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TELLER
She claims to see the future in a glass orb, in the palm of a hand, in the cards spread out on a small table. He knows all history is written in books is retold in stories is buried in successive layers of soil beneath the city. Neither walks along the shore see this wave…
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TOOTHLESS BODHISATTVA
He will tell you that the distance between a tear and a laugh is the span of a mother’s arm. He knows the duration of sadness is identical to a shnork*. He cannot understand how you could have forgotten all this. He doesn’t know why you cannot recall that enlightenment is no more than a…
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EMPTY SACKS WILL NEVER STAND UPRIGHT
There are nights when the song of a single cricket can pull you away from sleep. She says that she has heard that not all Angels have wings and neither of them is sure how you would know if you met a bodhisattva. He searches the mail every day, for a letter from an unknown…
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ANOTHER VISIT TO SHOBOGENZO
YANGSHAN’S NO ENLIGHTENMENT Within nothing there are all things, within all things there is nothing. The Buddha asks in your binary electronic world how can I count on you to survive if zero is taken from you. NANYUE POLISHES A BRICK There is no reason to sit zazen, it is worthless yet it cannot be…
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TIME(LESS)
He is fond of saying that time is on our side, although we both know that time does not take sides, is incapable of action, is passive in passage. It is something of which we may never have enough, but we are certain no one has more than we in this moment. He cannot imagine…
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FINDING TEACHER
He had been searching for . . . well it was impossible to say for how long, even he could not remember when he began the search, but he was sure it was some time ago. People would seem him searching, most would ignore him, either afraid to interrupt the search or afraid of him, probably…
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NATURE’S VACUUM
Nature abhors a vacuum a fact not lost on God, who spent considerable time filling voids and creating vessels, pots and the odd variety of containers, some quite will suited to their contents and others, man as a shining example, illogical, and worse still, leaky so that once packed with thought and emotion it spends…
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SUMMER NIGHT
The moon etches itself into the cobalt sky. Orion rests on the margin of too tall eucalyptus that reach up to ensnare him. Luna’s face floats on the gently shifting pond staring up at the moon recognizing no one. She wonders why the stars move slowly as she sits transfixed. On the window sill Shakyamuni Buddha…
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PARSINGS
The old monk sits cross legged on a grass mat, a faint smile dances across his lips. He invites me to sit, our meeting, he says, is notable. I sit, legs folded as best I can, and begin to ask but he silences me, “First tea.” He sets the cups down on the hardpack dirt floor, there is…
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KANNON
Under the compassionate eye of the Bodhisattva the cats at Senso-ji Temple curl around the incense burners on a cold December morning, ignoring countless pigeons hopping impatiently, awaiting flocks of school children in neat uniforms and rainbow backpacks, each with a slice or two of stale bread. The Buddha watches with a gentle smile.
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an old writer and his words 