Barry Graham's Blog, page 54

Columbus Day: A Celebration of Greed, Cruelty and Incompetence

With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want… Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold
- Christopher Columbus

Today the U.S. celebrates an inept navigator who thought that San Salvador was Japan and Cuba was China, and who enslaved, mutilated and murdered the natives of the lands his ineptitude took him to.

Also, it’s not true that most people thought the earth was flat in those days.

I think it’s fitting that the U.S. ce...

J. David Osborne reviews Kill Your Self: Life After Ego

J. David Osborne reviews Kill Your Self: Life After Ego:

And finally, I’d like to talk a little about Dogo Barry Graham’s wonderful, eye-openingKill Your Self: Life After Ego. In the spirit of a book that is all about losing the self, and working to curb suffering by muting the ego, I’m going to make this review all about me. As of late I’ve found it increasingly difficult to let go of my anger. It’s always been a problem, that I tend to see and expect the worst from people. After reading thi...

Full of Days: new book by Bart Lessard

Full of Days: new book by Bart Lessard:

I’ve written before that Bart Lessard is one of my favorite contemporary writers. His latest book, Full of Days, might be his best.

Mildred Dephane is a duty nurse working graveyard shift on a hospice ward. For nine years she has slept through the daylight. But a mysterious new patient—a failing, helpless man over a hundred years old—shocks her awake as he begins to describe crimes that have gone unpunished for a lifetime.

Portrait of me by Daishin Stephenson

Portrait of me by Daishin Stephenson

After an oppressive summer, fall has finally come to Portland....

After an oppressive summer, fall has finally come to Portland. Daishin brought me this leaf yesterday. What I love most about its luminous colors is the darkness on its edges. It’s dying from the outside in.

Useful questions about you and your breath

Try this if you’re so inclined:

Pay attention to your breath. Don’t try to control it, just be aware of it. Be aware of breathing in, and be aware of breathing out. Be aware that a time will come when you will breathe out and will not breathe in again. Something will end at that point. What is it?

What is the breath? Is it air? Is it you? Is it both? Where is it now? Where will it be when your lungs empty for the last time?

Gratitude to T.S. Eliot on his 126th birthday

T.S. Eliot was born on this day in 1882. He’s my favorite poet, but that doesn’t say enough about his impact on me. If I hadn’t read him, I don’t know that I would have found my way to Zen practice, so, as well as being one of those who made me decide to devote my life to writing as a contemplative practice, he may have saved my life. Although he died before I was born, I consider him one of my best friends.

You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall sa...

How do you reconcile your sex drive and your Buddhism? I love sex and consider myself a bit of a freak and a talented lover, but the constant lusting wears me thin. It occupies a lot of my time and brain space, competes for my awareness. What to do? Abstai

If only it were as simple as abstaining. If your issue is the “constant lusting,” abstention most likely wouldn’t make any difference. I think the way to practice with this is the same way we practice with any obsessive thoughts—just notice them, without judgment. Don’t try not to have those desires, and don’t welcome them either. Just note them.

There’s nothing wrong with lusts or desires, but suffering shows up when we start believing them, when we start thinking that we need to satisfy thos...

How do you reconcile your sex drive and your Buddhism? I love sex and consider myself a bit of a freak and a talented lover, but the constant lusting wears me thin. It occupies a lot of my time and brain space, competes for my awareness. What to do? Abstai

If only it were as simple as abstaining. If your issue is the “constant lusting,” abstention most likely wouldn’t make any difference. I think the way to practice with this is the same way we practice with any obsessive thoughts—just notice them, without judgment. Don’t try not to have those desires, and don’t welcome them either. Just note them.

There’s nothing wrong with lusts or desires, but suffering shows up when we start believing them, when we start thinking that we need to satisfy thos...

How do you reconcile your sex drive and your Buddhism? I love sex and consider myself a bit of a freak and a talented lover, but the constant lusting wears me thin. It occupies a lot of my time and brain space, competes for my awareness. What to do? Abstai

If only it were as simple as abstaining. If your issue is the “constant lusting,” abstention most likely wouldn’t make any difference. I think the way to practice with this is the same way we practice with any obsessive thoughts—just notice them, without judgment. Don’t try not to have those desires, and don’t welcome them either. Just note them.

There’s nothing wrong with lusts or desires, but suffering shows up when we start believing them, when we start thinking that we need to satisfy thos...