Author: Mark J. Chmiel

Priorities

The concern for the other breaches concern for the self. This is what I call holiness. Our humanity consists in being able to recognize this priority of the other. Emmanuel Levinas, Is It Righteous to Be?…

Crosses, Values, Options

1. “Really living like Christ will not mean reward, social recognition and an assured income, but difficulties, discrimination, solitude, anxiety.  Here, too, the basic experience of the cross applies:  the wider we open our hearts…

Spiritual Exercises

Last year I read several books by French philosopher Pierre Hadot, who has focused on the role of spiritual exercises in philosophy. Through Hadot, I became acquainted with this short passage from a diary kept…

Today (Gratitudes)

This morning at meditation, Rachel read us these words from Thich Nhat Hanh: Yesterday is already gone, Tomorrow is not yet here. Today is the only day available to us. Today is the most important…

Embodiment

The philosophers and scholars said to Sri Anandamayi Ma: “We have studied dry scriptures. But, we now see before us, a living embodiment of all that is contained in our holy books of wisdom.”

Sealing the Deal

Long ago, I did a reading and signing of The Book of Mev at Left Bank Books in the Central West End. I asked one of my former students, Magan Wiles, to read the very…

People Power, Then and Now

1. To advocate human conversation as the means to restore hope to the future is as simple as I can get. But I’ve seen that there is no more powerful way to initiate significant change…