(This post is a continuation of the previous…) What’s a teckinal discussion, Hafiz? the child asked. Well! Hafiz replied, sitting down beside the little one, that is a very tricky thing, you see. That is when we try to identify what each thing is all by itself with such great precision any confusion in it will be squeezed right out. Sensing immediately God was an idea that would break apart beneath such pressure, the child turned […]
One time when Hafiz was balancing on one foot atop an intriguing round stone the size of a small house that was sunk into the sand beside a very fine sea and dimpled by the impact of ancient particles of dust from outer space, with his arms crossed, or flapping like wings against a blue beyond, or hitched to his side, and his other leg folded up yogically– alternately very stork-like beneath him– or resting […]
Our dear friend Hariod asked me after my last post what the word miracle means to me, and as I thought about how to answer I realized my response would very quickly get out of hand in the post commentary. Hence this post. It’s a question I savor answering because I don’t quite know how I’m going to do it. I have a feeling about what I wish to say, but the closer I get to the center […]
There are things we say sometimes to make a point– sweeping recapitulations of history, or statements of what is so in this world– and when we invoke them we do so as if they are self-evident. Obvious to those who would see. It is easy to forget how deeply we occupy our own lives and perspectives, and we can lose sight of the fact that what seems unmistakable to us is but the flowering of […]
I’ve been thinking lately about things I have no business thinking about, like how to reconcile the capital-‘S’ Self from A Course of Love with what I’ve glimpsed of the Buddhist teaching of anatta, or no-self. Let me say right at the outset that this is not purely an intellectual exercise. One of the great miracles of starting this blog has been the dialogue with people whose words, and possibly (though it remains hard to […]
When Hafiz had invited me over for a treatment, I guess in my excitement I had imagined a gamut of therapeutic practices slightly more sporting in scope and dexterity than what he’d ultimately prepared. Because after sitting on lounge chairs all day under the shade canopy, sipping iced teas to stay alert, and listening to him chuckle whenever a caravan of clouds sauntered past the revealing sun, or mumble an appreciative syllable when the wind […]
I had a moment, very recently in fact, to which you might be able to relate, when I was looking up into the starry sky and thinking: why not…? Because it wouldn’t even be a violation would it? Statistically speaking, I mean. There’s so many of you… It’s like a goo goo cluster up there, right? Couldn’t there be some kind of unexpected gravitational perturbation? Like a universal sloshing effect where just one of you […]
This year I realized that in so many ways, I have scarcely begun. The difference this time, is that having orienteered my way around the mountain in a great and unwitting circle– riding out storms and then reveling in the graceful vacuum of their departure, plotting the next day’s course based on a strange mash of signs, principles and self-argument, being nourished by glimpses of colored bird and flower, by moments of heartfelt communion with […]
Sometimes when the door slams and the house wobbles, we forget the stew bubbling happily on the stove. We forget the scent of roasting carrots. We forget the light dancing softly on the candle. Sometimes when the light turns red and two horns joust in reply, we forget the fresh cut flowers on the passenger seat. We forget we were celebrating an abiding love. We forget the other reasons for this plane are moot. Sometimes […]
Embracing Forever 