Dec 16
Our inner-life has a stronger resemblance to our direct experience than Nature’s genes have to organisms; so much so that it even spills over this presumed inner-outer divide as overt ‘playfulness’. Is this why we become easily ‘attached’ to our thoughts? (And why it’s taken me three days to write the next paragraph?) A long tradition of dharma …
Dec 13
I was at a local Green Party meeting the other day1 where we were all asked to identify ourselves and to say something about why we wanted to be involved in the upcoming election campaign. (I’m the sign delivery guy.) I tried to respond thoughtfully, which takes time as you know, but when this aging …
Nov 22
As you can see from reading other postings on this website, my understanding of population evo-ecology doesn’t allow me to see humans as having a ‘place’ within coevolving Nature, not just because of the faster-than-Nature evolution of technology but mostly because of technology’s niche-transcending capacity.1 Modern humans are not a species (hence the quotation marks …
Jun 10
In this perilous decade of transition, for both Humans and Nature, an awakening mind must not underrate the evolutionary value of a wandering and occasionally fixating mind. A human mind cannot be creative if it doesn’t wander freely, and regularly; and must even hold onto hypotheses long enough to ignite the curiosity, and ultimately the …
Nov 11
In case you’re wondering why I haven’t posted on my https://www.extremophilechoice.com/ blog lately, it’s not because I’ve lost interest in species conservation, rewilding, or looking at any other issues through the lens of Natural History. I just don’t have anything to say lately that I haven’t already said in these pages. I know most blogs …
Feb 09
“The devil of complacency is in the ignorance of detail.” This is another post that I’ve resurrected, and updated, from four years back, because it places the Extremophile Choice hypothesis in the context of the broader, and not the currently fashionable, ecological discussion. The original has earned more attention from ecological nerdom than many of my other blogposts, so …
Aug 30
A short selection from Essay Fifty — one of the longer essays, and THE LAST — in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice The Great Way is not difficult; just avoid picking and choosing. —from the Hsin Hsin Ming [1] A Buddhist monk commits to pay attention to whatever “arises” in his or her daily life and, when it’s clearly helpful, …
Aug 29
A short selection from Essay Forty-nine — one of the longer essays, and the second last — in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice There is something in this [experimental path] which reminds us of the obstinate adherence of Columbus to his notion of the necessary existence of the New World; and … may serve to teach us reliance on those …
Aug 25
A short selection from Essay Forty-eight — one of the longer essays, and third from the end — in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice Everyone has heard the story which has gone the rounds of New England, of a strong and beautiful bug which came out of a dry leaf of an old table …
Aug 22
A short selection from Essay Forty-seven in Darwin, Dogen, and the Extremophile Choice. When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharmas intimately. Unlike things and their reflections in the mirror, and unlike the moon and its reflection in the water, when one side is illuminated, the other side is dark. …
