an old writer and his words

  • NANQUAN’S SICKLE

    If you ask the teacher where you can find the key to enlightenment, what do you do when the teacher stares back at you in silence. If the teacher asks you where he can find the key to enlightenment, do you tell him that he possesses it, and if you do, will he simply stare…

    Lou Faber

  • DAIZUI’S GREAT KALPA FIRE 正法眼蔵 二十四

    All things are born and die so if this world dies at the end of its cycle of life and we are here, do we die with this world and which of us will be first reborn. Only when the mind collapses is the world born only when the mind collapses does the world die.…

    Lou Faber

  • THE FUTURE’S PAST, PRESENTLY

    Before the after now is present. It was never like this before it will not be again anytime soon for there is no time soon that has yet to be or just gone by. After the before we find ourselves here and now.

    Lou Faber

  • THE MATTER OF TIME

    Time is a construct, the logic of which is inescapable to be sure, and yet we constantly seek to escape, but the exit is just beyond the distant horizon. We are on the edge of finding the God particle, and somewhere in time Higgs is threatening to smile, for once found, time will cease to…

    Lou Faber

  • QUANTUM DREAMS

    Tonight the Higgs boson stayed virtual and utterly massless and didn’t decay, so only the cookies acted on our teeth and that decay will fall within the Schwarzchild radius of the sink with all six flavors of quark and all their colors.

    Lou Faber

  • 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

  • [ ]

    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

  • 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

  • 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

  • DIRECT ROUTE

    He would rather be from somewhere. Where he is or is not going matters very little to him now, he will be where he will be, will go where he needs or wants to go or is taken, and when there, that is where he should be, so being there is no problem. But until…

    Lou Faber