Category: meditation

• April 20, 2012

  ‘Their philosophy is for others; I need one for myself’

  In Interview 139, the soft-spoken gentlemen at Philosophy Bites finally got around to asking professional philosophers what it is they do with their time. What, they queried, is philosophy? Some said that philosophy is the analysis of our concepts. Others said that philosophy is the examination of the presuppositions underlying what we normally take for…
• April 18, 2012

  What a body can do

  In the past three decades, my body has changed its size and shape and look many times. There was my baseball body, my weight lifting body, my 10-year rock climbing body. There is my meditative running body. I have been blessed to always have a beautiful, lean body, regardless of exact size or shape. Above…
• April 17, 2012

  Philosophical life as conversion experience

  Fatherhood Marilynne is a beautiful idea. I am not sure that she will ever become a reality. Marilynne, my daughter, is a reverie. And how did the name come to you? I read Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and was so taken with the name Marilynne that I knew she would be my daughter. I am starting…
• April 14, 2012

  The mirthful canopies of spring

  My friend was at the front door at half past 9. Joan yelled down, “Who is it?” I was already sitting near the door and admiring the spring morning when the doorbell sounded. “Who is it?” she tries again. “A friend, Joan, it’s a friend,” I yell up. “Huh? Who is it?” “Don’t worry, it’s…
• April 13, 2012

  ‘The infinite value of life itself’: 3 examples of spiritual exercise

  “I did nothing today,” the man says. “What?” Montaigne replies. “Did you not live? That is not only the most fundamental but the most illustrious of occupations.” * This week a number of conversation partners have spoken to me about spiritual exercises (ascesis), asking further about what they are and how to practice them. (The…