To lift myself out of darkness I had to deal with the life that I had. My body was a prison, and my mind a prisoner who had memorized a schedule of submissions to avoid the electrified bars. I could sense my body’s dimensions in the points of pain that decorated my limbs and torso like chains of stretched glass encompassing countless minuscule cracks and burns. To move was to transform one...
There was a time when my body was a great anchor wrapped around my mind, and my mind a tired and hungry mole, hard of sight and seeking the light. I awoke without refreshment, acknowledging the pain and the persistence of time that demanded a whole day before another respite. Every night I would lay down my body to sleep without hope of respite, acknowledging the restlessness and paranoia that...
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about where I’m going with my life, the changes that I desire, and the places (inside and out) that I want to be. Some days I hold on to an amorphous fantasy in my head, a castle in the air of planetary proportions, a benign death star that would prove the infinite potential I (sometimes) feel peeking through the cracks in my chest. I tell myself that even if I...
Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 26/11/2015 I had never experienced any form of yoga before a week. Now I have a week’s experience of a daily habit of a Pawanmuktasana series that focuses on joints. Practically detailed, I have conducted 30min daily...
In a mute house behind a lethargic door on a shelf dressed in dust sits a box. To the box was a key given to a girl who swam in the ocean and chose to sleep in it too. In the box was a tawdry ring given by an Aunt who had not forgotten that plastic can glow like an emerald and be worth its weight in whispered secrets. The ring was found by a sad man making up a couch because he could no longer...
Newton’s first law prophecies a character’s story; the past predicts the future. The changes associated with an existing momentum are to be expected. In which case the path of a man becomes the story of a calculator surfing a leaf buffeted by external winds. But novel changes can occur, as by accumulation of minuscule effects that might be called the strata of maturity and experience...
Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 20/11/2015 This is a variation-on-a-theme. Where I previously wrote on reading Talmud with Levinas, here I revisit the issue, simplifying some aspects, and expanding on the concept and role of will. There is one idea I wish...
I meditate to transform my experiences. What does it mean to know transformation? I have become more familiar with the subtleties of the breath’s sensation – this is the most communicable transformation. It is easy to imagine an increase in awareness in nuances of sensation: the spectrum of a painting, the textures of a carpet, the timbre of a violin. The words point to the distinction: “green”...
Editorial notes: On this day Shai publishes his first post dedicated specifically to Judaism. This is significant as it is the beginning of the fourth phase in Shai’s intellectual journey. After having first devoted a substantial body of writing to scientific inquiry and to the study of ancient and classical Western philosophers, and having recently commenced his study of Eastern Wisdom, Shai...
I intend to attend to the sensation of breath at the nostrils’ rims. I begin with counts, and if the mind settles down so that the numbers are perceived as distractions then I abandon the counts. Every session is different. But some features are familiar. I am familiar with some variations in the breath. I am familiar with some variations in attendance to the breath. I may grasp and direct...
