We sat asking under a glass roof, "Everyone has a birth place; where is yours?" Outside, we went step by step halfway down a narrow alley and back. A neighbor entered, and, given pause, quickly was gone without pause. Regarding the "last word" of Zen, someone offered a contradiction that wasn't one. In a lounge [...]
For those in Paris, two exceptional events not to miss for anyone interested in Buddhism, art, poetry, cinema, light, darkness, form, emptiness, beauty, presence, absence, phenomena, ephemera, expressions of the ungraspable world of here and now...: a reading/performance by legendary American poet Anne Waldman on Tuesday May 4, 19h, Point Ephémère, (Métro Jaurès); bilingual, English-French [...]
Back again after more travels. By train, not plane, so was not directly subject to the ashes phenomenon. Appreciated greatly having nothing in particular to do, truly vacating. In the sunny streets of Amsterdam and along its innumerable canals, I was not so much wandering as just being where I was. Every shifting patch of [...]
All this volcanic frenzy over being grounded! And all that time we sat in Normandy under a cloudless sky by night and day, aware that "unseen" causes and effects were stirring up "disruptions" of unfathomable proportions (big and small) around the world and right where we were. And it is always thus, always. What are [...]
Off to retreat in Normandy. The news is in the details, wider and wider every moment. April is rounding a corner, turning away from a sort of stutter, from something fragile, toward something strongly fragile, without hesitation. I like that, and the sun sneaking in and out of the clouds.
There has been so much ado since Saturday about the plane crashing in a Russian forest with an array of Polish leaders, including the president, on board. There were, the news reports said, no survivors. We might say none of us are survivors (we all are dying), or we all are survivors (who dies?), including [...]
I come across a phrase as I flip through a text that I've read over and over, entitled, "La nécessité de Giacometti" (The Necessity of Giacometti), by Yves Bonnefoy: Giacometti's intention in his art, Bonnefoy writes, was to "saisir" (seize) "la transcendance dans l'immanence" (transcendence in immanence). Seize what can't be seized: That was his [...]
Of all the possible words (worlds?) to grab and type here, a few are chosen: Several talks from last Portugal retreat and a conference at the Fnac in Coimbra are now posted on the Wild Flower Portugal site: http://sanghazenpt.wordpress.com/ For those in Paris, an American poet not to miss tomorrow night (Tuesday): Norman Fischer, Zen [...]
Another full-schedule week of multiple activities having now come to this, a rainy, chilly, sometimes sunny, sometimes not Easter Sunday. After newspaper work, I'm home again. I think I have now done everything that I think I can possibly think of doing. Reminds me of the Zen story (as told by D.T. Suzuki) in which [...]
A bit more information today about the accident and my friend: He is conscious, can speak and move. His injuries are serious, but not what we might have imagined. Sounds like some sort of miracle. Again, I notice the movement. The story changes. My emotions shift, ebb, flow. The very nature of "accident" is uncertainty, [...]
