Question for Scott Morrison: Long Retreat

 August 4, 2007

Dear Scott, 

I’ve been busy the past few weeks looking for a house that I’d planned to buy and live in with my girlfriend. But it all fell apart last weekend when I decided that the house was just one more thing that wouldn’t make me happy and I’d have to put off a long retreat even further.  

Catcher in the Rye: Sensitive Ernie

The Catcher in the Rye is a story by J.D. Salinger, partially published in serial form in 1945–1946 and as a novel in 1951. The novel's protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon of teenage rebellion. Catcher in the Rye pdf 

Scott Morrison: Life, On This Breath

Now is our only chance to be happy, to be at peace.

Zen Motorcycles and Old Salamano's Dog

Two of my favorite books are The Stranger by Albert Camus (pdf) and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (pdf).

Albert Camus: Old Salamano and his Dog

Albert Camus was a French philosopher. He focused most of his philosophy around existential questions. The absurdity of life, the inevitable ending (death) is highlighted in his acts, his belief that the absurd – life being void of meaning, or man's inability to know that meaning if it were to exist – was something that man should embrace. 

Scott Morrison: Awareness

Thinking about awareness is not awareness.

Conformity

Ideally, what should be said to every child repeatedly,

throughout his or her school life is something like this: 

Zen Story: In His Time of Dying

A Zen teacher was on his deathbed. 

His student asked if he had any last words.

The master replied, “I am afraid of dying.” 

i sing of Olaf glad and big

 i sing of Olaf glad and big (link)

E. E. Cummings - 1894-1962

e. e.cummings

i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or

Politics: Tiny Trinkets

One cannot impose a dynamic, expansive, metaphysical

vision of existence on timid minds who crave the miniature, 

like porcelain bibelots of frogs and sparrows. 

Camille Paglia: Free Women, Free Men page 257-8 (Goodreads).