Cheer Up!

Dear Simone, It’s been a pleasure to spend the last seven months reading together Montaigne, Sarah Blakewell, Peter Berger, and, above all, Pierre Hadot! Your fascination with him has deepened my own: The Present Alone…

The Teachings Are Infinite…

I vow to learn them all.–from Bodhisattva Vows “You Are That Person” A student asked Soen NakagawaDuring a meditation retreat: “I am very discouraged. What should I do?”Soen replied, “Encourage others.” At the beginning of…

Vietnamerica

1967 Today’s Email: “Thank you for signing up for the [New York Times] Vietnam ’67 newsletter. Over the course of the next year, we’ll examine the participation of the United States in the long war…

Meditations

Written in the Margins of Ginsberg’s “Why I Meditate” There are 10,000 reasons to meditate (at least) There are 10,000 beings to save (for starters) There are 10,000 demented states of consciousness to purify (carpe…

The Battle of the Gods

Zainab al-Ghazali, Return of the Pharaoh: Memoir in Nasir’s Prison Translated by  Mokrane Guezzou Our goal is reformation and not sabotage, edification not destruction.  Zainab al-Ghazali Nawal el-Saadawi may have met her match in Zainab…

Healers

How to Live Jesus had his students Dipa Ma had her devotees Joanie French has her students Jesus sat with people Dipa Ma sat with people Joanie  helps people to sit without pain Jesus placed…

Mentshes/3

  What You Understand Depends on Where You Stand For Brent Fernandez and Brett Schrewe Night Flight to Hanoi is an account of Jesuit Daniel Berrigan’s odyssey in late January and early February 1968, when…