On Twitter, Be Grateful to Everyone
If I can learn from all those in the world who criticize me and thereby improve myself, they will all be polishing and correcting me. In that case, everywhere is the opportunity for me to…
Category: Wisdom Traditions
DIY/4
In short, the Taoists eliminated the usual basis for religion. The ultimate justification for spirituality was not in the promise of an afterlife, not in the gods, not in ritual, and not in clerical authority,…
Senseless Kindness
Yes, as well as this terrible Good with a capital ‘G’, there is every day human kindness. The kindness of an old woman carrying a piece of bread to a prisoner, the kindness of a…
By Little and Little
One makes a better world by what Dostoevsky liked to call “microscopic actions.” When you walk down the street, Zossima tells the other monks, don’t scowl. A kindly look can shift a person’s mood and…
The Radiant Ones
My friend of forty years Pat Geier introduced me to the British Buddhist teacher Christina Feldman. After listening to and discussing some of her retreat talks at Dharma Seed, we are beginning to discuss her…
An Aunt’s Gift to Her Nephew
ADVICE: “ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU ARE AFRAID TO DO.”–Mary Moody Emerson, to Ralph Waldo Emerson Cited in Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Emerson: The Mind on Fire, 25
Beware/Be Aware of Anger
The maxim which Periander of Corinth, one of the seven sages of Greece, left as a memorial of his knowledge and benevolence, was χολου κρατει, Be master of thy anger. He considered anger as the…
It Takes Countless Rendezvous in the Darkroom
Real life, life at last laid bare and illuminated — the only life in consequence of which can be said to be really lived – is literature, and life thus defined is in a sense…
Gurus, Guides, Teachers
Hindus make a distinction between what are called upagurus and what are called satgurus. A satguru is what we’ve been talking about here as the guru; it’s the one who is the doorway. … Along…
Cheer Up: Reminders
Furnace. The first evening, about 5 o’clock, the pain from the extreme heat, exhaustion, and headaches make me completely lose control of my movements. I can’t lower the furnace damper. A coppersmith jumps up and…