virtual companionship

01 Feb, 2026

Nope, not what you thought. ::chuckle::

I'm here to write today about the emergence of a spiritual companion — who has absolutely no idea that's what she has become for me. An accidental guru in a way? Yeah, I think those are the best kind, actually. And it reminds me very much of discovering writers, back in the heyday of my youth and young adulthood.

It began with Samaneri Jayasāra's voice, you see...

...and I can't even remember when it was, but I remember what it was: her numinous interpretation of the Heart Sutra in English translation:

...is a YouTube video recitation of the sutra along to a transcendent, subtle soundtrack (by a Slovakian musician named Maok, a piece called "Inner Reflections and Infinite Forgiveness" which seemed almost bespoke to the mantra text). As I said, I can't recall how I happened onto the nun Samaneri's track — it likely appeared as part of the YT "mix" algo which had bent the way of the Hrdaya Sutra. ::chuckle::

Jayasāra published this video not that long ago, in August 2023, and it already feels timeless and epic to me somehow; though admittedly, that sensation is likely an artifact of my listening to it so many times over the past half year or so. Of course, I've already memorized her rendition, and can chant/recite it along with her, to about 94% fealty (with the elucidation, the pauses, breaths, all of it). This I have done whilst striding from here to there along my S.F. neighborhood walkabouts.

Which all means, naturally, that this Australian nun has effectively become a spiritual companion of sorts. If her voice and words accompany many hours of my waking life (and might even appear in dreaming), that basically describes companionship, doesn't it?

And so, this humble Buddhist nun has come to join the pantheon of artists and minds that have defined my "life aesthetics" headspace over time. Among others: Joyce, Rilke, Mandelstam, Brodsky, Milosz, Akhmatova, Glass, Reich, Popova, Sebald, and so many more. That she has done so by channeling dharmic beings and the mantras that define their abstruse realities makes her unique, though come to think of it, that's what Maria Popova has accomplished as well. Birds of a feather. ::chuckle::

[ in progress... ]