A Japanese Zen Monk Explains What Zen Is Really About

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Despite devel­op­ing in Asia, as the Chi­nese form of a reli­gion orig­i­nal­ly brought over from India and lat­er refined in Japan, Zen Bud­dhism has long appealed to West­ern­ers as well. Some of that owes to the spare, ele­gant aes­thet­ics with which pop­u­lar cul­ture asso­ciates it, and more to the promise it holds out: free­dom…

The Hobo Ethical Code of 1889: 15 Rules for Living a Self-Reliant, Honest & Compassionate Life

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Who wants to be a bil­lion­aire?

A few years ago, Forbes pub­lished author Rober­ta Chin­sky Matuson’s sen­si­ble advice to busi­ness­peo­ple seek­ing to shoot up that gold­en lad­der. These law­ful tips espoused such famil­iar virtues as hard work and com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment, and as such, were eas­i­ly adapt­able to the rabble—artists, teach­ers, any­one…

See Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in 3D in a New 108-Gigapixel Scan

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You may believe that you’ve had a close enough view of Johannes Ver­meer’s Girl with a Pearl Ear­ring. You may have gone to The Hague and seen the paint­ing in per­son at the Mau­rit­shuis. You may have zoomed into the ten bil­lion-pix­el scan we fea­tured here on Open Cul­ture in 2021.…

Hear the First Recording of the Human Voice (1860)

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When inven­tor Édouard-Léon Scott de Mar­t­inville sang a nurs­ery rhyme into his phonoau­to­gram in 1860, he had no plans to ever play back this record­ing. A pre­cur­sor to the wax cylin­der, the phonoau­to­gram took inputs for the study of sound waves, but could not be turned into an out­put device. How amaz­ing then, that…

Was William Shakespeare’s Marriage Closer—and Less Estranged—Than We Thought?: A 17th-Century Letter Changes What We Know About the Bard’s Life.

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Image via Here­ford Cathe­dral and Here­ford Map­pa Mun­di Trust

At this point, every aspect of William Shake­speare’s life has pro­duced more spec­u­la­tion than any of us could digest in a life­time. That goes for his pro­fes­sion­al life, of course, but also his even more scant­i­ly doc­u­ment­ed per­son­al life. As far as his mar­riage…