This too shall pass
The Buddhist Wheel of Life, which emphasizes the futility of grasping for one’s “life.” Artist unknown. Source: Library of Congress. Click on the image for a high-resolution version During my last few years as an astronomy professor, I started off the first day by walking to the front of the class and writing the following [...]
Mark Rothko recovers the sparrow
Mark Rothko. No. 61 (Rust and Blue), 1953 I have just finished reading a book called Buddhism is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom beyond Beliefs by Steve Hagen. There is a double meaning in the title because the book is about not-thinking and really seeing. In it Hagen writes of Foyan, an ancient Chinese [...]
Po and Gus know what’s up in Jackson Hole
Here’s a nice quote from Huang Po, a 9th-century Chinese Zen master: The foolish reject what they see, not what they think; the wise reject what they think, not what they see. What this means to me is that it is unwise to cling to your ideas, because your ideas are eventually going to run [...]
Nobody’s home. What a relief
The more I learn about Islam the more I believe something obvious: Religions are not the same. I don’t mean that Islam and Hinduism and the others do not point their adherents toward the one God (or “ultimate reality,” or whatever). I just mean that they do this in really different ways, ways that often [...]
