dan collier

Once Seung Sahn Soen-sa and a student of his attended a talk at a Zen center in California. The Dharma teacher spoke about Bodhidharma. After the talk, someone asked him “What’s the difference between Bodhidharma’s sitting in Sorim for nine years and your sitting here now?”

The Dharma teacher said, “About five thousand miles.”
The questioner said, “Is that all?”
The Dharma teacher said, “Give or take a few miles.”

Later on, Soen-sa asked his student, “What do you think of these answers?”
“Not bad, not good. But the dog runs after the bone.”
“How would you answer?”
“I’d say, ‘Why do you make a difference?’ “

Soen-sa said, “Not bad. Now you ask me.”
“What’s the difference between Bodhidharma’s sitting in Sorim for nine years and your sitting here now?”
“Don’t you know?”
“I’m listening.”
“Bodhidharma sat in Sorim for nine years. I am sitting here now.”

The student smiled.

Seung Sahn, Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, Chapter 87

Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.

This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man’s life, detail is always welcome.

That is the start to one of the best novels I have read in years, Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov. First published in 1932 in Russian, Nabokov translated the English version in 1938. Later Nabokov wrote in great detail on the theme of unwieldy passion and its consequences in Lolita, but I preferred the sparse style and quick pace of this story.

Newsweek has an interesting book excerpt that explores the role of Harry Truman in the founding of the state of Israel. The book is Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989. Without discounting the validity of a Jewish state or Truman’s good intentions, I’m not sure I would classify this particular series of decisions as courageous. Unless we’re using Churchill’s definition:

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
– Winston Churchill

To skip all the ads and pagination, you might try the print version.