Essays by Larry Barnett
A central Buddhist teaching is that being human means living in the realms of desire, and that desire and what flows from it – attachment, craving, grasping, defending, protecting – produces suffering. Sounds reasonable, and from what I can tell, is largely inescapable. As rock n’ roller… Read the rest
Animals are alive; it’s so obvious as to be a tautology. Not all animals, however, are aware of being alive. As far as we can tell so far, human beings are the only ones.
Opinion about awareness, and even more precisely reason, has varied. The designation of animal behavior as the use of reason actually … Read the rest
Our present human condition embodies an antagonism towards nature, one that explains the heights of our creative intelligence, the depths of our self-destructiveness, and how they have become one. Although of nature, humanity relentlessly seeks to master it, and in doing so prompts its own demise.… Read the rest
People are great storytellers. Whether to make sense of a mysterious world beyond our control, to gain influence or power over others, or simply for the playful purposes of entertainment, the tales we spin have created a human reality quite distinct from that of the natural world. Buddhists call it … Read the rest
The past 500 years of social change can be summarized in one word: emancipation. Despite the repeated pendulum swings of permissive and repressive governments, religions, and politics, the overall trajectory of history, in particular western history, includes greater freedom for more people,… Read the rest
When I hear a developer say how much they love Sonoma, it makes me cringe. I’ve lived here long enough to have seen and heard it all before; what such big talkers often mean by loving Sonoma is craving to possess it.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel tremendous affection for our community. I never say I love Sonoma,… Read the rest
The cultural and political forces at play in America right now, the permissive left and the repressive right, present two sides of a centuries-long struggle within western culture: Enlightenment vs. Counter-Enlightenment.
When we speak of The Enlightenment, we are invoking the philosophy of the… Read the rest
My neighbor has a canoe on the roof of his extended cab truck. He’s about to go camping at a lake near Truckee. I like canoeing, and his wooden canoe reminds me of summer at Camp Androscoggin in Maine, where at age eleven I earned a birchwood plaque for “Most Improved in Canoeing.”
Sometimes the honors we … Read the rest
People are talking about how polarized public opinion is right now, politically and socially. The widespread assumption is that a narrow slice of undecideds sits in the middle and that everyone else is rigidly fixed in their opinions; hence, all arguments fail.
Ever since the dawn of The Age of Reason,… Read the rest
The Homo line of bipedal humans sequenced through a variety of iterations before settling down, albeit uncomfortably, into the one we are today. Among others, there’s been Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, and the now popular Homo neanderthalensis. All these primate species share… Read the rest
People have been speaking and using words for a very long time, but writing and reading is something relatively new.
The bicameral mind, psychologist Julian Jaynes’ idea that for most of humanity’s history internal thoughts were regarded as the voice of gods or spirits, is a way to understand… Read the rest
Being born is choiceless, but fairly soon thereafter we begin to choose. The choices we make follow the branching structure of time, each moment of choosing akin to a bud on a twig that either begins to grow or withers away.
As living beings, we are semi-autonomous vehicles, our sensory apparatus constantly… Read the rest
People are afraid of being killed by all sorts of things: branches falling from big trees, being attacked by vicious dogs, dying in a plane crash, drowning at sea. These are possible ways to go, of course, but for my money getting killed while driving on Hwy. 101 tops the list.
Two-ton hunks of metal hurtling… Read the rest
The role of religion in American society waxes and wanes. I remember back in the 70s when Time Magazine unearthed Friedrich Nietzsche and famously declared “God is Dead” on its cover. Turns out the death of God was greatly exaggerated, as current events demonstrate.
The push and pull of religion is tied… Read the rest
Everyone gets flies in the house from time to time, and we’re no exception. Sure, we’ve got screens on our windows but in one way or another, flies appear inside. Sometimes they find their way in from below, finding a hole or gap in the floor after having bidden goodbye to a dead mouse or other small rodent… Read the rest
Despite an avalanche of laws, political systems, religious doctrine, and just plain ordinary human experience, humanity’s wildness persistently asserts itself. Our hopes and disappointments propel a fusillade of argument and criticism directed at the very institutions and leaders we’ve enabled.… Read the rest
A strong wind
Bamboo deeply bends and sways.
In shifting shadows
A robin sits,
Undisturbed.
The blustery storm of world events – violence in the Middle East, political conflict, cultural change, and so on – often feels like too much. Admittedly, I ain’t no robin. I do, however, try to calm… Read the rest
In contrast to most of human history, present day western culture does not like to think seriously about death. This is not to say we aren’t fascinated by it; the proliferation of films, books and television programs dealing with serial killers, zombies, and the apocalypse attest to that. The… Read the rest
The Pieces: Dirty cups, bowls, plates, platters, glasses, knives, forks, and spoons; an assortment of shapes of varying sizes that need to fill the rack space of the dishwasher. The Goal: Fit as many dirty dishes and utensils as possible in a fixed amount of space; the more you fit the more you win! It’s… Read the rest
Is the self physical or metaphysical? That is the question. The nature of self is hotly debated. Buddhist non-materialists consider the self to be a sustained hallucination, an opinion supported by some current-day neurologists who, despite all their attempts, cannot find a source of the self. Some… Read the rest