On this page—the new homepage for Experiments in the Rhizome—I’d like to invite you, dear reader, to “just sit” with me.
Every morning for the month of August 2024, I will be embedding a YouTube livestream of me “just sitting” below. The inspiration for this comes, in large part, from the Zen Buddhist meditative practice of “shikantaza,” which is often translated as “just sitting.” Each livestream will be broadcast from 8:30 am EST (sharp) until around 9:00-9:15 am (or longer, if I feel like it). I won’t be appearing on camera much (if at all), but I will be sitting silently nearby. More details and explanation to come in a separate post; for now, please join me for the first “official” livestream tomorrow on August 1, 2024!
A small explanation…
(… for anyone who may have visited this blog in the past wondering about the (new) new homepage and/or what happened to the old one):
About two months ago, I made a new (now old) homepage for Experiments in the Rhizome, which I titled “New Paths into the Garden.” I mentioned that the blog is “in need of some renewed cultivation;” well, to be frank, I’ve been having trouble following up on that, as is evident from the total lack of new creative work uploaded to EitR since publishing that page (which was only ever intended to be a temporary, “this website is under construction”-type page anyway). So, I’m committing to this month-long livestreaming project as a kind of “blank slate” for the website, to help me fall back into a rhythm of uploading new work on a more consistent basis. The first new post will likely be the one I alluded to above, a longer essay on “just sitting”/”shikantaza” and my personal history with meditation.
If you’re interested in any of the older posts on EitR, here’s a link to “New Paths into the Garden,” from which you can still access everything simply by exploring the links on that page and continuing through the website from there. I’ll be taking the “New Paths” page down once I’ve finished fully re-envisioning EitR and have a new, “official” introductory page to publish.
—Patrick Simpson, 7/31/24