• TIME’S ARROW CURSED

      He will be 90 in a few weeks. He doesn’t think this is possible. He says he wasn’t supposed to live this long. He asks again how old he is. You’re still 89, I tell him. He has a relieved look on his face. Then he smiles at me, says, that means you are…


  • ONCE

    It was easier being Buddhist when I was young, despite the fact I had no good idea what Buddhism truly was. for a child the moment is all there is, the past so short that it means nothing, the future something that will arrive as and when it wishes. For a child, things will go…


  • ADOPTING A HISTORY

    She likes to tell him that he came from a small village in Lithuania. He prefers to remind her that he was born in the District of Columbia which has never been mistaken for a small village in Lithuania, although he knows he could find several who speak Lithuanian there. And, he points out to…


  • THE DEPTH OF MEMORY

    In deeply hidden corners of my memory snapshots of my childhood reappear from forgotten albums. I want to know what was happening just out of frame, or in the next picture in the series but these negatives are lost and so I am left to draw my own pictures, write my own story, and accept…


  • THE GIRL COMES OUT 無門關 四十二

    She sits undisturbed Shakyamuni by her side. You can wave at her, she will pay you no mind. You cannot grasp her mind and maintain a hold on your own, you will grow deaf from the chatter but a child can curl at her feet and she will stroke his forehead in perfect Samadhi. A…


  • ARRIVAL

    Twisted strands tell a strange story – acid, a trip you never intended to take – amino pairs that walk you into a world that is yours alone and universal, a foreign place you now must call home.


  • TAI YRA MANO MOTINA (THIS IS MY MOTHER)

    It’s odd how your stature has grown as I dream of you occasionally staring at your yearbook picture. It was only four years ago that I knew you existed, but hadn’t the faintest idea of who you were, anything about your life, why you gave me up, and, therefore who it was I might have…


  • INFINITY

    A three year old can easily understand that a full cup can hold nothing  but an empty cup has an infinite capacity.


  • INSTRUCTIONS FOR WALKING MEDITATION (KINHIN)

    You should walk slowly, measure each step, insure your foot is in deep contact with the earth before giving its partner freedom, only to fall victim, in turn, to gravity.  Steady your pace until it merges into your breath and the silence deafens you.


  • A BUDDHA SPEAKS

    A three year old can easily understand that a full cup can hold nothing more but an empty cup has an infinite capacity.