L'homme est un prison

L’homme est une prison où l’âme reste libre.

-Victor Hugo

Zen teachers

I don't think he would be offended by this.

I've had many Zen teachers in the past, but I keep going back to  my cat, the Zen teacher par excellence, not necessarily the best but the one whose presence I enjoy the most.

"Stay in the present moment," s/he wordlessly says to and reminds me,  "That's where I am."

-my cats


"You make me smile with my heart."
-Lorenz Hart

A Zen teacher can say this but only my cats have lived this so marvelously.

The night

Sometimes you have to work at night when most people are fast asleep...and when and where there is no light at all.  

-Lily H., with a debt to Djuana Barnes, Nightwood and to Goya, Los Caprichos

T & M (and T): Trauma and Medusa and Teacher

Michelangelo da Merisi

It is how we respond to a traumatic event which determines whether trauma will be a cruel and punishing Medusa turning us into stone, or whether it will be a spiritual teacher...


Peter Levine, Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma