Tag Archives: desire

The Terrible Toos (Too Fat, Too Poor, Too Old…)

Posted on May 2, 2015 by

Too this, too that. Theatrical, but moving. Might bring tears. __________ Watching Jade Beall’s TED talk on body hatred recalled for me the general problem of human suffering described by John Koller in Asian Philosophies (2007, p. 9, fifth edition): … Continue reading →

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Theorizing Desire

Posted on August 29, 2013 by

If you think about it, we respond to whatever arises into consciousness with desire, aversion, or neutrality. And the things that appear to consciousness are always in flux: they arise, they ripen, they decline from attention and disappear. Then others … Continue reading →

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Thinking about Obsession and Compulsion

Posted on February 9, 2013 by

It’s that locked down quality that I’m thinking of, like a bulldog latched and focused on a limb. Dante, in his Inferno, sets the obsessive and compulsive in the outer circles of hell. The obsessive and compulsive are not as … Continue reading →

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What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?

Posted on June 1, 2012 by

__________ The above video is amusing, but also raises an interesting question: what is it, exactly, that’s wrong with bestiality? Notice that the perpetrator isn’t getting it on with women and fantasizing about animals; instead, he’s getting it on with … Continue reading →

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The Tortoise Shell, the Umbrella, and Hindu Meditation

Posted on June 30, 2010 by

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna (Barbara Miller’s translation, pt. 2 stanzas 55-58): When he [the yogi] gives up desires in his mind, is content with the self within himself, then he is said to be a man whose insight … Continue reading →

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Two lives, no books

Posted on May 2, 2010 by

This post comes from a brief exchange that I overheard, at a garage sale, yesterday morning. A man and a woman, both looking to be in their forties, paused at the same moment and gazed down into a box of books that was for … Continue reading →

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Dialing for Love: She Wanted Miracle, Mystery, and Authority

Posted on March 3, 2009 by

This today in Spiegel: A German woman looking for love dialled the emergency police line 13 times saying she wanted to meet a policeman. And her wish came true — two officers arrived to disable her phone.

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“I Sought the Light”: A Poem by Santi Tafarella

Posted on July 26, 2008 by

  My heart, she said,   it goes out to you   like a pinched wick.

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Image of a Woman, in Solitude, Reading a Letter

Posted on July 8, 2008 by

Solider. Mother. Father. Son. Lover. Husband. Friend. Daughter. Sister. Brother. Stranger. Clergyman. Aquantance. Who is the letter from? Is she reading a letter sent to her, or spying words sent to another? In her solitude, as she reads, does she hear the person’s voice in her head? Is … Continue reading →

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