James Crews: Consider the Lilies
Consider these lilies, how
they’d never call themselves
broken simply because they
had to live in darkness
and cold for months
James Crews: Meditation Class
I wiped the fog from the glass and saw
a statue of the Buddha on a shelf, laughing
at himself, laughing at me standing there
in a puddle, under a pine tree that kept
dripping on my head
James Crews: At the Monastery
I want to ask: Would you bow
to the blown-open peony, its petals
strewn like slips of silk in the grass
after last night’s storm?
Adrienne Maree Brown: Breaking is part of healing
I was in a conversation recently with a friend who had just returned from a meditation retreat. She said one of the ideas shared with her group was that “the teacup is already broken,” a meditation on how the death or ending or brokenness we fear is inevitable.
Michael Simms: My debut novel is being launched tonight
This evening the rap artist and filmmaker Christian Nowlin will be helping me launch my debut novel BICYCLES OF THE GODS: A DIVINE COMEDY.
Thích Nhất Hạnh: The Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism
Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others’ viewpoints.
Erica Etelson: In order to transcend Trumpism, we must tend to suffering — not celebrate it
Our survival as a species depends on our ability to turn away from the delusion of sweet revenge, and show compassion for those we may dislike or detest.
Doug Anderson: Not a Buddhist Buddhist
I’ve been doing a Buddhist practice now for some years. I’m not a Buddhist. I’m not “enlightened” nor do I see myself as superior to anyone else. I would never … Continue reading
Peter Schireson: Woof
I take Buster out for his walk, above us, wild geese fly south, honking, going nowhere, geese without edges, no longer geese. Where did they go? asked Baso. “Away,” Hyakujo … Continue reading
Peter Schireson: Cauliflower Soup
I try and get it right, how she loves the cauliflower soup in that little Italian place uptown with dark red walls and the grumpy old maitre d’ with … Continue reading
Buddha Shakyamuni: Leadership
When animals are crossing a ford, if the one in front goes crookedly, all the others go crookedly. So too, among human beings, when the leader behaves unrighteously, other people … Continue reading
Emily De Ferrari: On Killing Flies with Dr. Seuss
I killed them in the window. I killed them on the door. And when I killed a hundred flies I kept on killing more. Why is my heart so cruel, … Continue reading
Sam Hamill: Three Poems
Septuagenarian Sitting alone in late summer twilight sipping cold sake reading the obituaries of my friends . To Margaret, the Librarian It was a librarian who first showed me how … Continue reading
