As a film and literature enthusiast, I am always on the look out for stories that evoke the Dharma. Today, I have a gander at “Henderson the Rain King,” the 1959 novel by Canadian-American writer Saul Bellow. This farcical adventure is the story of a millionaire in his fifties whose inner voice says I want, […]
When Film Took More Than Time
I found this pictureof myself when Iwas less than a year old-September 1981 – in my mother’s arms, wading near a beach on the American side of the St. Lawrence River.She held me by my pits with a smile good enough to getmy father’s attention.
Genocide is at the top
The worst of the worst. Followed by murder and arson and lynching and rape and terrorism and vandalism and discrimination and scapegoating and name-calling and jokes and rumors and biases and insensitivity and a person hung with grief.
How to Treat Water
Store in a copper basin with tulips or rose petals, under a salt lamp. Pray over and be kind to it. Play Mozart andChopin for it. Let it know youas a friend, and always, alwayssay thank you.
The reason elephants console each other
Because when the nightmoves against us, we dig inand take notice of our memories,those weightless shadows fallingon the fragile marsh.
Unsolicited Advice to the Class of 2020
Grip life the way a father holds his son’srib bone after a car bomb in a Baghdad market. Treat it with speechlessrespect. Awake each morning in its belly, licking the mucous from the rubberyintestine of your own ignorance. Chase life. As children run after dragonflies.Unlock the jar and hold it like a prisoner of evolution. […]
Chimps
Somedays I wake up and look into the mirror and ask myself if I am really human. I know that I speak. I know that I symbolize and wear the skin that has the blood of mammals pulsating through its veins. I know that I am not a fish or reptile. I do not have the stamina […]
Radiation from the Big Bang
Dear grandpa,I never met whopulled the trigger. They say that youhad enemies andit was the Depression, but who really knows?Your ashes were scatteredsomewhere in the valley and the records back thenwere never kept the way theyshould have been. Anyways, there is far too much chatterabout all of that now, in the background, as the evidence […]
Lovers of Truth
Love is the absolute The unsurpassable The final dissolution Without destination May I be the lover The honey in all your senses The softness of the goddess May your heart open broadly Without anything to hold back Just pure deliverance May we see our eyes mirroringPure songs humming And the fragrance of fire Burning Clouding […]
Promise of Spring
My snow dirtied mind, squandered with rain and dirt,is ready. These ancient trails call my nameand I am ready. To be alone in a temple of deep space, my cardinal ears are ready. Where there is no religion but God and sun and land and the scent of boiled arrowroot,gathering on my neck and chest, I am ready.I am ready.