In his splendid essay called “On an Apparent Intention in the Fate of the Individual,” Schopenhauer points out that when you reach an advanced age and look back over your lifetime, it can seem to have had a consistent order and plan, as though composed by some novelist. Events that when they occurred had seemed […]
Joseph Campbell on Schopenhauer, Will, and Life’s Composition Read More »
Even as a mother protects with her life Her child, her only child, So with a boundless heart Should one cherish all living beings; Radiating kindness over the entire world: Spreading upwards to the skies, And downwards to the depths;
The Buddha on Loving Kindness Read More »
Emotional truth should never get a free pass. All too often, it’s a noisy intruder lashing out in blind frustration. It devotes endless hours to reconstructing bones in the desert in a vain attempt to reanimate an imaginary creature. When it thinks you’re a captive audience, it will usher you into its hail-damaged garden, assuring
When I was a child, we always sped through the Painted Desert in the Navajo Nation on our way to my grandparents’ house in Sun City, leaving nothing behind but the tailwinds from the car. I scanned that vast expanse of land and sky, the colors of the soil rich with brilliant pinks, muted reds,
I held back my breath for a time, but you didn’t. You had been to the very edge of the world. You knew the sound of the wind, low and constant, thrumming against the land, the ice, the sea. You’d seen how the pale gray-green earth disappeared beneath ice and snow, and then how that
Nothing Beyond This Read More »
Karen was down to 100 pounds. She wore long sleeve shirts to work to hide the marks on her arms. It had gotten so bad that one day, her boss pulled her aside and said, “Karen, do we need to talk?” ”Don’t, Ben. Life just sucks right now, you know? I’ll handle it.” And life did
