Bach/Gould/Said
Bach’s music was for [Glenn] Gould an archetype for the emergence of a rational system whose intrinsic power was that it was, as it were, crafted resolutely against the negation and disorder that surround us…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Thơ
Little Sister At the end of our lesson At the Bread Co on South Grand You gave me a simple assignment: “Write a four-line poem in Vietnamese” You came to this country at age eight…
The On-Going Responsibility: Cleaning the Flag
In 1985 during the terrorist contra war in Nicaragua, Brazilian bishop Pedro Casaldáliga visited and engaged in what he called the ministries of the border and of consolation. His reflection on these ministries: “The visits…
Subversives
In the New Directions collection, Zero Hour and Other Documentary Poems, Ernesto Cardenal includes an “Epistle to Monsignor Casaldáliga (whom Mev Puleo interviewed in her book The Struggle is One, and from which I quoted…
Rādha goes to meet Krishna in the trysting place
O Mādhava, how shall I tell you of my terror? I could not describe my coming here If I had a million tongues. When I left my room and saw the darkness I trembled: I…
Spiritual Exercises: Slowing Down
“I have no time to be in a hurry.” — Henry David Thoreau For our October Spiritual Exercises gathering, Lindsay Sihilling will share reflections on her experience of slowing down. We meet on Monday 22…
Darshan
From Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda: Anandamayi Ma was standing in an open-topped automobile, blessing a throng of about one hundred disciples. She was evidently on the point of departure. Mr. Wright parked…
The Whole World Is Your Own by Sri Sarada Devi
I tell you one thing – If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather learn to see your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one…
One Person Can Change Everything for Us
In his presence I felt a new capability and power in myself rather than a consciousness of his power. I felt equal, good for anything— an assurance I had never known before as if some…
Seeing
1. Since coming to Sri Ramakrishna, M. had lost all relish for lectures and for books written by English scholars. The only thing that appealed to him now was to see the Master day and…