Yom Kippur - Day of Atonement

Today and tomorrow I will be away from the blog for Yom Kippur also known as the Day of Atonement. In accordance to local custom there will be no traffic, no commerce and no media. The kids will take control of the highways with their bicycles and even if we do not fast, we will have to pass the time without the regular bustle of every day life. Instituted contemplation - something can be said for it.

See you again on Saturday evening or Sunday morning,

Anne

AHOW is back again

In case you had not yet noticed, make your way to the feed and get this week's new arrivals at A History of the World in 100 Objects (BBC) in one feel swoop.

It will allow you to enjoy this show in the way I think is the most delightful. Each week gives five issues along that week's theme and if you pile them up over the week, you will get the whole flow of thought and the interlocking connections more clear and in a pleasant 70 minutes or so.

This week's theme is The Threshold of the Modern World (1375-1550 AD) and it contains examples from China, South-America, the Ottoman Empire, Central Asia and Europe. It was an era of large Asian and American empires. In contrast the fringe area of Europe was an unruly and divided backwater. Yet it was here in Europe that maritime powers were springing up and casting a shadow forward of new empires to come.

More AHOW:
Returned from hiatus: A History of the World in 100 Objects,
Indus Seal,
First AHOW Review.

Jack Kornfield - Zencast

Over the years I have always picked the occasional issue from the Buddhist podcast Zencast. While these contain meditations and Dharma teachings they are also sufficiently accessible for the non-Buddhist with either a spiritual or a psychological and philosophical interest. My favorite speaker has mostly been Gil Fronsdal, but recently I discovered, and much enjoyed, Jack Kornfield. (feed)

Check out the last two talks, #265 on the joys of the awakened heart and #275 on Redemption. Kornfield has a very pleasant voice, good sense of humor and combines a nice sense of self-deprecation with fine story-telling in his lectures which are very insightful. The joy lies in the listening, the free picking and choosing from what is discussed and undergoing the talk as a meditation in itself.

More Zencast:
Engaging in the path,
Gil Fronsdal on speech,
Right effort,
Mindfulness,
Not knowing.