an old writer and his words

  • MOBIUS STRIP

    You imagine tomorrow will arrive without warning or notice, and even though you are skeptical, you accept the possibility, and if it doesn’t arrive what are the odds you will miss it? If, as expected, it arrives, what the hell, it was supposed to do that so nothing is odd about it, and if not,…

    Lou Faber

  • KEMBO’S TRANSMIGRATION 鐵笛倒吹 六十七

    Awakening in the morning when you first see the sun and the dew resting on the leaf which eye are you using. When you stare into the mirror through what eye do you see, and what eyes stare back at you. When you see the deer lying in the road which eye do you use.…

    Lou Faber

  • HOFUKU’S TEMPLE 鐵笛倒吹 語十一

    Standing outside the Temple there is much to see. Enter the Temple zendo prostrate three times before the golden Buddha what do you see? Can you see nothing? Outside the Temple, Buddha inside the Temple, Buddha but only when you see nothing. Outside the mind, nothing, inside the mind, nothing. All Buddha. A reflection on…

    Lou Faber

  • TOZAN’S THREE BASKETS 鐵笛倒吹 四十一

    Tozan said the whole of knowledge can be expressed in a single letter. Hakuun, the great Master set to writing verse. You, who hold the brush with shaking hand, what will you write in answer to Tozan. Think carefully of each stroke and imagine Joshu’s endless smile. A reflection on case 41 of the Iron…

    Lou Faber

  • PIQUE

    One of these days soon the sun will again get angry, will blow off steam and all manner of signals will get the message loud if not clearly. The sun can get away with it and we accept it, if not willingly but begrudgingly. When we blow off such steam cities melt, and the angry…

    Lou Faber

  • A MOVING MIND 無門關 二十九

    Do not be a foolish monk stare up at the sky is that could moving? The leaves dance on the morning breeze, is the wind moving? take a picture of the tree a moment of time frozen There is no motion of the tree, none of the wind only the mind moves. A reflection on…

    Lou Faber

  • MEDITATION

    A wise Buddhist teacher once told me that anything you do, if you do it mindfully, can be a form of meditation, and I have taken this into my practice, albeit with mixed success, but that is one reason they call it practice. Walking silently, following your breath in and out, aware of your feet,…

    Lou Faber

  • Two Monks Roll Up Blinds 無門關 二十六

    Both are asked to bring more light into the hall. Together each rolls up his shade. One’s action is gain one’s action is loss there is only one shade there is only one light. A reflection on case 26 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate)

    Lou Faber

  • 33,000

    As 33,000 feet, you want the smoothness that experience tells you, the sky will once again deny. Strapped in, you contemplate cursing the gods of travel, but no, they are simply meeting your expectations. Getting this close to heaven was once, she says, a mystical and spiritual experience, but then we transcended all of that…

    Lou Faber

  • NUMBER 9?

    The truly sad thing is not that billions were spent on the voyage to our most distant planet only to discover, on arrival it wasn’t a planet at all, merely a dwarf, a near planet and yet there was no rebate for the downgrade. Life is too often like that, you want a mulligan and…

    Lou Faber