#Patty de Llosa

[bodyalive]

Natalie Wood in dance rehearsal, WEST SIDE STORY film, 1961.

* * * *

"The body is an instrument, and unlike the mind is blessed with a permanent limitation. Thoughts can soar and emotions can roar, but the feet are subject to laws that keep them on the ground. The body lives in the present, doing only one thing at a time. It is a faithful companion in the search for presence when it is given more attention and respect, when one tries to listen to its messages, even though they are expressed in a language foreign to the mind."

--Patty de Llosa, "Befriending the Body," PARABOLA, VOLUME 29, NO. 4, WINTER 2004: FRIENDSHIP. [parabolamagazine]

[carljungdepthpsychology]

Coming Down to Earth by Patty de Llosa

Carl Jung Depth Psychology Facebook Group Patty De Llosa (Lef) and Marion Woodman (Right) Connecting to the energies that ground and nourish Coming Down to Earth by Patty de Llosa   Earth’s crammed with heaven…. But only he who sees takes off his shoes. —Elizabeth Barrett Browning When I’m in need of more energy, whether for soul-searching or to complete the tasks of the day, I am often faced…

[wisegardenbluebird]

JOSÉ DONOSO, EL NOVELISTA IGNORADO DEL BOOM

Se cumple el primer centenario del escritor chileno Francisco R. Pastoriza          Habitualmente la muerte de un escritor se utiliza para rendirle homenaje póstumo y elogiar su obra literaria. Así se hizo cuando murió el chileno José Donoso en 1996. Sin embargo, la imagen que ha prevalecido de él en los últimos años es la que recoge la descarnada biografía que su hija Pilar Donoso publicó en…

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[from my files:: Rubin Museum]

* * * *

[parabolamagazine]

"The body is an instrument, and unlike the mind is blessed with a permanent limitation. Thoughts can soar and emotions can roar, but the feet are subject to laws that keep them on the ground. The body lives in the present, doing only one thing at a time. It is a faithful companion in the search for presence when it is given more attention and respect, when one tries to listen to its messages, even though they are expressed in a language foreign to the mind." 

--Patty de Llosa, "Befriending the Body," PARABOLA, VOLUME 29, NO. 4, WINTER 2004: FRIENDSHIP.

[lioninsunheart]

Finding Joy: The Science of Happiness, by Patty de Llosa Excerpt:

"Perhaps Rumi said it best: 'Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.' We need to get the job done, always arguing, processing, affirming, condemning, criticizing, rest for the anguished heart, seeking meaning in a confused world full of conflicting demands, we are caught out because, in spite of all our good intentions, we're sure to get it wrong again.

One path to Rumi Or to attend to the sound of silence itself. This space between doings and achievings is non-invasive. It doesn't demand action, but provides nourishment. We could call for endless time, where we have to do, get stuff done, realize a potential, serve as a cause, help a friend. The fact is, endless time is always there - when we have sense enough to lay down our perceived burdens. If I can give up momentary problems that seem so important, I know immediate, I know real, then I will find myself immersed in another order of reality — the world of sound, touch, taste, smell, and unrecognized feelings. That could be where joy begins. "

-Patty de Llosa-

https://parabola.org/2017/05/06/finding-joy-the-neuroscience-of-happiness-by-patty-de-llosa/?fbclid=IwAR3x5Tuil_ecNBXuF1mANvQZTBZXhcwdszrR-w2zwSCIuH1Omgq_ZP4qPiY

[parabola-magazine]

Story editor Betsy Cornwell retells the Irish myth of Neasa the Ungentle, and looks at Patty de Llosa’s introduction to Marion Woodman’s concepts of how the conscious feminine can birth the divine child, in this episode of Parabola magazine's free monthly podcast.

Listen here.

[flintism]

books read - 2022

novels & short stories

crime and punishment, dostoevsky (/r)

** ****** *’*** *******, p.v. 

the left hand of darkness, ursula k. le guin (/r)

eugene onegin, pushkin 

les misérables I & II, victor hugo 

le blé en herbe, colette 

adolphe, benjamin constant 

play boy, constance debré 

love me tender, constance debré

nom, constance debré 

normal people, sally rooney 

histoires de la nuit, laurent mauvignier 

tu réclamais le soir, fabrice colin 

une adolescente, lolita pille 

apprendre à finir, laurent mauvignier 

le signal, sophie poirier 

des hommes, laurent mauvignier

hell, lolita pille (/r) 

quatre-vingt treize, victor hugo 

autour du monde, laurent mauvignier 

le jeune homme, annie ernaux 

la direction de l’absent, ruth zylberman 

jan karski, yannick haenel 

the lost: a search for six of six million, daniel mendelsohn 

miarka, antoine de meaux 

night, edgar hilsenrath 

histoire de la violence, edouard louis 

an odyssey. a father, a son and an epic, daniel mendelsohn 

fatelessness, imre kertész

three rings: a tale of exile, narrative, and fate, daniel mendelsohn 

fiasco, imre kertész 

last witnesses, svetlana alexievitch 

liquidation, imre kertész 

autumn, ali smith 

brave new world, aldous huxley 

night, elie wiesel (/r)

the amazing adventures of kavalier & clay, michael chabon 

catch-22, joseph heller

HHhH, laurent binet 

flaubert’s parrot, julian barnes 

just kids, patti smith 

black boy, richard wright 

beloved, toni morrison (/r) 

a burning, megha majumdar 

winter, ali smith 

the sense of an ending, julian barnes

the year of the monkey, patti smith 

the man who lived underground, richard wright 

spring, ali smith

la ville et les chiens, mario vargas llosa 

les gagnants, julio cortàzar 

les armes secrètes, julio cortàzar

la maison verte, mario vargas llosa 

la fête au bouc, mario vargas llosa 

conquistadors, éric vuillard 

confabulations, john berger 

on photography, susan sontag 

l’ordre du jour, éric vuillard 

une sortie honorable, éric vuillard 

façons de perdre, julio cortàzar

14 juillet, éric vuillard 

tous les feux le feu, julio cortàzar

léon l’africain, amin maalouf 

les filles bleues de l’été, mikella nicol 

congo, éric vuillard 

tristesse de la terre, éric vuillard 

******* ********** 

l’espèce humaine, robert antelme (/r) 

feu, maria pourchet 

m train, patti smith 

l’enfant du danube, jános, székely 

l’étrangère, sándor márai

drive your plow over the bones of the dead,  olga tokarczuk

the light we carry, michelle obama 

theatre & poetry

time is a mother, ocean vuong 

antigone, anouilh (/r)

the hurting kind, ada limón

l’hôte venu du futur, anna akhmatova 

élégies du nord / les secrets du métier, anna akhmatova 

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

“Perhaps Rumi said it best: ‘Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.’ We all need to find that field beyond guilt and responsibility, beyond sin and redemption, where there’s rest for the busy mind, always arguing, elaborating, affirming, condemning, criticizing; rest for the anguished heart, seeking meaning in a confused world full of conflicting demands; and rest from the insidious fear that we’ll be caught out because, in spite of all our good intentions, we’re sure to get it wrong again.

One path to Rumi’s field is to listen to the spaces between the many words we say and hear. Or to attend to the sound of silence itself. This space between doing and achieving is non-invasive. It doesn’t demand action, but provides nourishment. We could call it endless time, where we feel cared for, liberated from the sense that we must perform, get stuff done, realize a potential, serve a cause, help a friend. The fact is, endless time is always there—ready to flood in whenever we have sense enough to lay down our perceived burdens. If I can give up for a moment the problems that seem so important, so immediate, so real, then I will find myself immersed in another order of reality—the world of sound, touch, taste, smell, and unrecognized feelings. That could be where joy begins.“

— Patty de Llosa

[hayingsang]

What I read last year

Favourite book of 2019 – Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of The Aeneid. I wasn’t prepared for just how exciting this story was. Fantastic from start to end, even when you know what’s going to happen next. I also hugely enjoyed Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, not least for her excellent introduction and its highlighting of lots of stuff to watch out for (especially all those brutal killings when Odysseus finally makes it home), and Pat Barker’s retelling of the Iliad from the point of view of Briseis, the young woman seized by Achilles to be his bed slave after her city is sacked during the siege of Troy.

Most exciting book – Eve Babitz’s Slow Days, Fast Company, her 1977 account of life in early 1970s Los Angeles. Also perhaps the most “masterly” book I’ve read in a long time – in my experience, most writing involves the writer getting it out there, usually using techniques they’ve built up over time; through SDFC’s collection of tales I felt I was reading what Babitz had decided was most appropriate for her readers to know. Extraordinary control. Loved it.

I would pair that with Patti Smith’s Just Kids, about her and Robert Mapplethorpe making themselves into artists in the very late 1960s/early 1970s New York – which feels like the total opposite of Babitz, ie Smith telling it how it was. Not particularly caring for her music – I loathed Horses as a 16-year-old – I was surprised how much I enjoyed/learned from her account of her life after she left home, struggling first to get by, then to make art, all as part of what was clearly a very special relationship.

Lara Alcock’s Mathematics Rebooted was my biggest learning experience – a wonderful journey through the elements of mathematics, beginning each chapter with something basic then taking it up past the point where most non-mathematician readers would fall off to something beyond. Every chapter I both learned something and found out what there was yet to learn.

As in 2018, I read four books in Chinese. Actually, two in “standard” Chinese and two in Cantonese. The Cantonese ones were a treat – a translation of The Little Prince and 香港語��: 聽陳蕾士嘅秘密, a collection of 20 Chinese essays and one Chinese poem translated into Cantonese. Who says it’s not a language of its own? Not the four writers who did the translations. The two others, a collection of essays from the early to mid 2000s by Chan Koonchung and a book-format edition of Being Hong Kong about various Hong Kong things (City Hall at 50, some food stuff, some Cantonese opera stuff, etc) were also worthwhile. Neither quite merit being translated into English, but both give a flavour of the things that exercise people in Hong Kong (or Chan’s case, of the things which exercised them in the early 2000s – a much more gentle set of concerns than those that bother them now).

Among the novels, Manjushree Thapa’s The Tutor of History was a standout. Set in the 1990s Nepal, it pulled off an astonishing feat of describing from scratch a society which most of us will never know. Sheila Heti’s Motherhood, a meditation mostly about whether to have a child or not, was also excellent in catching the feel of a person at a very specific and important juncture of her life.

Timothy Morton was an important discovery, especially Humankind. He tackles the question of what does it mean to be living now – in the Anthropocene, at a time when human beings are destroying many other living things and doing huge damage to much non-living stuff and comes up with some new answers – that maybe we have to take ourselves both more seriously and see ourselves as of rather less importance than we might like to think, especially when it comes to all those other living and non-things and stuff. Kind of practical in a bizarre way.

Walter Scheidel’s The Great Leveler and Francis Fukuyama’s Political Order and Political Decay are two tremendous overviews of where our societies have come from. Scheidel’s argument that throughout history, peace and economic growth have always led to ever-widening inequality poses a big challenge to the world. Fukuyama’s suggestion, continuing from The Origins of Political Order, that countries should build institutions before adding democracy points to another conclusion that merits serious thought.

Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit was my motivational book of the year. I would imagine it would be useful for anyone who has to come up with ideas and carry them through to completion.

Finally, Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish’s Siblings Without Rivalry is a terrific book about what to do when your children say they want each other to die. Like the one other great book about raising children I’ve read – Ross Gree’s The Explosive Child – it’s not about what you should get your children to do, it’s about what you should do. Gree’s single greatest point – one I think I took to heart – is that when there’s one angry person in the room, try not to make it two. Faber & Mazlish’s is don’t try to solve the problem yourself, just try and get those children to say (or even better write down) what’s bothering them about their brother/sister. Once that’s out in the open, they may even figure out what to do about it themselves. We tried it and – trust me – it worked.

The complete list

JR McNeill & Peter Engelke, The Great Acceleration

Frank Pieke, Knowing China

Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind

Susan Cain, Quiet

Ray Dalio, Principles

Lara Alcock, Mathematics Rebooted

Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Leo Goodstadt, A City Mismanaged

Timothy Morton, Being Ecological

Pat Barker, The Ghost Road

Martin Rees, Our Final Hour

Tyler Cowen, Stubborn Attachments

Timothy Morton, The Ecological Thought

Manjushree Thapa, The Tutor of History

John McPhee, Draft No. 4

Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish, Siblings Without Rivalry

Dante, The Divine Comedy

Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Joyce Carol Oates, Carthage

Zadie Smith, White Teeth

Xi Xi, My City

Eve Babitz, Slow Days, Fast Company

Various, Being HK

Nigel Collett, A Death in Hong Kong

Xi Xi, A Girl Like Me

Virgil, The Aeneid

James Scott, Against the Grain

Karl Popper, All Life Is Problem Solving

Ursula Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan

Ursula Le Guin, No Time to Spare

Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

Franklin Foer, World Without Mind

Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Confucius/Simon Leys, The Analects of Confucius

Sheila Heti, Motherhood

Bill Burnett & Dave Evans, Designing Your Life

Ian Stewart, Nature’s Numbers

Mike Michalowicz, Clockwork

Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep

Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark

Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

Peter Adamson, Classical Philosophy

Machiavelli, The Prince

Mary Clarke & Clement Crisp, How to Enjoy Ballet

Cas Mudde & Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Populism

Charles Lindblom, The Market System

AL Kennedy, Looking for the Possible Dance

Mario Vargas Llosa, The Bad Girl

Shen Fu, Six Records of a Floating Life

Han Kang, The Vegetarian

Mikel Dunham, Buddha’s Warriors

Yoko Ogawa, Hotel Iris

Elaine Feinstein, It Goes With the Territory

Homer/Emily Wilson, The Odyssey

Richard McGregor, Xi Jinping: The Backlash

Shiona Airlie, Scottish Mandarin

Jeannette Ng, Under the Pendulum Sky

Otessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

陳冠中, 我這一代香港人

Muriel Spark, Reality and Dreams

Muriel Spark, The Driver’s Seat

Mary Beard, Women and Power

Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies

Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Anne Carson, The Beauty of the Husband

Francis Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 小王子 (The Little Prince in Cantonese)

Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls

Joan Didion, The Last Thing He Wanted

Walter Scheidel, The Great Leveler

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem

Svetlana Alexievich, The Unwomanly Face of War

Marguerite Duras, Blue Eyes, Black Hair

Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation

Chuang Tsu, The Book of Chuang Tsu

Cathleen Schine, The Weissmans of Westport

Patti Smith, Just Kids

Timothy Morton, Humankind

Various, 香港語文: 聽陳蕾士嘅秘密

Edna O’Brien, Time and Tide

[bodyalive]

“Why does the spontaneous relationship of myself to my body–and therefore of all of me to the present moment disappear with childhood? This is what interests me most. And how is it that my awareness, my kinesthetic sensation of my own body, brings me into the present moment again, able to participate in a more complete way of life?" –consulting editor, Patty de Llosa on befriending the body   Parabola Magazine

[via “Alive On All Channels”]

[dk-thrive]

Avoid compulsive repetition. Life is not a circle but a spiral around a central place, and we are working our way up and working our way down.

In June 2007, when Woodman received a lifetime achievement award from the University of Toronto, she compared the journey of life to a spiral staircase that goes both up and down, reminding us again to ‘Hold that place, that still point between the tension of the opposites. It’s the central core that holds the spiritual power. You never, never come back to the same place. Avoid compulsive repetition. Life is not a circle but a spiral around a central place, and we are working our way up and working our way down. Bad times give us strength to move into good times with a whole new vision of what life is about.

~ Patty de Llosa

[parabola-magazine]

“Perhaps Rumi said it best: ‘Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.’ We all need to find that field beyond guilt and responsibility, beyond sin and redemption, where there’s rest for the busy mind, always arguing, elaborating, affirming, condemning, criticizing; rest for the anguished heart, seeking meaning in a confused world full of conflicting demands; and rest from the insidious fear that we’ll be caught out because, in spite of all our good intentions, we’re sure to get it wrong again.

One path to Rumi’s field is to listen to the spaces between the many words we say and hear. Or to attend to the sound of silence itself. This space between doings and achievings is non-invasive. It doesn’t demand action, but provides nourishment. We could call it endless time, where we feel cared for, liberated from the sense that we must perform, get stuff done, realize a potential, serve a cause, help a friend. The fact is, endless time is always there—ready to flood in whenever we have sense enough to lay down our perceived burdens. If I can give up for a moment the problems that seem so important, so immediate, so real, then I will find myself immersed in another order of reality—the world of sound, touch, taste, smell, and unrecognized feelings. That could be where joy begins."

—Patty de Llosa "Finding Joy: The Science of Happiness" in our new Summer Issue available now in bookstores and online.

Photograph by Frank McKenna

[parabola-magazine]

“Who am I?” begins “a movement toward light” that belongs to no spiritual or religious tradition but is an aspect of the human condition. In other words, we are all born to be pilgrims, although often asleep to our possibilities. Once the pilgrim in us awakens, the confrontation between the ego, or small self, and a higher part of ourselves (Atman to the Hindu, the Christ within to the Christian) begins, and it will continue, perhaps for a lifetime–or until the ego learns to become the servant of a higher will. During that time we must let go of our dependency on spiritual names, words, and concepts, because they can become “dead coals without any flame.” To choose the eternal is to engage daily, hourly, and even minute-by-minute with the depths as opposed to the dream." 

Ravi Ravindra’s latest book The Pilgrim Soul: A Path to the Sacred Transending World Religions" reviewed by Patty de Llosa in Parabola's 2016 Summer Issue.

Pictured: Nicholas Roerich, Milarepa, The One Who Harkened, 1925

[parabola-magazine]

"The movement in my self from the mask to the face, from the personality to the person, from the performing actor to the ruler of the inner chamber, is the spiritual journey. To live, work, and suffer on this shore in faithfulness to the whispers from the other shore is the spiritual life." ―Ravi Ravindra

Patty de Llosa reviews Ravindra’s latest book: THE PILGRIM SOUL: A Path to the Sacred Transcending World Religions in our Summer 2016 issue.

Art Credit: Nicholas Roerich, Krishna (Spring in Kulu), 1929

[parabola-magazine]

“’Does mind exist?” asks neuroscientist Daniel Siegel, as he opens a two-day conference on his favorite subject, interpersonal neurobiology. Siegel is on a mission to tell the world that by working to make changes in your mind you can reorganize the neural pathways in your brain. He insists that if you work at it, you can spend more time in “Beginner’s Mind” and improve your personal relationships.”  —Patty de Llosa explores the new science: changing ourselves by changing our brain.

Photography Credit:  McKay Savage, Close-up of the Buddha head in the banyan tree at Wat Mahathat, Wikimedia