Category: poets and poetry
where the quiet joy lives
It’s in the naked ordinariness of our life where the quiet joy lives. Life for me right now is good. I returned from two months of intensive practice in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. My health is…
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hello darkness my old friend
When I think about the Israel-Hamas war, I struggle for some time, before finally sighing to myself hello darkness my old friend. The other day I came across a very short poem by the 11th century…
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softly, as in a morning sunrise
Meditation shows me my burdens were mostly imagined. But even imaginary ones can carry real emotional weight. I remember this cartoon I saw perhaps 20 years ago while waiting at a doctor’s office. A woman and…
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to love the world just as it is
Good poetry can show intricacies of meaning and feeling easily lost. This is why I trust the vision of poets and consider good poetry as mindfulness. The Zen teacher Sobun Katherine Thanas in a book which…
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openness to experience
Meditation turns special moments on their head. It turns out we don’t need special moments to savor the openness of experience. Are you familiar with the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons? One of my favorites is when…
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a moment of well-being
Despite all that is wrong, I can still take delight in a moment of well-being. News stories are not the conversation starters they used to be. In the day, I could fill an awkward gap by…
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I wish I could have given him the moon
Good poems, for me, are often potent teachings on how to live this precious life we are given. Over the years I have been moved to tears reading poems. There is one poet in particular I…
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letting go of wanting happiness
Folks who meditate in order to feel better often find the opposite. Eventfully they see that it’s the letting go of the wanting of happiness, that actually brings it! I can begin to answer by sharing…
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non-contention
We open little by little into the warmth and tenderness of our own essential vulnerability. Despite all that’s wrong in the world, at times I surrender and trust that I can be of some benefit by…
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