Literature and fate

Jorge Luis Borges notes (in his Norton Lectures) that in literature we respond not so much to plot and setting as character, specifically to the well-crafted an...

Sentiment and hermits

In his poem “Old Age,” the poet Ou Yang Hsui (1007-1072) tells briefly of the burdens of getting sick when old: dry, dull eyes, aches, a fuzzy brain dull an...

Zen sayings

Eremitism East and West has often used pithy sayings to capture the essence of spiritual motives, to provide a useful tool of focus for the practicing hermit. T...

Paradise

In ancient languages, including Persian, Babylonian, Hebrew, and Greek, the root for the word “paradise” means “garden.” The enclosed garden of antiquit...

“Dis-ease”

The term “disease” is today used exclusively to refer to a medical condition, specifically an absence of correct or healthy function. The root word ...

Jung on aging

In his essay “The Stages of Life,” C. G. Jung describes consciousness as the source of our “problem,” contrasted with nature and instinct. For modern ti...

C. S. Lewis on pain

In 1940, writer C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) published a little book titled The Problem of Pain. Written as a Christian apology, the work addresses its topic in an e...