In order that it may start inbalance, we can see onlya small part of the total universe-that mystery greater than death;and for the sake of balance, we cansee how love disintegrates and by whatmeans and at what time it was created.Crossing the boundaries of physics,reaching the final barrier of knowing. George Cassidy Payne is a […]
Postcard from Raymond: Merton’s Theology of the Problematic
My colleague Justin Whitaker has just published news about the 50th anniversary of the Catholic monk and writer Thomas Merton. It is no surprise that Buddhists have joined Christians in commemorating his life. I admired Merton to the point of making his work one half of my BA thesis, which was a Buddhist-Christian dialogue between […]
2019: A Year for Pastoral Caregiving to the World
Today we published a Buddhistdoor View advocating a “pastoral” perspective on the world. In the editorial we mean “pastoral” in its broadest, oldest possible sense: the act of listening and bearing witness, beyond even its common religious connotations, modern psychotherapeutic applications, or activist implications. This is the space of the shepherd: ever guiding yet ever open. […]
Thinking of that other-other Suzuki: Beatrice Lane
Beatrice Lane Kamakura, 1915. Today I read a student essay which cited B.L. Suzuki. I was intrigued. B.L.? In college I learned about two giants of 20th century Buddhism: Shunryu Suzuki and D.T. Suzuki. I remember many times mixing them up or naively conflating them into a single person. I later did the same with […]
There is a Hush
There is a hushfrom the beginningof time, where youcan hear yourselfblink. It’s calledimmortality. The rumbling timbers. Those extinct tracks. There is a hush, it is the sound of the desert parsleywithering and thewhimpers of hawksand eagles careeningtowards the earthrise. There is a hush, sunk into the chasms,bringing a curse thatcan never be lifted. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from […]
The Way Galileo Saw It
When I look up I see the quiet survivalof the solar system. I see the outbursts ofconstellations andthe disturbing meaningof the Milky Way. When I look up I see the penetration of thecorona, a universe of stars,the way Galileo saw it, all ionized and catastrophic. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has […]
Are Vegetarian Diets Becoming a Global Trend?
Sun Ma It seems that the world is slowly but surely becoming vegetarian. According to some surveys, the percentage of vegetarian population (including ovo-lacto vegetarians) in various countries is rising. At the top of the list, at least according to some references listed on Wikipedia, is India, with 38% of Indians being vegetarians. Other countries […]
Grace Peak
Down where fingershold a windscourged turbulence,lurid and buriedin the fractures, your mountain graceblisters like iron smelted, and the mosaic of youreyes light all over.Wrapped in cold teardrops,below the grit of exiled scents, at your peak I feel astronomical, like Asimov’s balloons risingthrough a diaphanous fog. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in […]
Something Rather Than Nothing
Before slavery,oceans swept awayshadowsof sand pyramids. Before peace,there was just volcanicash on the seabeds- the color of Confederategray, like the eyes of a lost husky. Before the masters of war,there were border walls madeof barren clouds, ribbed and lifeless- above a million stillborn valleys. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work […]
After the Flowers
Into the hush a motherneeds when she strokesthe soft temples of her infantson, outside the dewdropsemerge once more. After theflowers are gone, on a blanketof peat moss, feeding the frogsand snakes, they emerge,hurtling toward the starvedemptiness of another daybreak. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, […]