Had added a version of this as a reply to a comment on the previous post, but it feels important enough to merit an entry of its own here... Sorry to repeat for those who've already read it below. Bearing witness, whether to joy or to suffering, means just being here WITH it, rather than [...]
"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.'' I come across this quote from Thomas Merton, and it seems so very appropriate for so many things these days, within me and [...]
Sunday afternoon, clear and cold here. There's nothing in particular that I "must" do today. I go about a few tasks, discuss films with my son, hang out with the cat, make arrangements for a future trip, check the updates on the Internet, take a walk to the news stand for the Sunday paper. Following [...]
James Joyce's birthday. A nod to Dublin's finest. May he rest in peace. And? No resting in peace in Cairo tonight as clashes are raging in Tahrir Square. So sad. What is so captivating, too, in this unfolding tale in Egypt (and elsewhere in the "Arab" world these days) is the desire to be free. [...]
All of this upheaval in Egypt that I read about, hear about, seems absolutely incomprehensible and absolutely comprehensible at once. I feel I'm with them and not, so far and right here. In a magazine, I come upon this fragment written by Roland Barthes in 1977: "Each of us has his own rhythm of suffering." [...]
The other day I took from my shelf a book (plays by Sam Shepard) that I have not touched for many, many years. I open it at random and out falls a postcard image of James Joyce... I look inside the cover, where I had as usual written the date of the book's purchase: 01/81. [...]
We sat all together yesterday, starting out with the question, "Where are we?" It made for a fabulous morning --- the answers kept coming to me, arising one after the other: on the floor, on a cushion, under the ceiling, in front of the table, in the house, in the garden, in the living room, [...]
Winter chill upon us again here. Predictions are for snow --- in the south of France, in the back country above Nice and the Côte d'Azur! The unexpected never ceases. How funny, then, that most of the time we wander along living within the confines of what we expect. I know that I expect the [...]
I stumble across this bit of information in the newspaper, in an article about the "expansion" of the universe; the report asserts that as the universe expands, galaxies will be pulled farther and farther away from Earth: "Light emitted by such galaxies will therefore fight a losing battle to traverse the rapidly widening gulf that [...]
Heading to the post office tonight on a busy avenue crowded with vehicles and passers-by, I hear the strange call of a bird. I pause. It's coming from above, somewhere high in the bare branches of a tall tree. In the dim light I can make out what appears to be two nests and a [...]
Le Web carnet de Amy Hollowell Sensei, fondatrice de la Wild Flower Zen Sangha et successeur de Catherine Genno Pagès Roshi dans le lignage Zen Soto de Taizan Maezumi Roshi, fondateur du Centre Zen de Los Angeles.
The Web notebook of Amy Hollowell Sensei, founder of the Wild Flower Zen Sangha and dharma successor of Catherine Genno Pagès Roshi in the Soto Zen lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Los Angeles Zen Center.
