Searching
It was in Kafka that Scholem discovered a kind of heretical, secular Kabbalah, a literature paradoxically at once canonical and nihilistic. With Max Brod and Walter Benjamin, Scholem saw in Kafka a deeply Jewish writer,…
Category: Wisdom Traditions
Today’s One-Liner (#9)
Blaming never helps. –Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
Why Read the Russians (And Why I Have Classes on Them)
Reading Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, my students experience literature as never before. No more symbol hunting, artful theorizing, or smug political judgment: the Russians address the questions that really matter in a way that teaches readers…
Today’s One-Liner (#8)
To have a scapegoat is to not realize you have a scapegoat. –René Girard, Maxim #58, in All Desire Is a Desire for Being: Essential Writings, edited by Cynthia L. Haven.
Today’s One-Liner (#6)
The face offers itself to your compassion and to your obligation. –Emmanuel Levinas, in Jill Robbins, Is It Righteous to Be? Interviews with Emmanuel Levinas
Today’s One-Liner (#5)
Be here now. Title of Ram Dass’s manual.
Today’s One-Liner (#4)
bi you shi yan. –Mengzi, “Always have a task” Wang understood Mengzi’s teaching of bi you shi yan as “always have a task.” One must maintain a constant vigil over one’s thoughts and ideas and…
Today’s One-Liner (#3)
May I be a light for those in need of light. –Shantideva, The Bodhicaryavatara: A Guide to the Buddhist Path of Awakening, translated by Kate Crosby & Andrew Skilton
Today’s One-Liner (#2)
Do not waste time on nonessentials. –Miyamoto Musashi, Nine Articles, in John Stevens, Budo Secrets: Teachings of the Martial Arts Masters
Today’s One-Liner (#1)
Arise with a brave heart, Shimmelstoy, and destroy the enemy. —Bhagavad Gita, 2.3