Tag Archives: "paradox"

Further Secrets of Adulthood:   Agree, disagree?

I love teaching stories–parables from the Bible, Zen stories, paradoxes, Aesop’s fables, koans. That’s one reason that I now use my weekly video to tell a story. One such story is the story of “Buridan’s ass.” In it, an ass stands between two identical piles of hay, and unable to find a reason to choose one pile over the other, … →

Assay: I’m struck, when I reflect back on my education–years in grade school, high school, college, law school–by the things I remember. From all those years of study, what do I retain? Not much. But at odd moments, a random fact or  snatch of poetry or phrase will float into my mind. For instance, I can never see a daffodil … →

I’ve always loved paradoxes and koans, and was very struck by an observation by physicist Niels Bohr: “There are trivial truths and great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.” This is very true in the area of happiness, and in particular, I’ve noticed it with my resolutions. … →