Blake and Dostoevsky

“The Divine Image” To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and LoveAll pray in their distress;And to these virtues of delightReturn their thankfulness. For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and LoveIs God, our father dear,And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and LoveIs…

Remember to Remember

The following is the conclusion to Leo Tolstoy’s short story “Three Questions”— Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have…

Be a Light

Then coming to this pass [Ryōkan] found only one way to go: he made up his mind, to go his own way, that is to say, to pursue the way of truth—the only way a…

Mev and Andrew

For Suzanne Renard Mev Puleo died 28 years ago today and, out of the blue, I just remembered something Andrew Wimmer had written about the book I wrote about Mev way back in 2005. Even…

Here and Now, This Is It

In another passage of the letter to his ­brother, he defines the ecstatic sense of life that he felt on being pardoned: “Life is a gift, life is happiness, e­very minute could be a lifetime…

How Rare!

It is truly impressive to speak only reluctantly about something you thoroughly understand, and not to mention it at all unless asked.—Yoshida Kenkô, Essays in Idleness, translated by Meredith McKinney

La Rochefoucauld Nailed It

Le soleil ni la mort ne se peuvent regarder fixement.  –Duc François De La RochefoucauldNeither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.–Leonard TancockMaxim #26

Fading, Vanishing

All the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble… They can never be solved, but only outgrown.  This “outgrowing” proved on further investigation to require a new level of consciousness.  Some higher…