keep bringing it up is because I would love to help you feel better, and The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder is a great place to start (if I may say so, myself). Spend the time on yourself, it'll be worth it.

Of course, the converse is also true. If you have no doubts, no anxiety about the future, no depression at all about the past, no curiosity about the deeper meaning of life, no concern for the constant conflict and suffering that seems to be the state of our existence on this planet, if you've lost faith in your religion or science to help you answer these questions, if everything is peaches and cream as far as you're concerned, that's fantastic! You have no need for these books.

If, on the other hand, peaches and cream wouldn't have been your first choice of descriptors, give The Self-Improvement Book Club a look. But be forewarned: you can't "unlearn" the truths it contains.

The Portland Book Review picked up on the foregoing. It's review by Rachelle Barrett states:

As the detectives question witnesses, delve into the life of the victim and interact with each other, they clarify not only the case but the nature of reality. Bookman and Berg come away from the case irreparably changed by having gained this new knowledge. Whether you are an avid reader of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or new to these types of books, you will be riveted to the story for one reason or another. And soon you may be introducing this book to a book club of your own.

You can read the entire book review here. For what it's worth, the reviewer's average is 3.9 stars. Thanks, Rachelle!

More Haiku . . . Sorry

2014-03-03T22:34:00.000-05:00

Desert Heat

Always a mirage--
The road to happiness: long
And never ending.

Photo by Pete Turner/Getty Images courtesy of The Guardian

Winter

The wind blows, snow drifts.
Poor weather! It never wins.
We can wait it out.

Photo by Dmitry Sergeev Courtesy of Deviant Art

Washing Hands

In the winter while
Washing my hands the water
Turns from cold to hot.

Photo Courtesy of She Knows Living

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Joy in My Ear

2014-03-03T06:04:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: 2/28/14: My ear finally cleared for good! That's how long it took. This article was originally published 4/2/10. It got much better initially, but then I let it sit like that for a long time. In the end, it was just pain-body. When I finally developed enough presence to concentrate on it, I felt it move from my ear (like a little sprite or tiny benign demon that had found what it thought was a home; use what metaphor you will) into my cheekbone and then finally disappear.

Sweep your body clean daily. Search it with your awareness and winnow out any pockets of negativity in its physical dimension. Turn off your mind and feel your body from the inside. Call this meditation if you like.

It isn't pretty. Check your heart. Check your guts--negativity loves to linger there. Check your legs, your knees. Check your ears. Yes, that's right, you heard me correctly: CHECK YOUR EARS!

For many years, my left ear has been clogged. It's something I have accepted. But I have cleared out all the other "normal" pockets of anxiety (See A Cure for Anxiety Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4). What is this but anxiety? Why differentiate? Negativity, absence of joy, call it what you like.

That's right, you heard me correctly: ABSENCE OF JOY!

Our body's natural state is joy (See The Joy of Being, Explained). You should feel a dull, barely perceptible joy at all times in the background as you progress through your day. But whenever it occurs to you, it's there, you feel it.

Joy is your body's natural state, and it will generally cure what ails you. It's not that you turn it on as a result of meditation (or running, or holding your baby) and then turn it off in your daily life. When you meditate, you are simply focused on it and can turn it on more brightly.

For joy to obtain in your body, all you have to do is remember it, allow it. For many people this is natural. For many others, unnatural neutrality has been taught and learned. And for yet others, outright negativity is their constant state.

Without a doubt, I will get out the Q-Tips, the hydrogen peroxide, a trip to the doctor, whatever it takes--I told you this wouldn't be pretty. It might even uncover another dietary change I need to make (See A Cure for Anxiety - Part 4).

But don't be fooled. The root cause of this problem is an absence of joy in my ear.

Photo credit: InventorSpot

The Celestine Prophecy - A Cautionary Tale

2014-03-01T01:06:00.002-05:00

The Book

A really great idea, poorly executed, and yet James Redfield has sold something like 23 million copies of The Celestine Prophecy. Why? Well, because it's a really great idea for a novel, I suppose.

But just imagine if Dan Brown had written The Celestine Prophecy (23 mil.) in addition to The Da Vinci Code (80 mil.). If I were Redfield, I'd ask Dan Brown to help me write a revision of The Celestine Prophecy for the 25th anniversary of its publication coming up in 2018 (published in 1993, you do the math). It would sell another 20 million easy.

Because there's a lot to like in The Celestine Prophecy: jungles, the Andes, Machu Picchu. But there's also a lot to hate there too. I've tried three or four times over the years to read it but I just couldn't do it. And I like this kind of novel, one that tries to teach you something, especially something about consciousness, enlightenment, awakening--all that crap. Heck, I even write books like that myself and I still couldn't choke it down.

The problem is, it's just so poorly written, and that's where the cautionary aspect of this blog post comes in. The Celestine Prophecy was originally self-published, and it shows. Redfield sold 100,000 copies out of the back of his Honda--Accord-ing to lore (sorry, couldn't resist)--so at that point it must have been tough for the editors at Warner Books, which scooped up the publishing rights to the book after that, to talk much sense into Redfield. And what did they care, really? I'm sure they were happy to keep the printing press churning out twenty-dollar bills. This was an unholy union that I suspect damed the movie version to hell, Satan's spawn that it is, but we'll get to that in a moment.

You might also like: These articles about Eckhart Tolle

I had never been able to get past that first awful first chapter of the novel. Finally, as I felt duty-bound to read it as market research for my latest manuscript, I finally decided to begin anew with chapter 2. Then with the help of the audio version, I was able to get through the whole thing this time, and I have to admit, issues of craftsmanship aside, it wasn't that bad. I was able to see occasional faint glimmers of the genius that drew so many people to read it.

Earlier in life, Redfield was a child psychologist (or social worker, perhaps; at any rate he was a child counselor). Yes, his novel has all the new age claptrap, but essentially the book is a vehicle for Redfield's views on relationships and child rearing, garnered from his own experience and books he'd read and liked, like Games People Play by Dr. Eric Burne. These psychological principles--like don't steal other people's energy, and the stealing of other people's psychic energy is the root of all human conflict--are the insights of the ancient eponymous prophecy, the implementation of which are supposed to usher in a new age of enlightenment, ultimately "ending the cycle of birth and death." Here is list of all the insights, there are 12 of them now.

I certainly can't quibble with Redfield's views on the nature of the universe (as energy) and the need to give energy in relationships rather than stealing it. But the idea that you can overcome negative tendencies (e.g. the practice of stealing other people's energy) even after having a spiritual awakening through conscious application of these principles isn't practical. It certainly hasn't been my experience. Even after a spiritual awakening has occurred, unconscious behaviors continue (driven by what Eckhart Tolle has called the "pain-body") until you go into your inner body through meditation to root it out. The idea that you can do this through conscious application of the principles and insights, detailed at length in the novel, doesn't ring true for me.

Not that they aren't interesting to read about. One of the passages that I listened to on audio and then found in the book to read again talks about the roots of codependency:

[T]he problem starts in our early family. Because of the energy competition there, none of us were able to complete an important psychological process. We weren't able to integrate our opposite sexual side.

It's important, I think, to note here that these types of discussions are pure metaphor, although they are not meant as such. There is no such thing as a male or female side. These are just words expressing what? An idea. And that idea is simply an expression of a what? Anyone? Anyone? A feeling. So this idea, which exists only in the conscious mind--that non-existent virtual space of mind--will be of absolutely no help to the codependent person until it is repatriated into the body, the inner-body, where it is located and identified as a negative feeling and rooted out by making the unconscious thought that created the pain (i.e. pain-body) conscious through the application of awareness (vice judgement, that is to say rationality, that is to say conscious thought). This Redfield doesn't seem to understand, or at least hasn't included, which makes his novel incomplete. And as Thomas Mann has said (probably ironically) through one of the characters in his thousand-plus page novel, The Magic Mountain, "Only the exhaustive is truly interesting."

Another of Redfield's major points is in finding one's evolutionary mission. He says this is the blending of your mother's purpose and your father's purpose. He says, through his characters, that if you think back to what your dad was all about and what your mom was all about, then you can figure out what you're all about. Really? Thinking about such things seems more like a silly waste of time to me. Why not just be, and then do whatever arises out of being? And if nothing ever comes up, count yourself lucky and just relax and enjoy being. But to each his own.

Then there is the inevitable new-age preoccupation with the evolution of humanity and where it's all leading and where its all going and the development of human consciousness and so forth. This even infects the teachings of my good (anonymous) friend and long-distance mentor Eckhart Tolle. What does that have to do with living in "the now"? Nothing whatsoever. It just puts pressure on people to go and do and move and evolve and seek and . . . instead of just being. It's the same with Left Behind and the rapture and concerns about the next life. Wherever we're going, we're going to get there without any of us worry about it, Does it matter where civilization is going if reality is actually an illusion? Of course not. So just relax. Chill out. Enjoy life. You want to know what the next life will be like? Try meditating. It will be something like that.

From a craft standpoint, aside from the poorly constructed plot and the undeveloped characters, it's the way these clunky psychological principles, which are literally right out of a self-improvement text, are shoehorned into the narrative, in dialogue from characters that are simply there to deliver their lines and then exit stage right. The insights are not born of their character in any way, because we have no idea what their character is like. Characters have to be their words; they have to embody their words. That's not happening here at all. And Redfield jumps right in doing this from the first page of the novel. I found it really painful to read. But so many more readers out there are much more forgiving of these foibles than I am, in deference to a great idea for a story that tells them things about which they generally like to read, I guess. A cautionary tale, indeed, for anyone considering writing about what people don't wish to hear.

I have headed this warning. While the reviews for my self-published novel, The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder, have been favorable, I have nonetheless seen the light about hiring a professional editor for my latest tale, working title The Obamacare Conspiracy. This is an important step as a writer. It is this that distinguishes the professional writer from the hobbiest, that one is willing to invest in his product. The editor begins her work on March 17th. I'm very excited!

The Movie

This was the worst movie I have ever sat all the way through. I actually walked out on Blades of Glory--at the dollar theater no less, and I'm a big Will Ferrell fan to boot! But to be fair to Blades, I was watching Celestine as research, knowing that I would be writing this review and feeling that I should at least watch the entire movie before doing so.

This movie is so bad, it's worth watching. This movie is almost comedy, that's how bad it is. It's sometimes difficult to watch good movies and learn anything about how movies are made because one gets so engrossed in them and forgets to regard the craftsmanship involved, the movie magic, the tricks of the trade utilized. This movie has no such problem. They should show it at film schools. The students will understand implicitly how to do it right by watching this movie.

It's terrible. It's as if it's makers looked at the book and took from it only the elements that wouldn't make a good movie. Because there were lots of features in the book that would have been great in the movie. Take us to the Andes! Not in the movie. Take us to Machu Picchu! Not even mentioned in the movie. Give us a love story. Give us drama and danger.

Why is the main character going on this adventure? Shoulder shrug. Why this guy? Shoulder shrug. After just a few minutes, the desire is, "Ok, why don't you just give us a list of the nine insights so we can get on with our lives?" Sure enough, they rolled across the screen, but only after the final credits an hour and a half later.

The problem is . . . James Redfield. He insisted on co-writing the screenplay and producing the movie. And he apparently surrounded himself with sycophants, who were unwilling to tell him that his screenplay sucked. I have very little doubt that any Hollywood mogul would have been champing at the bit to get their hands on the rights to The Celestine Prophecy (with Tom Cruise as the lead, assuming his Scientology elders approved of his participation) IF they could have them unfettered so as to draw out the good bits and turn it into the blockbuster it could have been. But with Redfield--poor writer that his is--holding all the cards, no one would touch it. As it was, the movie had a $10 million budget (perhaps all Mr. Redfield's money) and grossed about 1/10th of that.

As an aside, a co-producer and co-writer, Barnet Bain, appears to be behind an effort to "crowd fund" a movie adaptation of a children's story written by my good (though long-distance and anonymous) friend Eckhart Tolle called Milton's Secret. Claiming to have access to Hollywood production money, Mr. Bain also claims to eschew these sources of funding due to the strings that inevitably attach (like a requirement for a great script, for example), and he's touting his role in the making of The Celestine Prophecy to make his case! Hoping his potential marks won't have seen the monstrosity, perhaps (probably a pretty safe bet). They're asking for a million bucks and have raise almost $323,000 in free money so far with their slick website, with no deadline on fundraising (as is required, for example, with legitimate crowdfunding organizations like Kickstarter.com projects). I even went so far as to send an email to the propounders of this effort via Facebook some time ago, asking them to cease and desist tarnishing Eckhart's good name in this way. I haven't heard back from them as yet. If The Celestine Prophecy is any indication, they need all the Hollywood strings attached to Milton's Secret that they can get.

Again, this is a cautionary tale, not only for Eckhart Tolle and Barnet Bain, but for anyone who writes or makes movies--or writes novels with an eye toward making movie out of them in the future. There are some stories that work, and many more that don't. And movies are very limited vehicles, much more limited than novels. You only have a couple of hours of time and attention, and there are only certain things you can profitably do with that time. And there are people who know what those certain things are. Leave any experimentation to those people. The best thing, a writer can hope for in most cases is to use the movie to get people interested in reading the book.

The Celestine Prophecy would have made one helluva good picture if James Redfield had done that. Maybe when the 25th anniversary revised edition of the novel comes out, he'll let them remake the movie.

But I wouldn't hold my breath. The end of the cycle of birth and death is likely to come sooner.

You might also like: This article about A Course in Miracles

A "Lost" Review of The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder

2014-02-17T22:51:00.000-05:00

Here's a 5-star review from last year that it appears I failed to post from a Harry Federci:

Author Todd Wright skillfully uses the rather ordinary theme of a murder mystery to explore the extraordinary difference between organized religion and what is known at the present time as New Age spirituality. Detectives Bookman and Berg - no first names are ever divulged - are assigned to a criminal case involving the murder of a young woman. In the course of their investigation, they are exposed to profound literature which radically alters their perceptions of reality. The teachings of Aristotle, Socrates, St. Paul and Jesus Christ all come into play in this most unusual crime novel. I highly recommend it to anyone with an open mind who wishes to explore the big questions of life and doesn't know quite where to begin.

Thanks, Harry!

Another 5-Star Review for The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder!

2014-02-10T18:44:00.000-05:00

Another five-star review for The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder, this one from Karen G. Thanks, Karen!

I've seen a spike in sales lately. Seems it's become a cult classic in Japan. I expect a feature-length anime film to be announced any day now.

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