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THREE MORE VIEWS OF THE SHOBOGENZO
BASO’S HEART SUTRA When my teacher asks of my practice I shall be still for the eye speaks volumes and the mouth sees all that lies before it. HŌON’S AWAKENING A fool always asks how do I get to where will I find what will come. A wise man can swallow an ocean in a…
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THREE VIEWS OF THE SHOBOGENZO
SEIGAN’S WHISK If a master asks where I am from I shall tell him. If he lifts his stick and asks if they have this stick there I will grab the stick and cast it into the ocean so it may go where it chooses. HYAKUJO REMAINS SEATED The gift of dharma flies off in…
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MIDSTREAM
A young man sits on a large flat rock jutting out into a river. He slowly tells the river the story of his life, places he has been, people seen and known. Each drop of water flowing by hears a small bit of his story, none hear whole thoughts, for perhaps he has told none.…
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BUDDHA TEACHES
Buddha teaches us that to be a trainer of elephants, one must have five principal qualifications, to be of good health, to have confidence and diligence in large measure, to have deep sincerity of purpose and above all else, wisdom. Once must be nimble, to avoid the foot of the beast set at every turn…
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STAIRCASE
It stands at the end of a very long hallway white walls, naked like giant canvasses awaiting the overdue artist. There are no doorways off this corridor, just the one behind you through which you entered what now seems hours ago. You stand as though rooted to the polished marble floor, your legs leaden, to…
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QUESTIONS
If the night sky contains no moon has the sun gone out? It is like a garden within a fence, do the flowers dream of freedom or are we the prisoners kept out from the world within their golden petals? A strong wind carries off the answers.
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MORE MUSIC OF THE FLUTE
UMMON’S FEAST 鐵笛倒吹 七 Sitting in the deep well of silence feel the old patriarchs dancing on top of your head, look down under the weight of their wisdom., to the earth and stare deeply into their eyes. But how will you go make a feast for the never sated gods? Lie on the earth,…
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FROM THE BEGINNING
Buddha said Christ walked on water, but we all did that in the womb, it was only knowledge that caused our skills to erode. Be content, he smiled, you could have been an egg.
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ENTER EXITS
He says doors and windows are to enable us to come within, to be safe from all that is outside, to make this space a sanctuary. She says windows and doors are to allow us to merge with the sky, taste the river, and sing songs taught us by the moon. The doors and windows…
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OSAKA MORNING
The rain trickles slowly down the deep green and gray roof tiles, drips slowly from the tangle of wires and antennae, onto the narrow streets and alleys where bicycles lean against doorways, barely avoided by cars passing quickly. The sky is the gray of countless ships in the nearby harbor, a monochromatic world broken only…
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an old writer and his words 