How Some Saw Simone
A very Jewish soul. There was something of the Talmud in her. Very stringent in her logic. 206 [W]hat most struck me in her were her nobility, her straightforwardness, the purity of her soul. 218…
Category: Wisdom Traditions
The Canon in the Canon
Of all the gospels, the Sermon on the Mount was the portion that impressed me most, and I studied it more often than any other part. Nowhere else does Christ speak with such solemnity; nowhere…
Instruction for Whenever Watching or Listening to the Day’s News
Half-smile when irritated: When you realise you are irritated, half-smile at once. Inhale and exhale quietly, maintaining the half-smile for three breaths. –Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Being Awake
Drop Pop Culture, Some Say
Miles Davis–why bother with any of it–Jazz, modern musicians, dope addicts, punks–Monk, crooks, killers, Bud Powell, Dizzy’s razor and Dizzy’s scorn & Al Sublette’s scorn–no. Give me the Bodhi men. Don’t even play the radio…
Biden and Putin Would Despise Tolstoy
To destroy governmental violence only one thing is needed: it is that people should understand that the feeling of patriotism which alone supports that instrument of violence is a rude, harmful, disgraceful, and bad feeling,…
What Simone Weil Wrote about School Studies
… the development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies. … All tasks that really call upon the power of attention are interesting for the same reason…
Blinded
I did not know the light and I thought there was no truth in life. But having become convinced that people could only live by this light, I began to seek its source and I…
A Source of Life
As a young adult entering the Sisters of Loretto at eighteen, somewhat naively, I spent a lot of genuine effort to read and take seriously the Gospel. What has sustained me over the long haul,…
From East to West
You are what your deep, driving desire is.As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will;As your will is, so is your deed;As your deed is, so is your destiny. —Upanishads, translated by Eknath Easwaran…
To Whom Are We Paying Attention?
A living example often can have a stronger effect than thousands of theoretical teachings and rules.–Chan Khong, Learning True Love The deepest spring of action in us is the sight of action in another.–William James,…