Words that came to me during morning meditation moments before a philosophical conversation recently:
*
First words of the morning
Second sounds
after roosters’ calls
Third in line
from the wind.
Tag: philosophy
‘Thoughts unwinding…’
While meditating, I let my thoughts unwind themselves until they grow tired of themselves.
*
Thoughts unwinding
Clouds uplifting
Vast expanse of home.
‘The morning gray closes in…’
Words that came to me during morning meditation moments before a philosophical conversation recently:
*
The morning gray closes in,
and I cannot see the mountain.
I do not know you thus,
but might I find you still
by some other route?
I close my eyes,
and mumble your name.
Soon I forget it.
‘Through you / I feel the mountains…’
A chant:
Swaying reeds
like hanging beans
Through you
I feel the mountains
*
Zazen is preparation for living discourse? What kind of living discourse? Only this: direct speech.
*
Tell me, friend, how am I doing taking notes?
Speak too quickly, and I won’t catch your words.
Therefore, go slowly with me so that we catch our breaths.
Tom Stoppard vs. Richard Rorty
I read a quote from the playwright Tom Stoppard about his view of playwriting. ‘My whole life,’ he tells his interviewer, ‘is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.’ This view of things, albeit clever-sounding, is backward.
Some years ago, I read something very different in in one of Raymond Geuss’s books. He related that what he learned from the late Richard Rorty was that especially interesting philosophy goes about changing the topic of conversation. This means: inventing a novel question or changing the questions of deep significance we now think to ask.
When we invent a novel question (or change our deep questions) that strikes us as startlingly interesting, then the fact that no answer is forthcoming serves to give us pause. Within this capacious pause, we might very well reorient our entire lives. And how interesting that would be to be set, clear-eyed, on a higher course.
