Ep. 135 - Roshi Joan Halifax & “Negative Capability”

Roshi expounds on the transformation of doubt, rootlessness, suffering and meaninglessness into a true “refuge of truth.” At this time of the horrific terror events in Paris, Beirut and Mali, how do we come to terms with severe crisis, either individual or societal? How does the Romantic poet John Keats’s “negative capability” fit into this unavoidable, desperately difficult dynamic of living? Roshi explores the moment of the shock of recognition and how it can change us from the depths. Even the Dalai Lama spoke of those moments of extreme doubt and pain, or as Mr. Dylan sang “Even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked…” Roshi’s upcoming book “Standing At the Edge” is about just this – it’s not all light and love, and yet somehow things can open up after adversity, “the lucky dark” as Roshi wrote.