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Category Archives: Conversations
Salt Dolls and Other Temporal Measures
In a dharma talk given July 15th for the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care (as part of their Summer 2024 Commit to Sit program), Zen teacher Norman Fischer said something quite interesting and profound. He was discussing the … Continue reading
Posted in Conversations
Tagged culture, hard sciences, Norman Fischer, perception, Ramakrishna, time, Zen
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14. See the World, Part 2
A lot of people proudly claim to love the city they live in, or the one they’re originally from. In general, I am not one of those people – and having lived a lot of places across America, I’ve had … Continue reading
Posted in Conversations
Tagged calling it home, cities, connection, geography, living, moving
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The Secret Undertown Ministry
“FROM THE DARKNESS, A VOICE SINGS OUT: I disagree, I disagree – I cannot understand at all; Which doesn’t mean I cannot understand it if I tried to understand it but I cannot stand to stand and understand it when … Continue reading
Americans Undecided for Apathy
THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM A CAMPAIGN SPEECH WRITTEN BY GRAVITY PUSHMAN AND DELIVERED TO THE ‘AMERICANS UNDECIDED FOR APATHY’ RALLY HELD ON DECEMBER 12, 1994 IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK. THE SPEECH WAS DELIVERED VIA AN ANONYMOUS TAPE … Continue reading
Posted in Conversations
Tagged apathy, history, parody, politics, The Secret Undertown Ministry, voting
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16. Philosophize Only By Accident
Despite what you may think, and what they themselves might to try to convince you, philosophers and other professional think-o-logists for thousands of years have tried to answer just a couple of basic questions. These are often hard to recognize, … Continue reading
Posted in Conversations
Tagged being, existentialism, philosophy, positivism, Sartre, Success Motivation Institute
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8. Keep a Private Room Behind the Shop
It used to be that men had studies, libraries, dens, offices. Now there are “man caves”. As if the whole of the outside world isn’t already about patriarchal, testosterone-driven, sports metaphor-laden male dominance, for better or worse. Honestly, anyone who … Continue reading
6. Use Little Tricks
Every mystery or philosophical tradition from the beginning of time has invented mechanisms to help adherents pay attention to the right things, or stop paying attention to the wrong things. I’ve always been fascinated by Zen koans, Sufi teaching stories, … Continue reading
Posted in Conversations
Tagged awareness, knowledge, mind games, Montaigne, religion, tricks
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