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JOSHU’S DOG (SHOBOGENZO 114)
Joshu’s dog and Schrödinger’s cat- are they one and the same. Leave the lid on the box of the mind. What is the half-life of a thought?
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INSTRUCTIONS TO THE NOVICE HAIKUIST (AND AN EXAMPLE)
INSTRUCTIONS: Make certain that you carefully count syllables and mention summer EXAMPLE perhaps not a bang certainly not a whimper– summer’s arrival.
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CHAO CHOU’S FOUR GATES
Standing on the edge of the precipice with your eyes closed, what will you do? If I turn you around, where is the edge and where is the land from which you approached? If I say you must take a step, do you gently place your toe out and seek to feel the earth,…
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NOW
If the time is now how will we know it? And if we miss it how will we know what the consequences are? The better question is whether it matters, for if we can be in each moment to the extent possible, then nothing is missed and every moment is now and there can never…
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AROUND IT
It is remarkably simple, really, a single circular brush stroke in a monochrome black on rice paper, always nearly perfectly round, never is the circle complete, always some small thing left wanting. You stare at it, more at the small gap, imagining it filled, hoping it cannot be for it holds out the promise that…
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BLOWING OUT THE CANDLE無門關 二十八
Ryukan and Tokusan, one an old fool one a young fool. Burn your notes, set fire to them both, enlightenment can be found in the ashes, where words and thought are carried off on the winds. A reflection on Case 28 of the Mumonkan (The Gateless Gate)
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TIPPING POINT
The hardest thing is knowing that this precise moment, this precise place is the tipping point, and things could go either way from here, although the Buddha would suggest that there are ten directions in which everything always can go. You cannot pause and reflect on this, for this precise moment, this precise place…
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TIPPING THE WATER BOTTLE 無門關 四十
These few words gathered neatly on a scrap of simple paper, what do you call it? Answer carefully for you response may carry the keys to the doors of Mount Tai-i. Better still, upend the water bottle, watch the ink and water form a gentle pool into which no pebble drops. A reflection on…
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DOING THOUGHT TIME
The hardest prison to escape is the one whose walls are built by the mind in fear and trepidation. It is like the open gate you dare not enter fearing that you are leaving and will not be allowed to return. Atop a pole there are an infinite number of directions in which…
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TIMING IS . . .
The sweep of the second-hand, the minute hand is constant, each moment as long as the last, none longer, none shorter and yet I know that Einstein was right in noting that things unpleasant take forever, while all that is joyful passes quickly even when the elapsed time is the same. What Albert didn’t…
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an old writer and his words 