If you are near-sighted, as I am, you may have found that you can sometimes see nearby objects more clearly by taking off your glasses. Or, to put it another way, in the absence of your glasses, the inherent closeness of those objects becomes more apparent. What was supposed to enhance your vision was actually [...]
Archive for the ‘1’ Category
49. Silence and intimacy
Posted in 1, tagged fresh seeing, ichigo ichie, jane hirshfield, only when I am quiet and do not speak, Toni Packer, veils on December 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
48. Weathered wood
Posted in 1, tagged ichigo ichie, imperfect, sabi, wabi-sabi, weathered wood on December 3, 2009 | 2 Comments »
In our culture, new is usually considered better. And where so-called home improvements are concerned, that is often the case, especially if the new item is a high-efficiency furnace or a forty-year roof or an energy-saving kitchen appliance. But sometimes the situation is more complex than that, the effect more problematic.
Recently we installed new vinyl [...]
47. The tempo of meditation
Posted in 1 on November 19, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Patience, we are told, is a virtue. As a child growing up in eastern Iowa, I heard that bromide more than once. However, as an adolescent I learned about patience not from listening to Methodist sermons or elders’ proverbs but by spending time with an exceptionally patient man.
His name was Sven Jorgensen, and he was [...]
46. Chazen ichimi
Posted in 1, tagged chanoyu, ichigo ichie, tea and zen, tea ceremony on November 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
For at least eight centuries the practice of Zen has been closely linked to the consumption of green tea. In 1191 the Zen monk Eisai returned to Kyoto from his studies in China, bringing a bag of tea seeds, which he planted in the temple garden. In 1211 he wrote Kissa Yojoki (The Book of [...]
44. A mighty wave
Posted in 1 on October 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
One afternoon in August I waded into the ocean at Dewey Beach, Delaware. Under the hot sun, the waist-high breakers crashed against me. To steady myself, I adopted a T’ai Chi stance, keeping my center of gravity low. Wading just behind me was my wife, Robin, who is sometimes quite excitable.
“Oh, my God!” Robin exclaimed.
Thinking [...]
43. Awareness and conjecture
Posted in 1 on September 24, 2009 | 2 Comments »
During my thirty-eight years as a teacher of literature and writing, I read and corrected thousands of papers, essays, poems, and stories. Understandably, most of those words have long been forgotten. Now and then, however, a phrase coined by a student will arise out of memory, for reasons I can seldom explain.
That happened recently, as [...]
42. Taking care
Posted in 1, tagged ichigo ichie, samu, stephanie kaza, taking care, thich nhat hanh on September 10, 2009 | 1 Comment »
If you have lived in America for the past two decades you have almost certainly been enjoined to take care. Among contemporary American expressions, that benign valediction ranks with Have a nice day in frequency of use, and it is often used in much the same way. What we are supposed to take care [...]
40. Resting
Posted in 1, tagged resting in the river, sabbath, stillness, thich nhat hanh on August 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“During our sitting meditation,” writes Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh in “Resting in the River,” “we can allow ourselves to rest like a pebble. We can allow ourselves to sink naturally without effort to the position of sitting, the position of resting. Resting is a very important practice; we have to learn the art of [...]
