My dad just published a book!

📕 Zhuangzi Notes and Reflections (2026) https://works.hcommons.org/records/89045-bcp64

“What I have written here is an English-language commentary on the classic Chinese Daoist text, the Zhuangzi. The book is named after the late fourth-century BCE philosopher Zhuang Zhou. I have posted it on an open access platform called Knowledge Commons. The link is to a free download”

#Daoist #Daoism #Taoism #ChinesePhilosophy #ChineseLiterature #Zhuangzi #ZhuangZhou #philosophy #KnowledgeCommons #FreeBook #eBook #CreativeCommons

ain't always simply right or wrong

yew got the yin, yang, and yuan

sometimes a junt is just a jawn

don't want smoke, can't put it in the bong

him that pings gotta pong

yew gonna fight, flight, freeze, or fawn

if y'all startin' shit keep it off my lawn

lost damn near all, what's left i can't pawn

#Poetry #HipHop #Daoism #Taoism

Coming up a lot on my path these days, the old Zen koan or saying:

"Riding an ox, looking for an ox."

Publications and projects as a Professor in Japan: https://japanned.hcommons.org

#Japan #zen #Buddhism #Taoism #Daoism #religion #philosophy #mysticism #psychology

I finished reading The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin. I had watched both movie adaptations a little while ago. The premise is that a man named George Orr has dreams that alter reality. He is afraid of this power, so he abuses drugs to try to stop the dreams. He gets into trouble with the government after this, so he is assigned a therapist, Dr Haber. But when Haber realizes what George can do, he starts hypnotizing George so he can manipulate his dreams and reality. He dreams himself into a famous and powerful researcher. But the dreams usually go wrong in some way. Haber tells George to dream of peace on Earth; this leads to a war with aliens over the Moon instead. He tells George to dream away the overpopulation that is leading to mass starvation, so a plague comes and kills billions of people... and so on.

It is a short book with interesting if confusing themes of Daoism and antipsychiatry, but I take issue with the way minorities are written, especially George's love interest, Heather. She is a biracial (Black and white) woman who dislikes having brown skin. When Haber tells George to dream away racism, everyone becomes gray. Gray Heather is "gentler." In the end, Heather becomes brown again and her personality becomes "fiercer" and "difficult" as a result. There were other odd things about her character but suffice to say, I don't like it.

#TheLatheOfHeaven #UrsulaKLeGuin #UrsulaLeGuin #books #reading #Daoism #Taoism #psychiatry #antipsychiatry