an old writer and his words

  • WHERE?

      Is it the trip or the arriving that most matters, or is it simply what you expect once you are there, if there is where you expected, for expectations are too often misplaced and assumptions reflect desire not truth. In the end it hardly matters, for you can never be anywhere but where you…

    Lou Faber

  • NANO

    If there is but a single moment this one is not the one, and so we shall each of us continue to wait and wonder if the next one is the one, or even the one after that, or one next week. But the real question is, if there is such a moment, whether we’ll…

    Lou Faber

  • [ ]

    In the middle of my morning zazen I am no longer here. I have fallen deeply into my mat. The ending bell rings.

    Lou Faber

  • VISIONS

    The small child peers through the bamboo poles of the bridge as he stares down at a turtle who stares up at him with equal fascination. His mother excitedly says, “see the turtle?” Of course he can see the turtle but he also sees an Ichthyosaurus and giant whales and frightening fish. Later, as she…

    Lou Faber

  • FELINE BUDDHA NATURE

    The cat is curled on my zabuton, and stares up at me only long enough to say, “now would be a good day to test Buddha’s advice – that you can sit almost anywhere and still your mind. So look around I have left you the rest of the room and your sitting bench, and…

    Lou Faber

  • UNASKING

    There is much you would ask the Buddha and so little he would tell you. But at the moment that you fall silent, when your last question slips away and you have no request – in that moment the Buddha will speak freely and provide the answer to unthought-of questions.

    Lou Faber

  • INSTANT

    An instant, perhaps less, who is to know and how is it to measure. Time is a dimension that we stretch and shape, that always snaps back, resisting change, ever changing. It insures that this moment-place can never exist again, and the Buddhist river thanks us.

    Lou Faber

  • EDGE OF WINTER (FOUR HAIKU)

    The clouds build slowly threatening to overtake the maple’s red leaves. October cloud knives Slice branches from saddened trees Leaves fall in mourning Dogs peer at dawn’s sky And slowly don winter coats Knowing geese take flight Tomorrow the snow Will not fall from evening clouds But soon, very soon

    Lou Faber

  • ROYA’S MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS

    If I ask you to look out the window and tell me what is there, what will you say? If you say there are trees and a house in the distance, I will tell you to tell me what is there, not what you mind creates. If you again tell me there are trees and…

    Lou Faber

  • MAGIC, ONCE

    As a child he had a magical power. He didn’t like to use it, didn’t want others to know he had it, certainly couldn’t share it. He wasn’t certain when it began to fade, but he noticed the power diminished as he grew, as he learned more about the world, and there was absolutely nothing…

    Lou Faber