When his son died, Emerson looked hard at grief. He later recalled it as a shallow emotion, depthless and unreal. No stoic lives far from the fact that we are born to die.
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Tag Archives: Buddhism
Supplicant sounds
In the West, we say “thank you.” In India, the expression is offensive. Buddhism enjoins us not to thank our benefactors. And “please”? The saying of it produces a weak and queasy sound.
Noble silence
A good listener does not think while another talks. He practices noble silence.
Argue-mental
No one wins an argument. An argument is one mental/emotional structure bashing against another. There may be noise, excitement, even victory, but there will be no peace. The chief blessing of the natural world is that it has no opinions. It is perfectly capable of taking defensive measures, as it is doing right now, but it has no opinions. It will not argue with humans.
Graduating students
Graduating students are routinely told they can be anything they want to be. This is misleading. I cannot want to be virtuous, to be honest, to have integrity, to live, love and die with my whole heart. Wanting is suffering. This three-word simplicity is one of the Four Noble Truths.
Whatever you can dream, you can achieve. Also not true. The more present we are, the fewer dreams we entertain. Dreams are left-overs.
