In 1981, my first year at Naropa, Ram Dass came and did some talks. One thing he said has always stuck with me: “People ask me what I think about the theory of reincarnation, and they get mad when I tell them it’s not a theory, it’s a fact.” It’s not a theory, it’s a […]
Now, to put this thinking to the test, I’ll assay a fairly difficult doha by Shabarapada (aka, “Shabara,” “Shavara,” “Shavaripa”) from the Charyagiti, a collection of condensed, gnomically esoteric ejaculations by Indian siddhas, that has a detailed commentary by one Munidatta, without which I doubt we’d have the slightest idea what most of them have […]
“When we get onstage, what we really want to happen is, we want to be transformed from ordinary players into extraordinary ones, like forces of a larger consciousness. And the audience wants to be transformed from whatever ordinary reality they may be in to something a little wider, something that enlarges them. So maybe it’s […]
The dakinis (Sanskrit: “sky-goers”; goddesses who appear in many forms) confront the Indian tantric master Tilopa (988-1069), challenging Tilopa with their own tantric doha: The born-blind looks at, but he cannot see the forms; A deaf man listens to, but he cannot hear the sounds; An idiot speaks, but he cannot understand the meaning. At […]
The first time I watched Nikola Jokic play a few years ago, he came off the bench, replacing Jusuf Nurkic as center for the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets got the ball and went on offense, where Jokic situated himself at the foul line. With one flip of the ball over his head, it flew over […]
In the Indian tradition of Buddhist poetry, as inherited and practiced by the Tibetans, we get a predominant didacticism–it’s poetry that’s meant to explain the dharma to you. But that’s not everyone. The Indian siddhas (Sanskrit: “realized ones,” “accomplished ones”) aren’t so academic sounding, though they may be teaching dharma; when they speak , […]
I hadn’t been on any extensive retreat in four years, when I went it into a solitary one here at my house ten days ago. In fact, I can’t really remember the last solitary retreat I did of more than two or three days or how many years ago that was. I’d been in a […]
I have an obsessive interest in shooting photos of leaves and flowers. I never tire of it, for some reason, now many seasons down the line. I always think there’s an innate artfulness to the colors, shapes, lines, and textures that doesn’t exhaust itself. The more you look, the more you see. That’s connected in […]
In The Lord of the Rings, Grima Wormtongue, one of its memorable villains, subjugates the king of Rohan, Théoden, through toxic use of his deceptive, manipulative speech, thus wresting away Théoden’s proper interest in the good of his kingdom, handing the reins over to his master, the malevolent wizard Saruman. However subservient to Saruman Wormtongue […]
I’ve been meaning, since first I saw it, to write about Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), but no way could I even begin to wrap my mind around it unless I watched it again and took notes. As my friend Margot pointed out, it resonates well with the sensibility in my own book, Transmigration […]
