A Zen Koan for your rumination: One day, Master Xiangyan was sweeping the ground. A pebble swept up by the broom struck a bamboo making a sound: tock! This sound caused him to become suddenly awakened. He hurriedly went home to bathe and burn incense. He traveled to pay obeisance to Guishan, who eulogized this,… Continue reading The Sound of One Tock Clacking
Author: hyattcarter
Down and Out with Millionaires
The following true story is from Laughter and the Sense of Humor, a book by the Freudian analyst Edmund Bergler who also wrote about people enjoying “great masochistic fiestas,” a phrase that still amuses me. I believe he also defined masochism as “victory through defeat.” In any case, here’s the story as told by Bergler:… Continue reading Down and Out with Millionaires
16 June 1904
Today, 16 June, is Bloomsday, an event that is celebrated worldwide in celebration of James Joyce, his book Ulysses, and the hero of the book Leopold Bloom. Here are two passages from Ulysses that make mention of the date: Miss Dunne hid the Capel street library copy of The Woman in White far back in… Continue reading 16 June 1904
Process and Presence
A Poem by Hyatt Carter In the beginning, once upon a void,A pulse, first quantum throb, felt and enjoyed: From the many random emerges one,In dipolar rhythm where before was none;One after another now, pulsing free—A social process of self-creativity. If, in nature, consciousness be the crown,Experience, at least, goes all the way down.In people,… Continue reading Process and Presence
God and the World
Hyatt Carter To discuss how God and the world interact, in Whitehead’s view, it may be helpful to first say a few words about creativity. Creativity is so fundamental an idea in process thought that there are said to be two ultimates: God and creativity. Process denies the idea that only God is creative, or… Continue reading God and the World
The Lowdown from Highup
One of the cleverest religious jokes I’ve ever heard: “Rabbi,” cried the little Jew, “a terrible thing has happened. My son wants to marry a Gentile girl.” “Your son!” replied the Rabbi. “Look at me and my son. Here I am, the leader of the community. Everyone looks up to me as an example, and… Continue reading The Lowdown from Highup
Laughter and the Zen Koan
In the koan collection called Hekiganroku, Case 70 presents a koan called “Kuei Shan Attends on Pai Chang.” There are four sentences in this koan, each sentence followed by a jakugo, or a penetratingly sagacious Zen comment. One thing I find interesting is the first three Chinese characters of the first jakugo: 阿呵呵, meaning Ah-ha-ha!… Continue reading Laughter and the Zen Koan
Assaying Fibonacci’s Golden Section
The title of this musing is the same title I gave to one of the first essays I wrote as a freshmen at Park College. It already shows a penchant for playing with words, for you can, if you are lucky enough to have made a strike, go to an assayer’s office and have your… Continue reading Assaying Fibonacci’s Golden Section
Bā-beatitude of a Smile
Early one morning in a quiet place,God beheld the babe’s smiling face.So enchanted was God by the smile,God paused and tarried there a while. Within the smile God basksAnd bababeling asks,“Just who are you?” “Not one, not two,”Bababbling the babe replies. “Are you girl, are you boy?” “I am both, I am joy.”“Who’s more happy, you or… Continue reading Bā-beatitude of a Smile
The Theorist and the Experimentalist
What is the heart, or core, of science that makes it so powerful? With such dazzling feats as putting men on the moon, science, rather than religion, seems to be the realm where modern miracles routinely take place. One thing that clearly empowers science is its method. The work of science is done by two… Continue reading The Theorist and the Experimentalist