This Dying Business
This dying business is very interesting. First of all, one never knows how long it will last – six months? a year? two? – thus shining quite a bright light on the present moment, if it was not there already. Second of all, absolutely nothing has changed and nothing is changing and never will. And […]
Living in the Unknown, Part 2
Still living in the unknown, dancing on the high-wire of plans and no-plans. At either end of the wire, the stability of Home, to either side, the spaciousness of Home. Somewhere in between there is the condition alternating between “I-can’t-make-plans-because-of-my-uncertain-health,” and “Carry on, regardless.” I notice out the second floor window, a cable company technician […]
Life’s Variety Show
And so the daily business and the immensity continue. Snow is melting in the northeast, creeks are drying up in the southwest, all against the backdrop of the changeless. Sky is sky, no matter what is falling out of it or evaporating back into it. Do we voice an opinion? Maybe. Or maybe not. We […]
Living in the Unknown
Life is full of surprises! We are always living in the unknown but we do not always know it. We only know it when something takes us by surprise. We may be pleasantly surprised or we may object vigorously, but ultimately, Life prevails. This time, Life is prevailing in the form of this physical body […]
Famous Last Words
Here are some famous last words: “Mehr licht” (“more light”) – Goethe “Ram” – Gandhi “Let’s rent a movie” – Swami Satchidananda (his way of encouraging his students to leave the room so he could pass in peace.) “Calcium carbonate” – from a geology professor who dropped dead in the middle of a lecture about […]
Not-news
So here’s the not-news: Just in case there was any confusion about This, the me-costume we are wearing is not permanent. In good times it could be seen as bad news. In bad times it could be seen as good news. But ultimately, we wear this me-costume in order to discover that what is beneath, […]
Yoga and Creativity
At the heart of the Kashmiri Tantric tradition is the effulgence of Pure Creativity, whether at the cosmic dimension as the Absolute takes manifestation as form, or at the individual level as silence emerges into word, sound and image. The Tantric masters of the medieval period were not only great yogis but also great writers, […]
If only
“Everything would be perfect if only…” How long is the list? Everything would be perfect if I hadn’t failed tenth grade… if I could finish my taxes on time…if my neighbour were more cooperative about our adjoining hedge…if I could stick to my diet…if my son had a better job…if Sally didn’t have the flu…if Washington […]
Back to the Source
Still hanging out here in the Southwest (see photo above, once again) where the first tiny, improbable spring flowers are breaking parched ground, and the grey-green beginnings of lupen leafings appear in the canyons while patches of snow disappear from the peaks. A forest fire rages in the next range, 50 miles west, only 5% […]
Body Sensing Hiking
Here in these mountains (see photo above), it is so quiet that everything becomes a metaphor for everything else. Although marked trails and destinations may be known, as it were, just wandering about off-trail happens by itself, there being no need to get anywhere in particular. Sometimes, when just bushwhacking in a remote canyon, one […]