When you sit
before your teacher
if you ask him a question
he will return only silence.
If you listen
to his silence closely
the dharma
will be revealed to you.
A large stone
that rolls easily
may not be lifted.
A reflection on Case 33 of the Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)
It happens every day,
when I arise from the cushion
and look, I see myself there.
If you look, you say you see me as well.
It will happen one day
that when I arise from the cushion
and look I will not see myself.
If you look, you will say you see me,
and I will nod in agreement.
Each day when I see myself,
I know that it is I who I am seeing.
But each day I see an illusion,
masquerading as I, a delusion,
and I see you seeing me, a delusion.
Each day you see me, you see
a delusion, but a different delusion.
Consider how strange this is,
for on the day I do not see myself
I see no delusion, but you see me
and see a delusion, but I do not
see you, for there is no me to see you,
and just then I am free of delusion.
A reflection on Case 94 of the Blue Cliff Record (碧巌録, Hekiganroku)
If you ask
your teacher
to show you the Dharma
he will look
at you and remain
silent.
If you ask
nothing
of your teacher
he will
show you
the whole
of the Dharma.
A reflection on Case 33 of the Book of Equanimity (Shoyoroku 従容錄)
Yesterday is but a shadow
and tomorrow an illusion.
Do not wallow in the mud
of attempted memory, do
not sink in the mire
of deluded anticipation.
Stop, listen to the sun
and the moon sing
of the Dharma, hear
the silence it brings
for you are alive
in this moment,
and there is
no other moment
in which you can live.
A reflection on Case 3 of the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku 碧巌録)
How long have you
wandered about searching
for the correct path?
Clearly you have not
found it but you refuse
to give up the search
certain it is there.
Will you recognize it
if you stumble across it?
How do you decide
where you should look?
Look down, you are
standing on it as you have
been since you began.
A reflection on Case 2 of the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku 碧巌録)
On the path you
may choose to ask
your teacher to give you
the heart of the dharma.
Accept his silence
and carry it with you
for it is the seed
from which the great lotus
will arise.
Peer within it
and see nothing at all
and cherish the gift
of the heart of the Buddha.
A reflection on Case 1 of the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku 碧巌録)
When you ask
how you can get
from where you are
to Nirvana
a wise teacher will
tell you there is
no there.
There is only here
and this is Nirvana.
Then he will ask
you the greater question–
who are you really?
How will you answer?
A reflection on Case 31 of the Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)
Somewhere in the world
at this very moment,
something remarkable
is being laid to ruin.
It is our nature to tear down
what we cannot understand,
what we hold different,
what does not comport
with our present view
of how things ought to be.
Somewhere in the world
at this very moment
something remarkable
is being born,
is being created,
is arising
out of an idea,
a thought, an emotion.
We are all
somewhere in the world
at this very moment.
First apeared in Peacock Journal, February 2017
https://peacockjournal.com/louis-faber-three-poems/
If you ask your teacher
if the cat
in Schrodinger’s box
his dead,
he will say
the cat is dead .
If you ask your teacher
if the cat
in Schrodinger’s box
is dead,
he will say
the cat is not dead.
Dead and not dead ,
both the same
A reflection on Case 30 of the Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)
If you ask your teacher
to give you the Dharma
what do you expect ?
But what if you
take it from him,
what will you
leave him with?
If you find it
yourself, then
you are his heir.
A reflection on Case 29 of the Book of Eq uanimity ( 従容錄, Shōyōroku)
an old writer and his words 