Tim Desmond writes about his wife’s terminal illness, and his revelation about the way in which his deep love for his wife was manifesting as anxiety, and because of it he was missing their shared moments of beauty.
In her years working as a hospice chaplain, spiritual caregiver and author Kerry Egan has rarely found that dying patients want to discuss God or religion. Instead, chaplaincy work for her leans on the quality of the presence she can offer her patients and the compassion and empathy with which she can hold space for them and their stories.
We must endeavor to rise above the patterns set out for us by others, according to Stafford, and not follow in a line like elephants holding each other’s tails; it is imperative, he writes, that ‘awake people be awake’ since ‘the darkness around us is deep’.
What happens when home is not a place of safety, but a locus of loneliness and even danger and violence? Jocelyn Ulevicus’ poem describes a solitude and a fear around isolation wrapped in memories of past violence, and explores what finally settling into a sense of safety really means.
A moment of transcendence is captured by Robert Miner in this short and evocative poem inspired by the sight of a group of students flying kites on a quad. The movement from the earth to the sky and the devotional missive of the kites being sent up and disappearing into the darkness come together like a silent prayer or a whispered exchange between mortals and the infinite.
‘How long has it been since you wrote a story where your real love or your real hatred somehow got onto the paper?’ Finding the truth of our authentic passions is the key to forming the foundations of a writing practice, according to science fiction author Ray Bradbury.
Zhuangzi’s story of the dexterous Cook Ding who teaches a lord a profound life lesson through the workings of his knife.
We often identify ourselves with the events that have happened to us and the things we have done, rather than the subjective center of experience itself. In an echo of the Buddhist teaching of the absence of a permanent self, Harris asserts that when the absence of this self is found, then ‘the feeling of being a self disappears.’
In this short chapter from the Shobogenzo, Sho-ji, Dogen plays with the distinction between the nuances of the two different meanings, life and death being static and self-defined events, which he argues have no substance or existence, and living and dying which are an endless flow of events and dynamic being
Zhuangzi’s story of the dexterous Cook Ding who teaches a lord a profound life lesson through the workings of his knife.
The Fukanzazenki is a 13th century Japanese text that provides the most fundamental instructions for Zen meditation, including details on the ideal environment and posture for practice.
17th century Zen master Bankei on the Unborn, the unconditioned mind that comes up spontaneously and is fundamental to every person, without exception.
Alan Watts often said that in order to come to your senses, you have to get out of your mind. Watts was emphatic about self-realization and breaking through cultural and psychic barriers in order to live as a fully-fledged, fearless human being.
Among Alan Watts’ most compelling qualities was his fascination with different systems of faith and his
Our favorite rogue Zen philosopher, Alan Watts had a gift for contextualizing the principles of
Religion and faith are two of the most difficult subjects to write about according to Nicholas Trandahl, author of the poem, The Chapel.
Writing can be anything, from self-discovery to incorporating pain to establishing direction, according to poet Caroline Goodwin, who featured in The Dewdrop a couple of weeks ago with her poem, Not I’ll Not, from her book, Custody of the Eyes.
Author Cuong Lu is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh and has worked for many years as a prison chaplain.
Les Kaye is the Abbot of Kannon Do meditation center in Mountain View and the author of the books Joyously
Can writing with your wrong hand beat writer’s block? Are maternity leave and creativity at all compatible? Danielle Pieratti, The
Ben Connelly is a Zen teacher at the Minnesota Zen Center as well as the author of several books including
“What does it mean to ask a question? Is there some magic in the inquisitive brain?” Susan Blackmore’s lifelong investigation into consciousness encompasses Zen practice and the recurring question: Am I conscious now?
The Bhaddekaratta Sutta is one of the many teachings the Buddha gave over the course of his 19 three-month practice periods at the Jetavana Monastery. It conveys the essence of a self-sufficient practice and way of existing – not clinging to the past or living for the future but diligently dwelling in current stability and freedom.
Achaan Chaa was a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition who taught a simple practice in nature that did not depend on reading or studying.
Adachi Chiyono (also known as Mugai Nyodai) was the daughter of a samurai warrior in the 13th century who became the first woman – and mother – to found and head a Zen monastery in Japan.
‘Selflessness is the soul of teamwork’ was former basketball coach Phil Jackson’s mantra when coaching his players in the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Jijuyu Zanmai is the second section of the first part of Dogen’s Bendowa – ‘The Endeavor of the Way’ and concerns the experience of zazen
This biographical snippet, taken from the introduction of Tenshin Reb Anderson’s book Being Upright, tells a bit of the story of how he met his
Mitsu Suzuki was the wife of Shunryu Suzuki who accompanied him when he moved to the United States from Japan in the 1960s. After her
Dainin Katagiri came to the United States in 1963, originally to help out at the Zenshuji mission in Los Angeles, before moving up to San
“Whatever way you are feeling now, whether you like it or not, whether it is inspired or depressed, right or wrong, sane or crazy, it is what it is in this moment.”
For some scientists, the pursuit and gradual recognition of a unifying principle is in itself a spiritual endeavor encompassing what Einstein refers to as religion ‘in the highest sense of the word’.
Alan Watts often said that in order to come to your senses, you have to get out of your mind. Watts was emphatic about self-realization and breaking through cultural and psychic barriers in order to live as a fully-fledged, fearless human being.
Einstein goes on to explore definitions of science and religion and sees no fundamental conflict between them, except for when each try to encroach on the other’s territory: science can only claim what is and not what should be, and religion can have no declaration of fact.
How can we stay connected through solitude and how can doing nothing enrich us? Thomas Merton explores the notion that ‘all men are solitary’ and what this really means.
Albert Einstein called for the scientific method to be accompanied by a deep humanism often grounded in religious practice. He argued that the role of religion would be to set into the emotional life of humans the means and ends of their rational endeavors.
Rabbi Rami addresses the question of spirituality and its relationship to religion, and the way in which the two realities interact and support one another.
Sheila Heti’s novel ‘How Should a Person Be?’ asks that candid and naive question with honesty, humor and sincerity. During the course of the book, she especially looks at love and all its difficulties, and in this passage she talks about the kind of obsessive sexual love that pushes us over cliffs and into the death drive, that longs for ‘annihilation, comfort and death’.
Tim Desmond writes about his wife’s terminal illness, and his revelation about the way in which his deep love for his wife was manifesting as anxiety, and because of it he was missing their shared moments of beauty.
In her years working as a hospice chaplain, spiritual caregiver and author Kerry Egan has rarely found that dying patients want to discuss God or religion. Instead, chaplaincy work for her leans on the quality of the presence she can offer her patients and the compassion and empathy with which she can hold space for them and their stories.
What happens when home is not a place of safety, but a locus of loneliness and even danger and violence? Jocelyn Ulevicus’ poem describes a solitude and a fear around isolation wrapped in memories of past violence, and explores what finally settling into a sense of safety really means.
We must endeavor to rise above the patterns set out for us by others, according to Stafford, and not follow in a line like elephants holding each other’s tails; it is imperative, he writes, that ‘awake people be awake’ since ‘the darkness around us is deep’.
In this short chapter from the Shobogenzo, Sho-ji, Dogen plays with the distinction between the nuances of the two different meanings, life and death being static and self-defined events, which he argues have no substance or existence, and living and dying which are an endless flow of events and dynamic being
A moment of transcendence is captured by Robert Miner in this short and evocative poem inspired by the sight of a group of students flying kites on a quad. The movement from the earth to the sky and the devotional missive of the kites being sent up and disappearing into the darkness come together like a silent prayer or a whispered exchange between mortals and the infinite.
Religion and faith are two of the most difficult subjects to write about according to Nicholas Trandahl, author of the poem, The Chapel.
‘How long has it been since you wrote a story where your real love or your real hatred somehow got onto the paper?’ Finding the truth of our authentic passions is the key to forming the foundations of a writing practice, according to science fiction author Ray Bradbury.
The pinpoint perspective of the present moment can feel so sharp but ultimately always impossible to fathom and out of our reach. As Erich von Hungen writes, it is simultaneously hard and soft, early and late, tiny and all-encompassing ‘like a pocket-sized Big Bang.’
Everlasting Nothing is the final track on singer/songwriter Beck’s album Hyperspace. It describes a series of experiences with an unreal bent in which there is a continuous push to ‘get back home’.
Zhuangzi’s story of the dexterous Cook Ding who teaches a lord a profound life lesson through the workings of his knife.
“I saw a man walking his dog, throwing a ball for him/her. The moment was simple and joyful.”
We often identify ourselves with the events that have happened to us and the things we have done, rather than the subjective center of experience itself. In an echo of the Buddhist teaching of the absence of a permanent self, Harris asserts that when the absence of this self is found, then ‘the feeling of being a self disappears.’
Jerome Berglund’s poem, Manure, grew from his own practice of sowing and harvesting where he was reminded that compost and dung are always essential to the process of growth and fertilization.
This sonnet by American poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay is addressed to a lover and to the latent sense of impermanence and loss built in to all moments when one becomes conscious of great love or great happiness.
Benedictine nun Joan Chittister sees spirituality not as something contained in sacred places or practices, but as something deeply integrated into our daily lives.
Holly Kelso’s Suspended takes place in the space of a pause, walks during a period of isolation near the poet’s home at the base of a mountain, and at the edge of both a desert and a lake.
A Thousand Plateaus is a remarkable book of philosophy that was the result of an alliance between philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.
Mesmerized by Miró’s ability to metamorphose the external world into something wholly his own, something human and not, Joan Lauri Poole’s poetic tribute to the painter details her own revelation of his work.
In an echo of the defiance of Wendell Berry’s ‘Do Not Be Ashamed’, Alice Walker draws up the image of an outcast to underline the importance of tenaciousness and standing one’s ground in the midst of madness.
