Transcendenz
-
Care-Free Wandering (Zhuangzi)
[PREVIOUS] Responsive to Skillful Attention Following the river where it bends—not because rivers knowbut because bending is what rivers dowhen they meet the unmovable. After months of decluttering awareness through Nagarjuna’s emptiness and learning to show up with skillful attention,… Continue reading
-
Mountain dog school for living philosophy
The Mountain Dog School for Living Philosophy promotes philosophy as a way of life, inviting individuals from diverse backgrounds to explore existential questions through dialogue and reflection. Its mission emphasizes personal engagement in philosophizing, fostering authenticity, self-actualization, and meaningful relationships… Continue reading
-
Into the Breath Between Strangers
the thread of life weaves weird wandering moments Continue reading
-
Responsive to skillful attention
The concept of discernment is vital for cultivating awareness, as it involves skillfully distinguishing experiences without over-determining or under-determining. This harmonizes extremes to avoid the fall into nihilism and eternalism. Simultaneously, it reawakens the empty yet interconnected nature of all… Continue reading
-
Showing-Up for Emptiness: Excellence Between Obsession and Apathy
The concept of “showing-up” emphasizes active existence over passive presence. It involves intentional engagement with the world, others, and oneself. By exploring the balance between appetite, emotion, and intellect through the lens of askēsis, individuals can cultivate a deeper, responsive… Continue reading
-
thrown upward
certainty;s chains vanishI and not-I emptying out distinctions build obedientprisons masquerading as knowledge swinging freelybeing/non-being melt each othercause/effect swallow each other fracturing compositionno independenceno permanenceno claim world resetsin the wake of unholding Continue reading
-
A Fourfold for the Current Empire
I explore the concept of “transistance,” a practice of navigating life’s complexities without adhering to rigid frameworks. It emphasizes the importance of embracing ambiguity and interdependence, while rejecting traditional revolutionary approaches. I propose it is a first step of a… Continue reading
-
Whispering New Directions
The text explores the concept of the practical spirit, emphasizing three modes: contemplative, scientific, and operative. It critiques the dominance of operationalism in modern society, linking it to systemic dehumanization. I advocatesfor “transistance” to navigate beyond established orientations and connect… Continue reading
-
Haibun 06Jul25: Reading, Authority, and Reason
When I was young, I thought books were keys to the vault of answers. If I read enough, deeply enough, I’d know what to think. I mistook tradition for commandment. Decades later, I sit among these same volumes—dog-eared, underlined, marked… Continue reading
-
Philosophical Faith in the World: Neither Sinner nor Consumer
Karl Jaspers small text provides us in 2025 with a manual of quiet defiance. For queer and other marginalized thinkers, educators, counselors, and all who remain exposed in the neoliberal storm winds, Jaspers offers us Way to reassert the soft power… Continue reading
-
Reversion, Reconciliation, and Restoration: Toward Tranquility in the Current Empire
Looking Back Almost twenty years ago, I began troubling the word peace. Like many of us, I had long imagined peace as the cessation of violence, the arrival of stillness, the mutual exhale after the fire. But something in the… Continue reading
-
Beings of Enlightened Belief Are We…
Surely some of us are tired. As I get older, as my spouse gets older, we are often very tired. Very exhausted. It can be overwhelming. But what helps us—how we frankly help each other as friends find freedom—is reminding… Continue reading
-
Siren Song Society: Profound Boredom – Authentic Leisure – Existential Liberation
offer these connections to encourage people to be okay with boredom–to not see every break in labor or in study or in whatever as requiring us to find something to amuse ourselves into utter alienated distraction. Continue reading
-
APHORISM 01Oct2023
The Divine Good, being omniscient, can never forget. But as Good Being, chooses to not remember, letting-go of condemnation in the face of honest repentance. When we forgive ourselves for our actions–for all we have done that we should not… Continue reading
-
The Devil and Thomas Jefferson
America is ruled by Mammon wearing the skin of Christian Nationalist Jesus. But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost… Continue reading
-
Finding unexpected meanings
Take care with how you read but do not be afraid to find new interpretations. Continue reading
-
Ready… set… leap!
Obviously, folks make leaps all the time: they leap for real joy, they leap to invalid conclusions, they leap into bad deals, etc. So a distinction must be drawn between springing-forth from the solid ground of critical experience (the dance… Continue reading
-
Aphorism 25Mar2023
If I am willing to be open to the uncertainty of being in the lifeworld alongside all these others also struggling toward liberation, I must never forget: Evolution is neither preservation of the status quo nor conservation of the familiar;… Continue reading
CALL ME MAGGIE 