Skip to content
Darrell G Yardley
  • About
  • Books
    • Books
    • WindWalker
    • The Guru on the Mountain
  • Audios
  • Chop Water/Carry Wood Blog
  • Consult
Menu Close

The Secular Hermit

Vision Quests, Sweat Lodges, Sesshins, and Long Bicycle and Harley Rides: A Common Denominator?

  • Post author:Darrell Yardley
  • Post published:July 27, 2020
  • Post category:Positive Psychology/The Secular Hermit

Just a short post here. For three decades plusI have been doing the above. Sunday, after I got back from my nearly 27 mile bike ride, exhaust, dripping sweat, etc.,…

Continue ReadingVision Quests, Sweat Lodges, Sesshins, and Long Bicycle and Harley Rides: A Common Denominator?

Sunday 7/25/20 ride

  • Post author:Darrell Yardley
  • Post published:July 27, 2020
  • Post category:Bicycle Log

Sunday was a great morning for a bicycle ride! The air quality, heat, and humidity have been so bad last week, that I only got in the Sunday ride for…

Continue ReadingSunday 7/25/20 ride

7/19/20 Bike Ride Log

  • Post author:Darrell Yardley
  • Post published:July 20, 2020
  • Post category:Bicycle Log

14.5 miles in two hours today. Air Quality was just barely in the "green" range and I could tell it was right on the edge of being in the yellow.…

Continue Reading7/19/20 Bike Ride Log

Bike Ride 7/14/20

  • Post author:Darrell Yardley
  • Post published:July 15, 2020
  • Post category:Bicycle Log

Yesterday's ride: 19.5 miles, in two hours nonetheless! Pretty good for this old man. Again, this time of year, I'm having to get out early (6:00a.m.) to get my ride…

Continue ReadingBike Ride 7/14/20

Natural Selection: Alive and Doing Well in a COVID-19 World!

  • Post author:Darrell Yardley
  • Post published:July 14, 2020
  • Post category:Life Style Choices

In my previous career as an evolutionary biologist, I studied how natural selection works and had many opportunities to observe it in action from the molecular to the ecosystem levels.…

Continue ReadingNatural Selection: Alive and Doing Well in a COVID-19 World!

Bike Ride 7/12/20

  • Post author:Darrell Yardley
  • Post published:July 12, 2020
  • Post category:Bicycle Log

It was a great morning for a bicycle ride! 64 degrees, low humidity. 14.2 miles today. Sundays are great mornings to ride because of the lower traffic. I got off…

Continue ReadingBike Ride 7/12/20
  • Go to the previous page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Recent Posts

  • An Okefenokee Mis-Adventure.2
  • An Okefenokee Mis-Adventure.1
  • Introducing Bandido and Dharma Doc
  • Zen Hummingbird Medicine
  • Senior Sex

Don’t miss a thing!



LinkedIn
Facebook
Email
Login

Chop water, carry wood is a blog by Darrell G. Yardley, PhD, LPC, focusing on wide variety of topics on spirituality and science, Zen Buddhism, secular religious naturalism, Native American spirituality, and science (psychology, evolution, genetics, neurobiology, chaos theory). Defining spirituality as a combination of the cultivation of inner-peace and personal growth.

Promoting simplicity, mindfulness, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, self-actualization, inner-peace, personal growth, and eco-responsibility. My credo is: reduce, repair, repurpose, recycle, and compost. I will take up a range of topics including gardening, bicycling, and whatever topics are on my mind.

Having just finished my second book, The Guru on the Mountain, which shortly will be available on Amazon.com, I am working toward another with a working title, Buddha on a Bike, about my increased interest and involvement in bicycling, the adventures thereon, and relevant to the above topics.

The blog’s title is a wordplay based on an old Zen proverb: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

What does it mean? There are several layers of meaning to this old, pithy saying. One one level it means that the world does  not change when we become “enlightened”. We still must do the work we need to do from moment to moment. The world doesn’t change, but we do, or rather, our perspective and response to the world changes. After enlightenment, the world is still just, the world. It just is. At another level, it is telling us to be fully present in each moment, i.e. to be mindful, no matter what our task.

It is about living your regular life, but from a different perspective and understanding. A spiritual life does not require that we shave our heads, live in the desert, give up all possessions, etc. We can live our regular life, only different; with mindfulness, less attachment, letting go into each moment, then letting it go into the next, realizing that all is impermanent. Being more relaxed, less uptight, realizing that nothing is permanent, everything changes. Less judgmental.

My wordplay is that you can’t of course, chop water, not unless of course it is its solid form of ice. So, my wordplay is a paradox built upon the Zen paradox, known as koans. Koans are Zen word puzzles that are directed to helping students (that be all of us) to obtain enlightenment.

Hopefully my words will help you in this endeavor in your own journey. If not, at least maybe a little enjoyment. Gassho

Don’t miss a thing!



Learn More

  • Services
  • About
  • Book: WindWalker
  • Book: The Guru on the Mountain
  • Blog: Chop Water/Carry Wood
  • 2022 Bicycle Tour

Contact Info

  • Address:25 Iselin St, Liberty, SC 29657
  • Phone:864-508-0781

Recent Posts

  • An Okefenokee Mis-Adventure.2
  • An Okefenokee Mis-Adventure.1
  • Introducing Bandido and Dharma Doc
  • Zen Hummingbird Medicine
  • Senior Sex
Copyright 2025 - another HighImpactBusiness.com
  • Home
  • About
  • Bicycle Tour 2022
  • Blog
  • Book: WindWalker
  • Book: Guru on the Mountain
  • Contact