What’s Possible
1. If one really wishes to be master of an art, technical knowledge of it is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an “artless art” growing out of the…
Category: Japan
Transmitting Beauty
Donald Keene, Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan Columbia University Press, 2008 The first sentence of George Steiner’s first book (on Tolstoy and Dostoevsky) reads: “Literary criticism should arise out…
Three Questions
Gregg Krech, Naikan: Gratitude, Grace, and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection (Stone Bridge Press, 2001) I learned of Naikan through consulting the bibliography of Patricia Ryan Madson’s book, Improv Wisdom. Therein, she cited books on…
Short, Savory, and Sound: Aitken’s Miniatures
In fall 2000 I first encountered Robert Aitken Roshi with his book, The Dragon Who Never Sleeps, a collection of scores of four-line poems, or gathas. Nine years later, I read his Miniatures of a…
The Most Precious Treasure
Meditation teacher Eknath Easwaran distinguished between two kinds of spiritual reading: instruction and inspiration. While he believes it makes sense to limit your instructions to one teacher/lineage/path, you can fruitfully read from all religious traditions…
Remember–Longing, Too, Is Impermanent
To a man who said we should meet, even if it were only for a single time Even if I now saw you Only once, I would long for you Through worlds, Worlds. –Izumi Shikibu…
The Good News, 3.8.2017
I once asked Mayuko and Minami (both in my fall 8 a.m. MWF Humanities class) if they had heard of Sei Shōnagon (清少納言). Of course they had! They had read her years ago in school. …
Accept Loss Forever: Ono No Komachi & Izumi Shikibu
I am glad to have read The Ink Dark Moon, Jane Hirshfeld’s translations, with the aid of Mariko Aratani, of the Heian Court’s poets—Izumi Shikibu and Ono No Komachi. Several of Kerouac’s writing maxims came to…
Doctors in Hiroshima
for Amy, Charity, Neeta, Neil, Neil, and Nima Being their comrades becomes the only way we can remain true human beings. And if we would also be authentic human beings, then we already have impressive…
It’s as Simple as That
Won’t apologize for Hiroshima obliteration Won’t apologize for Indochina devastation American Exceptionalism means never having to say you’re sorry