Dharma Roads

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In this extended episode I take an exploratory wander through a number of themes and associations – all of which are somehow connected to the image of Venice as a place where people have met, traded and gone off on their travels to all parts of the globe. This notion of a cosmopolitan meeting of people I associate with another observation: that people’s minds are intermingling as well as their bodies. The city is a place where they open their minds to each other, opening windows into each other’s lives – swopping stories and ideas in a great communal marketplace of imagining and minding. The next step in my wandering and wondering is to recognise that in a sense we are all like Venice – we are constituted out of innumerable strands of thought and feeling - webs of connection with all the people we have met, all the songs we have heard, all the stories we have read and images we have seen – and all the places in which we have walked and sat and breathed. Hence my title, Intermingling minds: a Venetian rendezvous. Because I refer to many philosophers and writers in this episode, you may like to take breaks along the way and perhaps take a look at the transcript with its bibliography. I hope you enjoy the journey.

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This episode is in two parts. In Part One I explore some ideas about beauty, both those that define beauty as an ideal or transcendent quality, and those that consider beauty as an experience and mode of attention. I discuss concepts of beauty that focus on perfection and permanence and those that focus on imperfection and impermanence. In Part Two I offer a poetic alternative rendering of what I have said in Part One – hopefully evoking experiences of beauty in the images, rhythms and sound of music and words.

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In this episode I talk about the very influential Japanese Zen teacher, Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), and also say a little about an earlier Chinese teacher, Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157) whom Dogen respected and quoted many times. I describe some of the key ideas of Dogen’s teacher, Rujing (1163–1228), as they are a major influence on Dogen’s approach to Zen meditation. I also discuss their important contributions to the development of Zen Buddhism and say why I think their teachings are still of relevance today. Once more, apologies for my Chinese and Japanese mis-pronunciation!

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In this episode I share some thoughts about what I have learnt from zazen practice and how it has come to be so central to my life. In my experience, zazen (Zen meditation) is a very creative, expansive and revitalising activity. The mind seems to open naturally to fresh understandings and shifts of perspective - as if windows and doors open, allowing the cool breeze of thoughts, feelings and sensations to flow unhindered.

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In this extended episode I talk about the American poet, Charles Reznikoff, and about the two movements or trends in modern poetry with which he was associated - ‘imagism’ and ‘objectivism’ – and which help us to understand something of Reznikoff’s beliefs and approach as a poet. Please note: one of the poems quoted in the talk is titled, Holocaust, and contains disturbing verbatim accounts from the Nuremberg Military Tribunal of atrocities committed during the Second World War.

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In this episode I explore ideas about nirvana, awakening and what we mean by ‘the self,’ as described in the Buddhist traditions founded by Gotama Buddha - whom scholars reckon may have lived around 400 BCE. I suggest that awakening and ourselves are processes, rather than fixed states or things, and that we can cultivate them through mindful awareness or Zen meditation. Rather than being accessible only to a few people endowed with special powers, awakening is an art we can all learn and benefit from. I hope you will find it to be of interest, and maybe helpful, as you navigate along your own Dharma road.

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In this extended episode I talk about another American poet, essayist and environmental activist, Gary Snyder. You might like to take a break in the middle!

As I mentioned in Episode 34 both Snyder and Kenneth Rexroth explore the natural world in their work – literally, as hikers through the American landscape, and in their poetry and other writings. Snyder, who is now in his nineties, spent a lot of time with Rexroth in the 1950s and for a while Rexroth was something of a mentor to the younger poet. 

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The brevity of life and the nature of time are topics that humans have puzzled over for at least two thousand years – and probably for as long as our species has walked the earth. In this episode I want to offer a few thoughts on these matters and on the mysterious phenomenon we refer to as ‘the present moment.’ What I have to say is rooted in my experience of zazen, Zen meditation, and in my study of Buddhist thought and other philosophical traditions. The practice of zazen is the practice of bare attention – just being here, being present.

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In this extended episode I suggest a few avenues of exploration concerning the arts as agencies of dialogue and how the arts can offer a model for how inter-religious dialogue might be developed and maintained. I offer some examples of the ways in which artworks and approaches to artmaking and appreciation can be considered as modes of conversation and as vehicles for sharing religious insights and experiences. I also introduce Edmund Burke’s ideas about the ‘sublime’ and suggest how feelings of awe and wonder can be shared experiences within arts and religious contexts. I hope you will find the episode to be interesting and, perhaps, useful.

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In this extended episode, I talk about the ideas and insights of two thinkers, David Hume who lived in the eighteenth century, and Isaiah Berlin, who died in 1997. They both offer us interesting thoughts about human nature, what we mean by ‘the self’ and how to enshrine multiple personal freedoms and rights within a vibrant society. Both writers argue for tolerance and benign scepticism. I also suggest some connections between their ideas and those of Gotama Buddha.