In Zen practice, meditation is usually referred to as “sitting.” Some of us think we are unusual because of our practice, but we are not. Everybody sits, but most people do their sitting in front of a TV. We can either sit to distract ourselves from life, or we can sit with, and in, life.
#zen #buddhism #meditation #zazen
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The New York Times has an interesting piece about the HBO adaptation of Jake Adelstein’s memoir Tokyo Vice, published in 2009, which is one of the most riveting books I have ever read.
Independent People by Halldor Laxness
Remina by Junji Ito (amazing drawing as usual, but surprisingly disappointing story; might have worked had it been a short)
War Primer by Bertolt Brecht (reread)
Mutual Aid by Dean Spade (reread)
Alias and Jessica Jones by Brian Michael Bendis (reread)
If They Come in the Morning by Angela Davis (reread)
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If a member of the Japanese royal family had died last year, would Nicola Sturgeon now travel to Tokyo for their memorial?
If not, then why did she postpone giving her Covid update today (another record-breaking day for hospitalisations in Scotland) to travel to London to appear, maskless, at a memorial for Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey?
#NicolaSturgeon #PrincePhilip #SNP #Scotland #ScottishIndependence #PlagueDiary
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daishin and greum maol stevenson in Wyndford. Photo: Chris LeslieToday The Guardian has a photoessay by Chris Leslie about the demolition of the Wyndford high flats, with quotes from tenants including daishin and me.
Liz Cameron, who wants us to keep capitalism healthy by not wearing masksToday, Scotland recorded nearly 40,000 new Covid infections, and 25 new deaths.
“Medicine and sickness heal each other. The whole world is medicine.” — The Blue Cliff Record, Case 87
There is a parable that is fitting for these times. I do not know its origin — I have heard different versions, some attributing it to the Zen or Taoist traditions, but I have not been able to find its source, and I do not think it matters. Here is the version I am thinking of:
by greum maol stevenson & daishin stephenson
Two years ago, this blog discussed how an organisation called Street Change Glasgow was treating people in poverty with contempt. Before publishing the piece, we emailed them our concerns, but they did not respond.
For two years, I lived on the edge of woods, on the outskirts of Chattanooga, Tennessee, between a sewage plant, an American Indian burial ground, and the state mental hospital.
Since the pandemic started, City Cave Zen Sangha has been meeting online only, and that has been going so well I want to continue doing it even when the time comes that it is safe to physically meet.