mars 2010
Among the crowds
A heightened level of diverse activity in my life of late has made for changed patterns of my daily doings. Like heavy rain swelling a river that then has its course altered or spills over [...]
It’s all included (What comes to mind)
What comes to mind tonight is, "I don't know what to say." Then again, that is always what comes to mind if I am honest, if I don't grab hold of "I know what to [...]
février 2010
Out of order
Flip through the morning newspaper. Among the headlines and blurbs and briefs and spreads of type, little catches my attention for more than a minute or so. They say journalism is a rough draft of [...]
Still swiftly now
Already Thursday. I know by the clock and calendar that the week, the month, the evening are advancing, but I can neither catch nor describe their ceaseless movement. It is without measure, a constant, magnificent [...]
Tale of the Tiger
So Tiger Woods has repented and promises to become "normal," like everyone else. Wonder what that means. He also vows to return to his Buddhist roots. Wonder what that means, too. And of course, we [...]
Sights and sounds of the world
Have been waking early these days and setting off for work before the sun is up. On the Métro at that hour, most of my fellow passengers are heading to jobs that most anyone who [...]
What’s enough for now?
Going through the days, one thing to another, and not finding words for this space. Always with "bodhisattva" in mind. Then find these words from Thich Nhat Hanh: "When we come into contact with the [...]
The universe faintly falling
Snow coming obliquely through the gray light this morning has me thinking, as ever when the flakes come "general all over" like this, of the final lines of Joyce's masterful short story The Dead: "His [...]
Where we meet
I read tonight that when Shunryu Suzuki Roshi was on his deathbed, his successor, Richard Baker, asked him where they would meet again. Suzuki Roshi stuck his boney hand out from under the sheet and [...]
Happy Birthday James Joyce
Happy 128th birthday, James Joyce (born Feb. 2, 1882, Dublin) Happy 88th birthday, Ulysses (published Feb. 2, 1922, Paris) And happy Groundhog Day, one and all (no shadows visible here today)
Ritually rich, in and out of order
Sometimes my notebooks have lines and sometimes they don’t. Writing with the lines and writing without lines are very different experiences. As a writer, I know that different pens and paper, like different places and [...]
janvier 2010
And that’s all there is
In an old book that I haven't opened for many years, I discover a scrap of paper on which I had written: "Sweet birdsong before dawn pierces night & day and the aching heart, too, [...]
Everything is quiet
Another one of those days. Everyone tells me it's warm, almost spring-like. And from the window it doesn't look like winter in the garden, although it is damp and overcast. Cats chase one another through [...]
Spring-Summer 2010
“City” retreats (nonresidential) and one-day practice sessions: led by Amy Hollowell Sensei Paris Feb. 13-14, May 1, June 26-27 Lisbon Feb. 6-7 Residential retreats: Normandy April 15-18, Aug. 20-27 Portugal March 19-23, July 25-Aug. 1 [...]
More of one
More words about the fundamental "oneness" of all things, as an aftershock rocks Haiti again and President Obama's second year begins, looking less promising than the first, and the days are growing a wink longer [...]
One neighborhood
Tonight I am recalling how the snow fell not so long ago on cars and trees and stairs and streets in my neighborhood, and how the chill made my boots creak. It was all here. [...]
When the earth shifted beneath Haiti
Stumble upon this quote from Immanuel Kant last night; it grabs me: "I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself." And then woke up this morning to [...]
In the name of waking up
In the newspaper this morning, this sentence: "In the name of science, Westerners may have done more harm than good, several studies have found." Oh really?! "Science," of course, is not to blame. Rather, the [...]
The basic choice, everyday
After lunch, dishes, paperwork, just going about the life I lead, just as it is, I come across this in a work about the bodhisattva ideal: "In whatever life we are already leading, just as [...]
décembre 2009
Ringing in, ringing out
This message is already circulating on my mail circuit, but a repeat can do no harm. And feel free to pass it on! As we ring out an "old" year and ring in a "new" [...]
Alexis says:
Alexis says:
Alexis says: