At the beginning of this calendar year I undertook to write something more or less daily and to post it to a Substack page. Some political, some personal. I saw it mostly as a way…
No one had sharper ears than the Minister of the Treasury. He truly could have heard the fall of a mosquito’s eyelash. The mountain dove is a very pure-hearted and touching bird—they say it can…
It was becoming a habit with [Thoreau] now to work back over his journals and to reread books, to reengage old subjects in the light of new interests, to revise and recopy his own earlier…
One who practices the teachings of these great scriptures will become aware of the unity of life, and this awareness will give constant strength and inspiration to those who seek to turn anger into compassion,…
There is nothing in mere scholarship. The object of study is to find means of knowing God and realizing Him. A holy man had a book. When asked what it contained, he opened it and…
I onward go, I stop,With hinged knees and steady hand, to dress wounds;I am firm with each—the pangs are sharp, yet unavoidable;One turns to me his appealing eyes—(poor boy! I never knew you,Yet I think…
I am spending my mornings reading the riveting new book by Gary Saul Morson, Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter. A short while back, I posted a…
“You see that old man? He’s from my father’s village. I met him years ago, when I was young. I only met him twice. He just told me he was concerned about me, so he…
The whole of Buddhist morality can be summed up in two sayings, the first of which is: ‘Treat every being without exception as though it had been your mother in a previous life!’ … The…
Not to be entangled in worldly affairs, not to make a show of material things, not be forward with individuals nor aggressive in a crowd, desiring peace for all the world so as to preserve…