Category: meditation

• June 8, 2013

  Wandering babies in Topanga Canyon…

  Early in Sense and Sensibility, Willoughby exuberantly proclaims that there is no place he would rather live than in a cottage and, in particular, in a cottage that in all respects resembles the one the Dashwoods have let. Eleanor replies–come, come now, dear Willoughby–that the hallways are dark and the quarters are cramped. Would he really…
• May 29, 2013

  Last day in Appalachia

  Last day in Appalachia. Mountain birds, tall grasses, more horses. Sing something, will you? Sing of a feather clinging to a window? Of the nights spent tossing words into the fire? Of the mornings spent meditating in calm? Of two young deer headed, in late spring, up the driveway? Looking young and perplexed, the pair…
• May 27, 2013

  A felicitous realization about recurrence and impermanence

  Final days in Appalachia. A felicitous realization. So long as we live, each day will recur, varying only slightly from the last. We will work and rest, eat and sleep, think and speak. We will incline or be supine; sit down or get up; touch or be touched; be around others or be alone. As…
• May 24, 2013

  Becoming radiant is hard, being radiant is easy

  You write that ‘radiance is virtue manifested in the keys of natural eloquence, graceful action, and a gentle demeanor…’ So, does radiance consist of three different things that, once combined, make up a whole, or are these three names for the same thing?  The latter. Radiance is not a part:whole relationship (fingers:hand) or an arithmetic…
• May 23, 2013

  Who are the teachers of virtue and inquiry?

  ‘If virtue can be taught,’ Socrates asks time and time again, ‘then who are the teachers of virtue?’ Yesterday I argued: 1. If we are living through unsettled time, it follows that inquiring is the most important genre of discourse. 2. We are living through unsettled time. 3. So, inquiring is the most important genre.…