Grief and the Heart’s Storm Clouds
Bestselling Buddhist author Jack Kornfield in The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace, It takes courage to grieve, to honor the pain we carry. We can grieve in tears or in meditative silence, in prayer or in song. In touching the pain of recent and long-held griefs, we come face to face with our genuine […]
How James Joyce Radicalized Literature
Richard Ellmann writes in “James Joyce In and Out of Art,” from Four Dubliners: Joyce radicalized literature, so that it would never recover. He reconstructed narrative, both external and internal; he changed our conception of daytime consciousness and of nighttime unconsciousness. He made us reconsider language as the product and the prompter of unconscious imaginings. […]
Peace and Freedom Begin with Ourselves
Thich Nhat Hanh in The Path of Emancipation: Talks From a 21-Day Mindfulness Retreat, There is affliction and suffering within us. Our suffering represents both our individual suffering and the suffering of our ancestors, parents, and society. Every time we practice mindful breathing and take good care of our bodies and feelings, we relieve our […]
Intimate, Ecological, Empathic Relationship with the World
Guy Claxton, The Wayward Mind: An Intimate History of The Unconscious: We have come a long way from the disembodied soul: the immaculate fleck of divinity that is in us but not of this world. Instead of having recourse to a transcendental realm, a parallel universe in which everything is True and Good, we seem […]
Moving Toward What Matters Most
Matthieu Ricard writes in Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, Renunciation, at least as Buddhists use the term, is a much-misunderstood concept. It is not about giving up what is good and beautiful. How foolish that would be! Rather it is about disentangling oneself from the unsatisfactory and moving with determination toward […]
The Roman Lyrical Poet Catullus and His Influence
Catullus‘ love poems influenced not only Latin love poets such as Horace and Ovid, but also English Renaissance poets such as Robert Herrick. Karl Pomeroy Harrington writes in Catullus and His Influence (1923): It was Catullus who taught Europe and America how to sing tender songs of love, to phrase bitter words of hate; who […]
Contrarian Thinking
Seth Klarman’s extraordinary and mysterious book Margin of Safety, Risk Averse Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor has sold for $700 for used varieties with newer copies going for $2,500 to $4,000. His foremost investing premise is risk mitigation. He writes, Investors may find it difficult to act as contrarians for they can never be […]
Christopher Hitchens on Comedian Bob Bope
The Writer’s Almanac notes, A few days after Hope’s death, author and journalist Christopher Hitchens called him “paralyzingly, painfully, hopelessly unfunny” in Slate. He skewered the comedian and his fans, saying, “This is comedy for people who have no sense of humor and who come determined to be entertained and laugh to show that they […]
Joseph M. Juran’s Quality Control Handbook
Quality Pioneer Joseph M. Juran’s career took off when he published Quality Control Handbook in 1951. The book established his reputation worldwide. He later said of this book, The Handbook became the ‘bible’ of managing for quality and has increasingly served as the international reference book for professionals and managers in the field. It has […]
Moving Towards Awareness
From The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness written by Mark Williams, et al., The intention in mindfulness practice is not to forcibly control the mind but to perceive clearly its healthy and harmful patterns. It is to approach our minds and bodies with a sense of curiosity, openness, and acceptance so […]