-
Recent Posts
Blogroll
- A View From the Woods
- Being Mrs. Carmichael
- bullfrogs symposium
- Cell 2 Soul
- Colder Weather
- Cross-ties
- Empire of Lights
- Finding Strength to Stand Again
- La Pouyette — and Things of Life
- Life in Kawagoe
- MindfulBalance
- Nature on the Edge
- Nylon Daze
- Paris Breakfasts
- Pas Grand-Chose
- People, Places, and Bling!
- Random Acts of Writing
- Smile, Kiddo
- Stir
- Tales and Travels of the Tin Man
- The Urge to Wander
- Thoughts from Finchley
- Wind Against Current
- Writing Between the Lines
- Writing Down the Words
- Arizona
- Art
- Autumn
- Basho
- Beauty
- Blogging
- Blogs
- Challenge
- Christmas
- Color
- Computers
- Connections
- Cooking
- Courage
- Death
- Desert
- Doubt
- Education
- Emily Dickinson
- Enlightenment
- Flowers
- Food
- France
- Friendship
- Gratitude
- Haiku
- Happiness
- Health
- Holidays
- Home
- Hope
- Hugs
- Identity
- Inspiration
- Ireland
- Japan
- Joy
- Koan
- Language
- Life
- Light
- Listening
- Love
- Medicine
- Meditation
- Memory
- Mindfulness
- Museums
- Music
- Nature
- Northampton
- Nothing
- Orchids
- Painting
- Philosophy
- Photography
- Poetry
- Quotes
- Reality
- Sculpture
- Shakespeare
- Snow
- Spring
- Summer
- Sunrise
- Thanksgiving
- Touch
- Truth
- Winter
- Wisdom
- Women
- Words
- Writers
- Writing
- Zen
Tag Archives: Zen
Show Me Your Original Face (II) —
Different strokes for different folks, yes — And perhaps different images to stimulate different folks’ imaginations. I chose Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror, almost against my will. It somehow spoke to me of the riddle posed by Yeats’ poem and … Continue reading
Show Me Your Original Face —
If I make the lashes dark And the eyes more bright And the lips more scarlet, Or ask if all be right From mirror after mirror, No vanity’s displayed: I’m looking for the face I had Before the world was … Continue reading
Natsukashii*
In the longing that starts one on the way of Zen is a kind of homesickness — — Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (* Natsukashii: important concept in Japanese, containing feelings of nostalgia, longing, missing, wishing for, homesickness. Another important Japanese … Continue reading
Posted in Etcetera, Wisdom, Zen
Tagged Enso, Homesickness, Natsukashii, Nostalgia, Nothing, Zen
4 Comments
What are You Afraid of?
One of the blogs I regularly check out is John Weeren’s About Zen. A while back he posted a story that really opened my eyes wide — A zen student asked: “Can zen help you deal with fear?” The master said: … Continue reading
Posted in Etcetera, Personal Essay, Quotes, Wisdom, Zen
Tagged Fear, Success, Wisdom, Zen
10 Comments
From Ireland… and Stockbridge…
It’s been a long while — to be exact, since Christmas — since we heard from Berna, our Irish correspondent over in County Kildare. Here she is, walking again at Clongowes, in what’s becoming spring in Ireland, while we in … Continue reading
Why Do You Wash the Dishes?
I only have one rule for the dishwasher: anything I REALLY LIKE doesn’t go in. Eeveryone tells me that’s weird, especially company who are helping to load said dishwasher, when I keep instructing them, No, no, not that. They usually … Continue reading
Reptiles of the Mind!
Whoa —- I’ve heard of snakes in the grass, bats in the belfry, bees in the bonnet — but William Blake, prophetic 18th-century English poet, artist, and mystic, has added a new, and thought-provoking, creature to the catalog: The man … Continue reading
Posted in Etcetera, Personal Essay, Quotes, Wisdom
Tagged Mind, Snakes, William Blake, Zen
11 Comments
Not Nobody, Not Nohow! You Can Tell It to the Bog —
The ENSO, the symbol for Zen in Japanese, means nothing. Not meaningless, no. Its meaning is NOTHING. Null. A void. Emptiness. You’ve seen the Enso here before, in Just Who Do You Think You are Anyway? Well, who are you, anyway? Are … Continue reading
Posted in Etcetera, Personal Essay, Wisdom, Zen
Tagged Celebrity, Emily Dickinson, Emptiness, Enlightenment, Enso, Fame, Nothing, Poetry, Zen
6 Comments
Just Who Do You Think You Are Anyway?
For all Thomas Merton’s wry words about Zen, he admired its practices, and was a meditator himself. By the end of his life he’d lost just about all illusions about himself. Zen will do that to you, cut you down … Continue reading