Posts Tagged With ‘Stephen Mitchell’

Prayer Wheels

Prayer Wheels ~ Labrangsi, XIahe, China

I want to tell you a story about one of the way-points along the path of my gradual awakening. But I recall, that story has already been told.   What follows is a prose poem written while visiting Labrangsi monastery, in the town of Xiahe, China. It’s a Yellow Hat […]

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Shadow and Light

Yin & Yang ~ Shadow & Light

She writes … she writes like a battering ram, through the impenetrable. If only I…. but I don’t write that way. Or. Not. Yet. I’m not ready to write. Yet. Or so I say. But I write, here and there. Inappropriately. I appropriate other’s spaces.

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Ancients and Contemporaries ~ timeless wisdom about violence

I Bificus ~ Bif Naked

The use of force is a last resort. One aspect of violence is that it is unpredictable. Although your initial intention may be to use limited force, once you have engaged in violence the consequences are unpredictable. Violence always brings about unexpected results and almost always provokes retaliation.

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Before and After ~ Stephen Mitchell’s Second Book of the Dao

The Second Book of the Tao ~ Stephen Mitchell

I was digging into Stephen Mitchell‘s The Second Book of the Dao one day back in January (over a lovely Red Snapper Soup @ Granville Island) when a passage in the second chapter inspired the following poem. Before and After Before sorrow, longing Before longing, anger Before anger, pain Before […]

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War Prayers ~ Mark Twain and Lao Tse on the artlessness of war

The War Prayer ~ Mark Twain

Yesterday the people of The United States of America marked Memorial Day. It’s a day of baseball, hot dogs and apple pie, of families and communities gathering to celebrate the arrival of summer. It’s a day of flags and bunting and red, white & blue and national pride, and a […]

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The second book of The Way ~ Stephen Mitchell illuminates the Tao again.

The Second Book of the Tao ~ Stephen Mitchell

Mmmmm… a day of cloudy wet so a retreat into a tub of hot water with salsa & tortilla chips and a good book about one of my favourite subjects, Stephen Mitchell’s The Second Book of the Tao (Dao, Tao, same thing, same pronunciation: Dao). Hmmmm… the liner notes of […]

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We’re too good to be this political ~ Be the change you want to see in the world

The Second Book of the Tao ~ Stephen Mitchell

My first mistake today was climbing into the bathtub and picking up the May 31st, 2010 edition of Canada’s weekly news magazine, Macleans, rather than the copy of Stephen Mitchell’s The Second Book of the Tao, in which I’d thought to have a nice, long spiritual soak along with the […]

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