Seek a deeper understanding of the fundamental and enduring questions that have been raised by thoughtful human beings in the rich traditions of the East.
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To Speech
This first, this last:there’s nothing you wouldn’t say. Unshockable inclusion your most pure nature,and so you are like an iron pot—whatever’s put in, it holds. We think it’s the fire that cooks the stew,but, speech, it’s also you:teacherof fire-making and stew-making,orator of all our plans and intentions.We think we think with a self.That also, it seems, is mostly you—sometimes a single spider’s thread of you,sometimes a mountain. The late sun paints orangethe white belly of a hawk overhead—that wasn’t you,though now and here, it is. If a hungry child says “orange,” her taste buds grow larger. If a person undamaged says “hungry child,”his despondence grows larger. More » -
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What’s in a Mantra?
SO YOU’RE SITTING there, reciting the Heart Sutra, either the long version or the short version. Perhaps you do so every day. It has been recited millions of times over the centuries, without the person reciting it necessarily paying much attention to the meaning (whatever that might mean). But today, let’s imagine that you do. After dutifully negating each of the major categories of Buddhist philosophy (“no eye constituent up to and including no mental consciousness constituent, no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, no aging and death up to and including no extinction of aging and death. More » -
The Dharma of Deconstruction
THE FUNDAMENTAL INSIGHT of what is known as the "linguistic turn" in twentieth-century Western thought is that language shapes our experience. Some of the most influential modern thinkers challenge our usual assumption that using language is merely a matter of attaching names to things that already exist in the world. In a very important sense, language creates the world as we know it. More » -
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What's in a Word?
Taking another look at the Buddhist roots of a much-maligned term. More »
