café gyü

Tag: reflection

  • Of Questions and Questioning

    Of Questions and Questioning

    Let us look at the great metaphysical question of “How does Nothing become Something?” Or if we were to translate it into a more pragmatic phrasing, we can say: “How does one go from not writing into completing a written thing?” At the moment, two ways of going about this case comes to mind. The…

  • In Attention

    What goes on in one’s mind when one is engaged in a task? Lately, I have been playing with the idea of “focus” as a similar phenomenon to hunger. Sometimes a lack of appetite is not a concern—one may simply not be hungry; likewise, a lack of singular attention may be an indication of a…

  • Some essay [Walking with Christ]

    Some essay [Walking with Christ]

    I think I may have been looking at the earlier question the wrong way, focusing on “the limits” of Jesus and how I could ever be able to cope with that. The keyword could instead be will. What do I will? What am I willing to do?

  • Notes on 道德經 (Dào Dé Jīng), chapter 36

    To shrinkFirst stretch.To be softFirst be hard.To destroyFirst raise up.To stealFirst give away.This is the subtle light.Soft and gentlePrecede hard and strong.Never take a fishfrom its deep.Never displaythe sharp weaponsof a Nation. Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching, Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. Translated by John Minford. 2021. This chapter seems to be composed of three parts:…

  • What is not learning: 無為 (wú wéi) and good governance

    That is what the pursuit of the 道 (dào) entails: an action that leads to less and less doing until there is no doing at all. However, this is not an empty sort of doing because “nothing is left undone” still. 無為 (wú wéi) is not just a “not doing” but an action-less action. Such…