I was something of a party pooper with my earlier meditation on divine foreknowledge and divine omnipotence, but more thoughtful and uplifting meditations are out there. To wit:
1. Lorianne has written a wonderful essay on unpicked apples and whether they should be thought of as waste. I admit I was worried, while reading the first half of the essay, that Lorianne would conclude along with Zen Master Soeng [sic*] Hyang (holy fragrance? very Hindu, that) that unpicked apples on the ground or on the branch were indeed a sign of "wasted promise." Luckily, Lorianne demurs, saying instead:
And yet... Can anything go to waste in a world where worms live, too? I've never seen deer nibbling apples from these human-neglected trees–perhaps the apples themselves are bitter, not sweet–but then again there aren't years' worth of apples piled beneath them. Some sentient creatures--not humans, for sure, but an invisible band of someones--are eating these apples, or perhaps they're only contributing to the health of their parent trees through their own demise and decay. These apples aren't, in a word, being wasted even if human hands aren't picking, eating, or preserving them, savoring their sweetness in the form of pies, applesauce, or cider.
Lorianne's essay is about so much more than this, but I was glad to see that she and I see eye to eye on what I consider an important point.
2. The Great and Powerful Dr. Hodges has written a fascinating meditation on pride that ends with the happy announcement that today is his and his wife's twelfth anniversary. Go over and give him your congratulations.
*I blame the Kwaneum Zen School for perpetuating this crazy romanization where "oe" represents the "aw/uh" sound instead of the far more common "eo." But I've effectively pulled the rug out from under myself by adopting-- and insisting upon-- my own idiosyncratic romanization. Not being a romanization purist, I have no right to talk. So perhaps this is, instead, an opportunity for me to wrestle with attachment to name and form.
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3 comments:
Kevin, you overpraise my musings on pride, but thank you for directing people to the happy news of my 12th great year with Sun-Ae.
Jeffery Hodges
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Meditating is all that many can do this Sunday as they can no longer catch the latest shows and flicks on-line.
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2195407,00.html
Holy crap! That is some anti-spam word below that I might not be able to make out.
And here I was worried that by disagreeing with a Zen Master, I'd piss someone off. I should have known you'd feel similarly contrary.
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