Om

I wanted to write a brief entry; there's a fair amount to tell... First of all, my health is good, I'm in almost perfect health, and that makes everything else brighter. Chanting and meditating has been very useful, I usually meditate on the mantras Nam Myoho Renge Kyo; the Medicine Buddha mantra, and the Om Mani Peme Hum mantra, I forget what it's called, but the Jewel is in the Lotus is the meaning, and a few others. In music, I've found a fantastic, beautiful and amazing musician - John Renbourn - and I recommend him heartily to you all. "Little Niles" on Youtube is one of the most incredible pieces of music I've heard (it starts out slow).

I've found a lot of new books as well. . I bought a good number from the library, and the bookstore across the street, and I've ordered some exciting books from Amazon that are half-way arrived. The most noteworthy author I've been reading is Goethe. I have nothing but high praise. I bought [I]Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship[/I] from the bookstore, and I've never read anything this good. It's unparalleled, unexcelled, and pure genius. I only looked today at Goethe's Wikipedia article and read Arthur Schopenhaur rated it as one of the four best novels in existence. I first read Goethe's novel [I]The Sorrows of Young Werther[/I] (transl. Burton Pike) when I was 19, and it was as important to me as any book I'd read. Now I'm more and more intrigued by him, and I ordered two more, part of the same series. Besides Goethe, I also bought books by Carl Sagan; [I]The Intelligent Investor[/I] by B. Graham; [I]Rational Zen[/I] (trans. and edited by Thomas Cleary), which is selections of Dogen Zenji's two seminal works; as well as Herman Melville. . .

I've also gotten back into listening to Dharma Talks; by Tara Brach, and tonight I'm downloading Thich Nhat Hanh's again. . . Both of these two individuals are extremely wise, insightful and intelligent, and I believe peaceful and compassionate. At least their impact on me has been immeasurably good. Tara's got a website with all her talks, and Thay you can find at this link. . .
[Edit: the link I gave isn't the best; a lot of the talks are significantly edited with music... you'll have to search for Thay if you want to listen. . . however Tara's got her own website, which is very good and has a large number of talks. You can find those here: [url]http://www.tarabrach.com/[/url] I do hope some people search for Thay's (Thich Nhat Hanh's) dharma talks too, they are truly unexcelled. I believe he's one of the wisest, most intelligent and insightful people on the planet.]




They download very quickly, so there's really no reason not to do so!

I've also borrowed a book by Xenophon about Socrates from a friend. So far it's extremely good, and I definitely recommend it.

Until next time, Om Tare Tuttare . . .