The well-known adage—A bird in hand is worth two in the bush—is typically used to encourage being grateful for what we already have, rather than pining for something currently out of reach. Putting aside, for the moment, the usefulness of such advice, let’s utilize the imagery itself to explore the notion of separation … Experiencing & Identifying the Birds Imagine I have a bird—say, a …
Practice Notes
Practice Notes: Alicorn
Was thinking of unicorns the other day—curious, in particular, about whether their one horn was also called a “unicorn.” It made sense to me that this would be the case, but I wasn’t certain, so set off to explore … A few Googles later, here’s what I had learned: The root of the word unicorn is the Latin adjective unicornis (having one horn)—from uni (one) and cornus (horn). The horn …
The Body Politic
Nature's intelligence shines clearly in her choice to protect, within various organisms, what is most valuable. Consider, for instance, the human body: Its brain is nestled within a sturdy skull, and the spinal cord within the fluid stronghold of the spinal column. The ribcage forms a protective barrier around other vital organs—heart, lungs, kidneys and spleen. And this is wise! Now, …
Ancient Promises
Every now and again, I discover a poem that I wrote many years ago, and had since forgotten. I love these little surprises, a voice (clearly my own) both distant and intimate. Often these poems are hand-written on pieces of paper that have been folded into a book. Here's one that recently dropped out of Sri Aurobindo's Bases of Yoga—a slender little book hidden among other slender little books …
Practice Notes: Tension, Entropy, Awareness
Question: If the essence of all phenomenal appearances is Awareness, then presumably the appearance of a corpse and the appearance of a living organism (human or otherwise) would be experienced within (what Mahamudra refers to as) the “one taste” of Awareness. So how, then, should we describe the distinction between an organism that is considered to be “alive” and an organism that is considered to …
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Practice Notes: “Made Of”
Taking A Bite Consider an apple. The Honeycrisp apples have been quite delicious, here in Colorado this year—so let’s consider a Honeycrisp apple. My first direct experience of the Honeycrisp apple is visual: shape and color. The apple is basically round, and mottled red-green-gold in color, with a small brown stem. The next experience is tactile. When I pick the Honeycrisp apple up, it …