Tag: Present

• October 16, 2011

  On birthdays as last days

  Here’s my short essay on public philosophy, education, and our spiritual predicament at Butterflies and Wheels. — I’m spending my birthday tomorrow fasting and meditating. The following is an excerpt from Pierre Hadot, The Present Alone is Our Happiness; Conversations with Jeannie Carlier and Arnold I. Davidson, translated by Marc Djaballah, Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2009, 162-6. — Jeannie…
• September 29, 2011

  Of craving and its supersession

  I You are caring for your children while thinking of the work you’ve yet to finish. You are in the middle of a conversation and longing for release. You meet another and already you are making plans for the next. Your book is in hand, you thumb its pages, your ambition for all the rest…