freedom

How Do I Get Free?

The Mind  |  The University   |   Douglas Powers  |   June 17, 2014, 11:00 am

“The capacity of the mind is vast and far-reaching; like empty space, it has no boundaries. It is neither square nor round, large nor small. Nor is it blue, yellow, red, or white. It has no above or below, no long or short. Moreover, it has no anger or joy, right or wrong, good or [...]

Looking for Freedom, Part II

The Mind  |  The Monastery   |   Fedde De Vries  |   April 26, 2012, 7:13 pm

Work is not something people generally love. But by now, I have become quite a workaholic, especially when working for a monastic community. Working is also a form of dana, a way to keep something precious, the Sangha, alive in our world – a world that really needed it. However, the love for work all too easily becomes a blind and constant need to be productive. In a monastic setting this can result in situations of which one only later realizes the significance and the humor. [...]

Looking for Freedom, Part I

The Mind  |  The Monastery   |   Fedde De Vries  |   April 19, 2012, 4:30 pm

Freedom – we all want that; we want it dearly. To the point that, in this modern age, our Dutch Constitution (where I’m from) secures many myriad forms of freedom. With that in mind, one cannot be surprised that using our free time is one of the major forms of exercising that freedom.   For me, it was my summer vacation – to continue to look for more freedom. [...]

Learning to Listen

The Monastery   |   Fedde De Vries  |   April 5, 2012, 4:15 pm

We all know how much it can mean to us when someone takes the time to listen. Simply being able to tell your story gives a space and a kind of freedom – it creates trust. If there is one figure in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition that embodies this listening, it is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara. [...]

Cage

The Mind   |   Franklyn Wu  |   February 16, 2012, 5:09 pm

Ms Rosey is an adult female cockatiel. Her body is white dotted with grey spots, and long yellow streaks run the length of her tiny body from crown to tail (which is as long as her body). She has lived with the Hughs since their elder daughter brought her over one day eight years ago, claiming that the bird came to her while she was hanging her laundry outside. The mother took Rosey under her wings and showered her with much affection and attention. [...]

The Tightrope Walker

The Mind   |   Lauren Bausch  |   February 9, 2012, 5:06 pm

To what extent am I an astronomer? In The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things, George Kubler* suggests that time is conveyed in signals... whose message is based on the past, like old light seen by astronomers.  The signal energies, similar to karma, transmit impulses from the past....  Like the ancient light of the stars, karma has been accumulating from time immemorial. [...]

Beyond Alienation

The Mind  |  The Scene  |  The Tribe   |   Douglas Powers  |   September 5, 2011, 7:46 am

My last post on Late-Capitalist Youth looked at Nietzsche’s call to control our passions, in order to gain a sense of freedom and new direction for our lives—but the Buddha looked at self-overcoming as well. To move towards a new patterning for our desires, we need to have some space for the conditioned systems of [...]

Got Lack?

The Mind  |  The Scene  |  The Tribe   |   Douglas Powers  |   August 29, 2011, 9:00 am

So what went wrong? As Lacan and Zizek point out, our dissatisfaction begins with a sense of lack. For Lacan this lack is basic to our psyche. Why did each of us get so confused and dissatisfied with such a simple project? We are conscious and aware. If we have enough to eat, a place [...]