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The principle of the golden mean.

  The principle of the golden mean. The tendency to swing to extremes in the search for truth has long been recognized by people. Buddha explained this using the metaphor of a musical instrument, asking, “Tell me, will music sound if the string is too loose?” — “No, teacher.” “And will we hear music if the string is pulled so tight it’s about to snap?” — “No, teacher.”    Buddha continued, “The music you wish to draw from yourself will only emerge when the strings are neither too loose nor too tight but perfectly balanced in the middle. Know that excessive tension leads to excess, while too much relaxation results in weakness. Find your balance — only then can you achieve your goals.”   This principle applies to improving your health as well. There is always a golden mean, optimal performance or resilience point, and the lowest mortality risk. The golden mean may differ among individuals depending on their genetics and lifestyle. It can be determined empirically by c...
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Respect for reality as a duty of a true gentleman

  What we “see” is a mixture of two completely different streams of information — a top-down and a bottom-up one. One comes from sensory organs, the other from our expectations — and they can blend in the most bizarre ways. When reality is very bad, when there is neither strength nor desire to engage with it, and there is a desperate longing and expectation for improvement and hope — then we begin to go blind. We stop seeing reality and start seeing our own desires, taking what is wished for as what is real. This self-deception effect is well described in the writings of people who survived concentration camps (both Nazi and Soviet). Prisoners begin to believe that the guards actually sympathize with them and are completely on their side — only secretly. Their brain, like Skinner’s pigeon, begins to interpret the most ordinary gestures and words as hidden codes of support and sympathy. And the cruelty of the guards is interpreted by these prisoners as a form of disgui...
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