hum

In the middle of a particularly busy day, the emperor was driven to a meeting hall for an appointment of some kind. But when he arrived, there was no one there. The emperor walked into the middle of the great hall, stood silently for a moment, then bowed to the empty space. He turned to his assistants, a large smile on his face. “We must schedule more appointments like this.”

The Tao of Pooh

Without Sicily, Italy cannot be fully understood.

For where exactly, geographically, is Israel? It is the only nation on earth which does not know and will not declare where its eastern frontier is.

Our job is to become more and more of what we are. The growth of a poet seems to be related to his or her becoming less and less embarrassed about more and more.

So at the end of the film I got up, and I was terribly British, I said, ‘So, who kind of liked the movie?’ And about a third of them put up their hands, and I thought, ‘Oh shit.’ So I said, ‘OK, who kind of didn’t like it?’ Two people. And I said, ‘Well, what else is there?’ And a guy in the front said, ‘Ask who really liked the movie.’ So I did, and they all put up their hands. And I thought, ‘Thank you, God.’

Dharma uses the word “God” with the frequency of a televangelist. It’s his way of reminding students that yoga isn’t gymnastics. Where other teachers urge students to “rotate the thighs inward” or “engage the quadriceps,” Dharma offers this instruction for refining postures: “Now, think of God.”