Q: What is Zen? A: Food in the pot, water in the pail. (Zen Koan) The creative moment appears inside the things of the world. When we stop grabbing at things, they seem to approach us and our connection with them is something we feel and know. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke said that an angel wouldn’t be impressed by our…
Today we are launching a new series on solitude by Jennifer Stitt, a historian of modern American thought, culture, and politics working on her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This piece on silence and solitude is the first of five short essays that will be published monthly. In 1852, Herman Melville described the dark depravity of silence. “All profound…
In honor of National Poetry Month, I want to remember an extraordinary weekend of poetry, learning, and community. Last December, I joined a troupe of 20 writers and poets at a Garrison Institute workshop called “Imagining Your Voice on the Page.” The idyllic grounds, under a blanket of freshly fallen snow, seemed to tuck us in for three days of…
I know what loneliness feels like. Many people use the title His Holiness to refer to me, but I sometimes joke that His Loneliness would be more accurate. In my own case, although I do not connect to people online, I do have lots of people surrounding me all day long, supporting me in different ways, as well as other…
We do not live in an enlightened world—have you noticed? Sometimes just when we seem to be progressing forward, and we find ourselves falling further behind than ever. Our current world and larger culture seem to becoming more, rather than less, oppressive—despite the gains in equity and rights that our communities have so arduously achieved. With racism, homophobia, misogyny, and…
While the digital detox has become our primary strategy for dealing with the challenges of digital life, app creator and writer Rohan Gunatillake thinks that our urge to unplug is unfortunate and unnecessary. Like it or not, he says, technology is here to stay and pathologizing our relationship with it is not a sustainable path forward. Instead we can use…
In his most recent book, A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard makes a case for ending our exploitation of non-human animals. If we stopped eating animal products, he says, we could start to alleviate global hunger, significantly reduce our carbon emissions, and improve human health. And,…
From urban planning to animal rights to end-of-life care, Garrison Institute teachers and friends published books on a wide variety of topics in 2016. Below are some of our favorites. Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippett In her popular podcast, On Being, journalist Krista Tippett shares conversations with scientists, theologians, poets, activists,…