Knee-deep in The Way

New Year's Eve comes on Sol's day … and the Watercourse continues to deposit in the mailbox:

The last retrograde of the year continues to Jan. 1, 2024. To help with some of the shifting going on under the Mercurial umbrella: Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don’t need to be done. – Andy Rooney.

Today in 1857, Ottawa, Ontario was named the capital of Canada by Queen Victoria.

Birthdays today:

Actors Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Kingsley were born on this date. Hopkins, born in 1937, Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales, turns 86; Kingsley, born in 1943 Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, turns 80 today.

And, often regarded as the most important French painter of the 20th century, Henri Matisse was born on this date in 1869 Le Cateau, Picardy, France.

With the middle East on the edge of confligration, Mirabai Starr offered a Sabbath blessing for our “not knowing.”

Fearlessness is what love seeks. Love as craving is determined by its goal, and this goal is freedom from fear… Such fearlessness exists only in the complete calm that can no longer be shaken by events expected of the future… Hence the only valid tense is the present. – Hanna Arendt, Love and Saint Augustine, (transl. and ed.) University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (April 26, 1998)

Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand, you can’t love. – Thích Nhất Hạnh, How to Love, Parallax Press; Reprint edition (December 1, 2014)

So what does Thay (Hanh's affectionate nickname) mean when he says “understand” ? First, it is a word, and as a word it is a metaphor. It stands for something other than its symbolic nature. To “understand” is both physical and psychological in nature. Contrary to standard use, to stand under is to step back from what one presupposes. Love is unconditional. One cannot love if one already has a notion of what that love is. Only by stepping back from that a prior definition can you allow love to teach you what it really is.

In the coming year, may each of us “step back” to experience “the beginner’s mind” at least once .