not look like another book. It might not look like a book that even exists in the library or on a bookshelf just yet, and sort of finding your way and listening to that inner voice to me seems so important as you’re crafting your own story. TS: It’s interesting to me that you sought out professional editorial guidance if you will and yet you also provide that to other people and that’s part of the work that you’ve done in the world. As someone who teaches in creative writing programs, interesting and maybe it’s so helpful to have a partner or an outside perspective. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on that? MS: Oh my gosh, it&rsquo... posted on Aug 10 2023 (2,953 reads)

when one writes… The great problem is to translate what one feels into what one wants others to feel. We call a writer bad when he expresses himself in reference to an inner context the reader cannot know. The mediocre writer is thus led to say anything he pleases. In a sentiment James Baldwin would echo in his advice on writing, insisting that “beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance,” Camus observes that all creative endeavor demands of us “a certain constancy of soul, and a human and literary knowledge of sacrifice.” He writes: To someone who asked Newton how he had managed to construct ... posted on Sep 1 2023 (3,381 reads)

Teitaro Suzuki (1870~1966) was a prolific Japanese-American philosopher, writer and translator. He traveled and lectured extensively, interacting with diverse audiences and some of the most brilliant and creative minds of the age, among them Carl Jung, Martin Heidegger, Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, John Cage, and Gary Snyder. He is the author of more than 30 books, including, "An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. A ZEN LIFE is a documentary feature, made by Michael Goldberg, on this extraordinary man.   ... posted on Sep 14 2023 (3,457 reads)

New Testament. Paul distinguishes between the Greek word sarx, which has the sense of “a hunk of meat,” from soma, which Paul used to designate the luminous body transformed by faith.  Hanna argued that it was the sacral body, gross and mechanistically conceived, separate from mind and imagination, that dominated Western thought and medicine.  In his view, the teachers of embodiment practices were recovering a hidden sense of the wise, imaginative, and creative body, thus creating a “Somatics,” what Edmund Husserl, the founder of modern phenomenology called “somatology.”4 For over thirty years, Esalen Institute in Big Sur ... posted on Sep 17 2023 (2,381 reads)

we are to continue to live for the future, and to make the chief work of the mind prediction and calculation, man must eventually become a parasitic appendage to a mass of clockwork. To be sure, Watts doesn’t dismiss the mind as a worthless or fundamentally perilous human faculty. Rather, he insists that it if we let its unconscious wisdom unfold unhampered — like, for instance, what takes place during the “incubation” stage of unconscious processing in the creative process — it is our ally rather than our despot. It is only when we try to control it and turn it against itself that problems arise: Working rightly, the brain is the highest... posted on Sep 19 2023 (4,104 reads)

of a dozen trees around the world that he visited regularly. An author poet, professor, researcher and conservationist, David's innovative approaches to teaching and fieldwork, his radical commitment to a whole-bodied study of the natural world, and his remarkable lyrical gifts have yielded a lush and Illuminating body of work that returns us to our place in the web. As one reviewer put it, "With a poet's ear and a naturalist's ear, Haskell re-roots us in life's grand creative struggle and encourages us to turn away from empty individuality. The Songs of Trees reminds us that we're not alone and never have been. Below are highlights of Haskell's insights... posted on Jan 7 2024 (5,114 reads)

leader. You take risks to go out of your comfort zone. Do inner change and outer change go hand in hand?  There are a lot of cultural norms and systems in the world. Even something like power -- it's easy to express power in a way that is the "normal" way; for example, power over something. I've come to learn it's not about being a powerful person. It's about standing in our power, that is the authenticity of who we are. If someone is perhaps soft or if they're vulnerable or they're creative, standing in their power is actually standing in the fullness of the vulnerable expression of who they are and offering that genius -- that gift --  into the world. So it requires inner ... posted on Jun 5 2024 (2,528 reads)

for flip phones. Despite not wanting a phone at all, the founder owns a flip phone for safety. The group meets weekly in a New York public library or park to spend time together reading, drawing, writing, talking, meditating, listening to music, etc. without their phones. All are welcome to join even if they still have a smartphone. The club’s goal is not just to free themselves from phones but from the internet as a whole, especially social media. Inspired by their commitment to being creative and spending their time on things they enjoy, not tethered to technology, I deleted Instagram and TikTok. At first, I had trouble recognizing the effects of deleting social media. It was onl... posted on Jun 15 2024 (1,328 reads)