Kotsu Kotsu

The Comedy Rule of Three Back in the days when I was editing broadcast television, I once worked on a couple of episodes of Late Night with David Letterman . I'll never forget the producer, the legendary  Hal Gurnee , talking about how comedy had to adhere to the "rule of three." If you get hit on the head once, it's bad. Twice, it's worse. Three times: it's funny. Just like comedy, the stories we tell are made more memorable when things happen in sets of three. Recently a colleague told me he'd had a bad year. He lost his job, his truck was totalled, and then his beloved dog bit his face. I agree, he has had a bad year. The dog bite was definitely the capper. I'm ok with telling funny stories about my life to make other people laugh. On the other hand, I have realized that I'm constantly creating a running narrative about my life, that I tell myself .  I've seen first-hand that while this self-narrative may seem to reflect reality, i...

Gil Fronsdal , in one of his online dharma talks , (I'm not sure, maybe this one ) spoke about the power of subtle thoughts. He described how, in the early days of his practice of meditation, he became interested in the idea of "falling in love." Because his meditation practice involved noticing the thoughts that came into his mind, he was able to distinguish a point when his thoughts about someone changed, when he thought, "Ah, this woman has such and such qualities. I could be in love with her." It was after that decision that he began the process of "falling in love." Many forms of meditation practice (including traditions such as Zen, Vipassana and others) involve mindfulness or "noticing" of the types of thoughts that come to mind as we sit. Many people find as they practice in this way that they are gradually more able to distinguish these subtle thoughts. This can lead to a sense of having more power or control over one's life, ...