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septembre 2009

My air is your air

By | 2015-10-02T12:46:15+00:00 septembre 13th, 2009|Textes|

This story in the newspaper tonight: "In the past five years, companies and workplaces have violated pollution laws more than 500,000 times. But most polluters have escaped punishment." And my sitting practice in recent days has been to remember and experience with each breath that we are all breathing the same air. In other words, [...]

Hungry ghost tales (I)

By | 2017-04-04T06:58:20+00:00 septembre 12th, 2009|Textes|

A telling tale from the realm of hungry ghosts: In the middle of summer, a small used-book shop on the Left Bank, in the rue Daguerre, announced that it would be closing. The owner said he had no choice but to close; he couldn't sell enough second-hand books to make a living and pay the [...]

With You All Along

By | 2015-10-02T12:47:17+00:00 septembre 10th, 2009|Textes|

Colleagues are ordering out for coffee this morning. I decline; I don't drink coffee, only tea. Someone says he only drinks coffee as a distraction. That's why everyone drinks coffee, I say, or tea, for that matter. Someone else objects; no, it's a drug, he says. Yes, I say, and drugs are a distraction, a [...]

Learning to listen

By | 2015-10-02T12:47:49+00:00 septembre 8th, 2009|Textes|

Last night in the garden, back after sitting, after the joy of picking up new where we had left off weeks - an eternity - ago, there between branches heavy with leaves, the bright moon fails to hide what it cannot: itself. This morning, where the moon once rose, now thin clouds are spread, cast [...]

Méditation hebdomadaire/weekly meditation

By | 2015-10-12T16:20:03+00:00 septembre 7th, 2009|Textes|

La pratique recommence à partir du 7 sept. à Paris Les lundis soirs (Mondays), 20h-22h méditation et entretiens (interviews) avec Amy Sensei 4 Passage Courtois 75011 Paris (porte gauche, interphone 'maison', dernière étage) Tél. 06 10 87 82 19 (Joa/Delphine) Les vendredi soirs (Fridays), 19h30-21h méditation et enseignement (talk) avec Amy Sensei Red Earth Centre [...]

Giving myself to it

By | 2015-10-02T12:48:19+00:00 septembre 6th, 2009|Textes|

Newspaper work all day. Arriving in early afternoon, a colleague says, I wonder how many people died in Afghanistan today. Later, at home in my room, I notice that outside the window the sky is a stunning blue. Then I wonder when was the last time I sat. It occurs to me that sitting, what [...]

Goodnight Willow

By | 2015-10-02T12:48:49+00:00 septembre 4th, 2009|Textes|

Word reaches me by email at my office this afternoon: Willow the blind cat died this morning in Normandy. I can't remember a thing about that instant only hours ago, which distinguishes it from the many other instants before, after and all around. Everything was as if stopped. The cat touched me unthinkably. She was [...]

Not thinking what I see

By | 2015-10-02T12:49:22+00:00 septembre 2nd, 2009|Textes|

Late afternoon. I'm sitting in an armchair in the back garden, under the overhang, watching the wind whip the world to and fro. Above the tree line, the sky veers from pale gray back to the marvelous blue that it was only an hour or so earlier. The earth spins us away - clouds thick [...]

Loop of what is at hand

By | 2015-10-02T12:50:01+00:00 septembre 1st, 2009|Textes|

Summer is drawing to its end, and I have no answer. Perhaps that is the answer, as always: Pen moving across page, fingers tapping keys, letters, then words, then phrases. Not looking forward or back, just the loop of what is at hand, stroked in black ink.

Contre toute attente

By | 2015-10-02T12:50:32+00:00 septembre 1st, 2009|Textes|

Rain today, contre toute attente, and after a night of somewhat stifling heat that had had me tossing over and over in my bed. Was convinced in reverie that it was all due to biological or psychological turmoil, when in fact it was just hot, the temperature had just not descended with the sun. Contre [...]