Sunday, March 9, 2014

Don't They Know?

Here's a recent interview with yours truly published by the terrific Buddhist magazine TRICYCLE. I sat down with two lovely monks, Koshin and Chodo, who've been my friends for years now. They direct, through the Village Zendo in Manhattan, a program called Contemplative Care, training volunteers in the art of being present with the ill and the dying. They are men of generosity and vision, and seemingly boundless good  humor, and through the training work they do they pass their gifts on to many.


3 comments:

Alan said...

Difficult to comment on such a personal conversation. Buddhism is so difficult - all that attention; all that having to be both present and absent at the same time - but you reminded me of the value of it; of the value, too, of trying to see things properly. It's what your poetry does. Thanks for this: beautiful and moving and helpful, too.

Mark Doty said...

Thanks, Tom. What a nuanced, complex thing attention turns out to be!

Unknown said...

Hi Mark,

Have only just seen this. Loved your comment about having to slow down to read a poem. For me, poems are acts of attention and can take me away from the scattered nature of most of my experience.