“It’s not about the chocolate, it’s about the chocolate.” — Shawn Askinosie (A musing inspired by Shawn Askinosie’s story about Belgium beer brewing monks and the parables of Jesus) There once was a monastery in Belgium that was famous in its county for its delicious beer. And at the same time, on the other side of Belgium there was a Greedy Young Capitalist who was gifted a bottle of this beer. Upon tasting it for the first time, the Greedy Young Capitalist had an idea. So, the Greedy Young Capitalist set out for the monastery, and after days of travel, …
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Prairie Eye and Woods Eye
“There are two eyes in the human head–the eye of mystery, and the eye of harsh truth–the hidden and the open–the woods eye and the prairie eye.” – Bill Holm I have fondness for people who belong to a place; whether city or a landscape. They tend speak in a particular way or with a certain cadence. Knowledgeable about particulars that tourists overlook. There was a writer from the Minnesota prairies named Bill Holm. who translates this sense of belonging to a landscape into perspective, a metaphor for our vision of reality. Bill Holm writes*, Holm later admits that he …
Sitting on the Present Moment
“The gift of becoming aware of the simple, astonishing beauty of anything, even as we recognize that it, and we along with it, will one day be no more. This moment of awareness holds everything.” – Douglas Christie I want to muse about the line “this moment of awareness holds everything” and how it spun me round in relationship between my sitting practice and the fierce reality of the present moment. I think the present moment gets shortchanged by lazy quips and sophomoric slogans – YOLO and all the rest. And sitting practice can be misunderstood just as easily… it …