Just sitting

My mind is a mess, full of anxiety and worry. Sometimes just sitting, as though I were in meeting, seems to calm me down. I need to stop, and become quieter. Yesterday, I played music with A, and it was the high point of my week.

On not finding Buddhism useful for me

For some reason I am finding Buddhist books less and less inspirational or useful for me. I think that I would have found Buddhist philosophy very helpful when I was younger. These days I need a philosophy that emphasizes personality and creation.

Keeping silence in the car, instead of turning on the radio.

A completely silent meeting today

Today our meeting was completely silent; that happens more commonly than not. But I had a very hard time keeping my mind from bouncing all over the place.

Means and ends

The lesson I learned this weekend was from Bayrd Rustin: your means shapes your end. That is why you need to be very mindful about what means you use, and why nonviolence is not just a tactic.

Hay Quaker

I've been following a wonderful Quaker blog
at Hay Quaker.

Personalism and Berdyaev

Berdyaev was a favorite of a college friend, but I had never read anything by him. I like a great deal of what he says and have some quotes to put on "commonplace book" blog. He is a "personalist" like many Catholic intellectuals later. Personalism is, I think, a great gift of these thinkers, people like Dorothy Day.