Category Archives: Philosophy of Life

“Nuns Fret Not at Thier Convent’s Narrow Room” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]

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Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room;
  And hermits are contented with their cells;
  And students with their pensive citadels;
  Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,
 Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
  High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells,
  Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:
  In truth the prison, into which we doom
 Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me,
  In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound
  Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground;
  Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)
 Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
  Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

BOOKS: “Essential Zen” ed. by Kazuaki Tanahashi & David Schneider

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Essential ZenEssential Zen by Kazuaki Tanahashi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Google Books Page

This is a collection of short writings (poems, koans, and prose excerpts) on Zen Buddhism arranged into loosely themed sections. The writings tend toward the artistic, creative, and metaphorical, with relatively few straightforward descriptions of technique or philosophy. The writings range from those of Chinese and Japanese monks who lived hundreds of years ago to present-day poets and Zen practitioners. Among the more frequently drawn from sources are: Hanshan, Ikkyu, Dogen, Ryokan, Hakuin, Gary Snyder, Robert Aitken, Seung Sahn, John Daido Loori, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Peter Levitt. But there are many others, including some who have only a single piece included.

There’s a substantial “Notes” section that gives source, translation, and — in some cases — background information. Most of the translations (both Japanese and Chinese) are by the editors, Kazuaki Tanahashi and David Schneider. There are illustrations, but they are all ensō (circular brush paintings) and related forms.

This is a highly readable and insightful collection of short writings, and I’d highly recommend it for individuals interested in Zen or Eastern Philosophy more generally.

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PROMPT: Hardest Decision

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What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?

Probably to leave a job. Because it was a move from stability, security, and respectability to… not.

PROMPT: Pet Peeves

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Daily writing prompt
Name your top three pet peeves.
View all responses

[Note: I will assume this to be the colloquial usage of “pet peeves” as I have no peeves about pets whatsoever (in fact, compared to most human children I see running around, I find pets to be positively civilized.)]

With that in mind:

1.) Forcing a “favor” on another person in expectation of some kind of reciprocation (usually outsized in scale to the fake favor.)

2.) Using the Q & A section of a program to make one’s own speech (the subtext being that one — rather than the lunkhead who just presented — should have been the one invited to speak in the first place.)

3.) Acting as though one particular set of cultural norms is the only moral / ethical way to live.

Bonus response: As we are presently on a blogging platform, I should mention a blogger’s peeve: Using another’s comment section as an advertisement for one’s own content — particularly with no actual comment about the post to which one’s “comment” is attached. I realize blogging is inherently a self-centered activity, but let’s not fall full-Narcissus into it.

“The Human Seasons” by John Keats [w/ Audio]

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Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;
   There are four seasons in the mind of man:
 He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
   Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
 He has his Summer, when luxuriously 
   Spring's honied cud of youthful thought
     he loves
 To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
   Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
 His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
   He furleth close; contented so to look
 On mists in idleness -- to let fair things
   Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
 He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
 Or else he would forego his mortal nature.

“O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these
     recurring,
 Of the endless trains of the faithless,
     of cities fill'd with the foolish,
 Of myself forever reproaching myself, 
    (for who more foolish than I, and who
    more faithless?)
 Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the
    objects mean, of the struggle ever 
    renew'd,
 Of the poor results of all, of the plodding
    and sordid crowds I see around me,
 Of the empty and useless years of the 
    rest, with the rest me intertwined,
 The question, O me! so sad, recurring --
    What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                           Answer.
 That you are here--that life exists and
    identity,
 That the powerful play goes on, and you
    may contribute a verse.

“People ask for the road to Cold Mountain” by Hanshan [w/ Audio]

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People ask for the road to Cold Mountain,
 but no road reaches Cold Mountain.
 Summer sky -- still ice won't melt.
 The sun comes out but gets obscured by mist.
 Imitating me, where does that get you?
 My mind isn't like yours.
 When your mind is like mine
 You can enter here.

Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi & David Schneider in Essential Zen (1994) SanFransisco: HarperCollins, p. 2

FIVE WISE LINES [November 2024]

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Inspiration enters at the border between hard work and laziness.

Lu juren in “Poets’ jade splinters” [Trans. by Barnstone and Ping in The ART Of Writing]

I will not own anything that will one day be a valuable antique.

Miyamoto musashi in “My way of walking alone” [Dokkōdō] (Trans. by Teruo machida)

A house full of gold and jade can’t be guarded.

Laozi in the DAo De jing [Ch. 9]

Writing is a struggle between presence and absence.

Lu ji in The ART of Writing [Trans. by Barnstone and ping]

The best leaders remain unknown; the next best are praised; the next best are feared, and the worst are mocked.

Laozi in dAo de Jing [Ch.17]

“Beginners” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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How they are provided for upon the earth,
   (appearing at intervals;)
 How dear and dreadful they are to the earth;
 How they inure to themselves as much as to 
   any -- What a paradox appears their age;
 How people respond to them, yet know them not;
 How there is something relentless in their fate,
   all times;
 How all times mischoose the objects of their 
   adulation and reward,
 And how the same inexorable price must still
   be paid for the same great purchase.

PROMPT: Proud

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What are you most proud of in your life?

Keeping going.

But if pride goeth before the fall…