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Tag: impermanence

Essays

The Merlin (Surprised by Joy)

April 2, 2026April 2, 2026 Vanessa Able

An injured merlin opens the door to the way in which grief and joy are so bewilderingly intertwined in our hearts. BY DEREK FURR

Tagged Buddhism, change, Death, dukkha, giref, impermanence, Joy, keats, loss, love, partnership, relationship, sorrow, Suffering, surpriseLeave a comment
Elizabeth Bishop
Poetry

Elizabeth Bishop – Little Exercise

February 27, 2026March 2, 2026 Vanessa Able

Written when she was living in Key West in the 1930s and 40s, Bishop was inspired by the uneasy beauty of the tropical storms there.

Tagged change, disruption, envisioning, exercise, florida, guided meditation, imagining, impermanence, Key West, nature, Poem, unease, upheavalLeave a comment
All About Love

Deep Down Things

February 13, 2025February 17, 2025 Vanessa Able

True presence demands attention beyond the self, and a reckoning with the vastness of the other lives that shape our world. BY DEREK FURR

Tagged change, emotion, ice, impermanence, love, partnership, pets, relationship, storm, Travel, winter3 Comments
John Tarrant
Book Bits

“Everything Alive Has its Own Truth” John Tarrant’s Retelling of the Story of the Buddha

December 15, 2024December 15, 2024 Vanessa Able

One unique aspect of the Buddha's story is that he worked so hard to overcome the happy ending - the easy life and palatial riches.

Tagged Awakening, biography, Book, Buddha, Buddhism, childhood, Death, impermanence, old age, sickness, story, SufferingLeave a comment
Ice Over
All About Love

Ice Over

November 7, 2024November 7, 2024 Trent Thomson

Change drives our lives forward; our emotions fuel the trip.  BY JULIA ROBINSON SHIMIZU

Tagged change, emotion, ice, impermanence, love, partnership, pets, relationship, storm, Travel, winterLeave a comment
Ellen Bass
Poetry

Ellen Bass – If You Knew

May 21, 2024May 20, 2024 Vanessa Able

What if you knew you'd be the last to touch someone? Ellen Bass draws us in to the brief moments of contact that fill our day and urges us to consider the fleeting nature of every life we meet.

Tagged Compassion, contact, Death, impermanence, Kindness, Poetry, relationship, touch, transienceLeave a comment
Featured Poetry

Bilal Hafeez – Catching My Breath

April 14, 2024April 11, 2024 Nicholas Trandahl

Poet Bilal Hafeez's tremendous piece "Catching My Breath" is a luminous work woven with yellow threads of sunshine and impermanence.

Tagged connection, impermanence, Interconnectedness, Meditation, nature, Pakistan, Poem, poet, Poetry, Punjab1 Comment
Marcus Aurelius
Book Bits

‘Flecks of Foam on the Boar’s Mouth’ – Marcus Aurelius on Everyday Magic

April 11, 2024April 11, 2024 Vanessa Able

The Roman Emperor and philosopher on mortality, change, nature and the importance of paying attention to the small and beautiful details.

Tagged attention, change, Classical Philosophy, Emperor, God, impermanence, Meditation, nature, philosophy, Roman, Stoic thought, Stoicism, Virtue1 Comment
Tangen Harada Roshi
Book Bits

Seeing Into the Reality of Emptiness

August 3, 2023August 3, 2023 Vanessa Able

Zen Master Tangen Harada Roshi on how understanding the truth of emptiness can reveal Original Mind.

Tagged Buddhism, change, Emptiness, flow, form, impermanence, ocean, Original Mind, true nature, Waterfall, ZenLeave a comment
Pema Chodron
Book Bits

How We Live Is How We Die: Pema Chödrön on Preparing for Death Here and Now

February 11, 2023February 11, 2023 Vanessa Able

Pema Chödrön on what the Tibetan approach to living and dying can teach us about liberation in the present moment.

Tagged bardos, Buddhism, Death, groundlessness, illusion, impermanence, liberation, loss, Tibetan buddhismLeave a comment

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Older posts

TOP POSTS

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    John O'Donohue - Beannacht / Blessing
  • Issa - This Dewdrop World
    Issa - This Dewdrop World
  • What is Love? Love is a Verb - bell hooks
    What is Love? Love is a Verb - bell hooks
  • Mary Oliver - Teach the Children
    Mary Oliver - Teach the Children
  • Shaomei Yu - The Closed Door
    Shaomei Yu - The Closed Door
  • Wendell Berry - To Know The Dark
    Wendell Berry - To Know The Dark
  • Rebecca Solnit's Blue of Distance
    Rebecca Solnit's Blue of Distance
  • Mary Oliver - To Begin With, the Sweetgrass
    Mary Oliver - To Begin With, the Sweetgrass

- BOOK BITS -

  • Don’t Waste Suffering: Ramiro López Larroy on Opening the Doors of Liberation
    How can we use the things that give us difficulty in our lives to learn and grow, rather than avoiding them, or trying to push them away?
  • Rick Ruben
    “Expanding the Universe” – Rick Rubin on Awareness in Creativity
    What is the role of awareness in creativity and how can we cultivate it to make our world a bigger and clearer place?
  • Thich Nhat Hanh
    The First Door of Liberation: Thich Nhat Hanh’s Vision of Emptiness and Interbeing
    Rather than signifying a lack or a void, Thich Nhat Hanh took emptiness to be a state of inextricable and fundamental interconnectedness.
  • Mike Travisano – Bob’s Tattoos
    A short story on the power of three simple words and how much they can mean and embody.
  • Shunryu Suzuki
    Sharing the Feeling: Zen Teacher Shunryu Suzuki on Becoming Ourselves
    The importance of keeping an empty mind for savoring the present and expressing ourselves in our most authentic way.


- POETRY-

  • Shaomei Yu – The Closed Door
    Chinese-American poet Shaomei Yu reflects on loss and transition with Zen-like sparseness in her poem "The Closed Door".
  • Claudia Kessel – Samsara
    In her epic "Samsara", poet Claudia Kessel leans the ancient tenants of Buddhism against the gritty reality of the 21st Century.
  • A Year of Kō: 16th Sekki
    16th Sekki poems by COLEMAN DAVIS, MADISON WILLIAMS and SHAOMEI YU
  • Bob Rama – Ascetic Aesthetics
    Translator and poet Bob Rama shines a little candlelight on ascetic renunciation in his pleasingly-titled poem "Ascetic Aesthetics".
  • Emily Tong – Girlhood Ghazal
    Using the ancient poetic form of the ghazal, Asian-American poet Emily Tong searches for home in her "Girlhood Ghazal".
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