Both art and spiritual practice are dialogues with history. One has to know both traditions in order to first appreciate each of them, to practice them, and then to add to them, Otherwise, practice is arbitrary and unconnected with what has gone before.
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The Gateway to Mystery
The Daodejing speaks of the gate to many mysteries (衆妙之門, chapter 1). The title of the Zen text, the Wumenguan, can be translated as the gate to nothingness. Mystery is clearly what we don’t know by rational means. It cannot be known by the “Dao that can be told.”...

The Wilderness Where Nothing is Lost
If you visit a city and fall in love with it, you may well marvel at how lovely the buildings are, how clean it is, how all the people are bustling around with their personal lives and yet they all fit together as the residents of a well-run city. You might inquire...

Full Circle
What does it mean to embrace the ideas of compassion and gratitude? The two are part of one circle. They are not separate. If you are fortunate and don't have to struggle with a particular aspect of life, then you should be grateful. If you are well-off, you should be...