Word Banks

My friend Johanna is a very good influence on my vocabulary, which I appreciate very much. Words I've recently absorbed from her:

treacle
fasces

And the Brooklyn Bachelor slings some fine words around. I am seriously edified from the short time spent reading that blog.

hokum
lacrima
portmanteau
gorch Fork!

From my friend Diego:

chattara, scrap, as in scrap metal. aterciopilado, velvet


From Kevin Walsh

miasmic

Fresh words to me, like bread right out of the oven. Tired words, there are many. Sadly words like love and peace, which are unable in themselves to manifest the breadth, challenge and passion of the things they signify. So I have to make do with peas and hominy for now.

And misunderstood ones. For instance:

tantra.

It has less to do with sexual practices than simply trying to appreciate the beautiful and astonishing qualities of things. It has to do with developing receptivity, which is hard for us poor traumatized human beings, who've run in fear our entire lives, developing strategies for limiting the impact of reality instead of inviting it in. An example of receptivity that I'm talking about: sitting and holding the sound of rain in your heart, until you no longer have to imagine it anymore to feel the feeling it gives you because you are bathing in it. Or maybe its not rain, its a friend you miss, or a beautiful word or phrase, like:

signatorum rerum. the signature of things. (What did Jacob Boehme mean by that?)


I learned this about tantra from Matthew Reichers, a teacher of Buddhism here in Brooklyn. He did a short series on tantric meditation practices and in the first class explained, with slight embarasment, that we would not be learning something for which we'd need to bring a towel. What I did learn from him that night gave me a completely new way to survive my life.

Matthew's been traveling in Singapore, attending the Kadampa Festival. Have a look at his travel blog.
He's a funny man and a good writer.

Sorry to be treacley , but thanks for making me rich in words, my friends. They went down easy, how did you do it?