Saturday morning is gray with on and off light rain falling. Starbucks has been quiet. It is Saturday after all. At present a few people stand patiently by the counter until their internet app orders are completed. It is a few minutes until 8 o’clock and families will shortly come by. Today the Batavia…
The morning, Saturday features frost. After all May 2nd is early enough; that rotation of the earth’s axis inclining the northern hemispheres toward light and heat is not enough to dispel the condensation to freezing of water, frost. Frost will come and go for a week or so. After which time vegetables will be…
Desire. In a day or so I have an appointment to discuss “touch” with a group of friends. This is designated our “amateur philosopher group” because our objective is enjoyment of good company. What is more agreeable, — than to listen carefully to ourselves, and to others wrestle with words to communicate thoughts rising…
When those who pursue knowledge do not see the influences of their ideas they are not content. When debaters cannot present their views in an orderly manner they are not content. When a critic finds nothing which can be faulted he is not content. They are all confined by external restrictions. — And further…
Light of the Stars asked Non-being, “Master, do you exist or do you not exist?” Light of the Stars received no reply and, gazing intensely into the appearance of Non-being, saw that it was a deep void. All day he looked at it but could see nothing; he listened for it but could hear…
Zhuangzi was walking on a mountain when he saw a great tree with enormous branches and abundant foliage. A woodcutter was standing beside the tree without touching it. When asked why he did not, he replied, “It is useless.” Zhuangzi then said, “This tree will live out its natural term of life because it…
A tree of a hundred years is cut and carved into a sacrificial wood vessel decorated with green and yellow. The rest is thrown into a ditch. If we compare the sacrificial vessel with what was thrown away, there is a difference between them in relation to beauty and ugliness. But they have a…
Holy Sonnets: Batter My heart, Three-person’d God By John Donne (1572–1631) Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp’d town to…
The Penumbra asked the Shadow, saying, ‘Formerly you were walking on, and now you have stopped; formerly you were sitting, and now you have risen up: how is it that you are so without stability?’ The Shadow replied, ‘I wait for the movements of something else to do what I do, and that something…
Life is lived in the shadow of language. Language conceals and reveals. Your opinion serves to define my opinion. Would there be any point to my opinion without you, without your opinion? Still there’s the nagging sense that something is missing. What if anything makes your view or my view true? Shall we seek…
