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NIGHTHOUGHTS
like a house of cards it folds slowly inward, falling on itself, sliding downward until all that is left is the memory of what was supposed to be and a dream standing in isolation
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EVOLUTION
We arose from water, crawled forth and inhabited the land and claimed dominion and the land appeared to cede itself to us, knowing better and caring even less. We return to the water feel its pull but immerse ourselves only partially, willing to risk only half drowning, the land and air usually silent, knowingly…
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SITTING SHIVA
The sitting of Shiva is a tribal right performed with Kaddish and coffeecake. The mourning is harder for the adult child, for the now severed bond grows with time and not distance, and there comes a point where the loss invokes your mortality. Tonight we all speak of the departed off on a journey we never…
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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…
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HUI CH’AO ASKS ABOUT BUDDHA
When you look in the mirror do you hope to see yourself, and who is that face that stares back? If you turn out the light, are you still there in the mirror, or has the illusion of you disappeared? If you crack the mirror, do you feel the pain of the scar across your…
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OF BEAUTY
We love the flower, more so if it adopts the brighter shades of nature’s palette, and even tolerate the fern, but only if it truly honors the greens it is supposed to bear and unfurl. We save our spite for the fungus which reaches up to us with surprising haste, nothing this day, fully formed…
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PHOENIX
A Phoenix may rise from the ashes, but you and I have seen the aftermath of the flames and all that rises are our memories and dreams. We lack both wings and a certain amount of faith, for ashes are all that is promised and in the end we are no more than dust avoiding…
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NO MIND, NO BUDDHA 無門關 三十三
Baso knows well only the ox truly understands the yoke but if you offer it the ox will not accept. Why would you seek to become the ox? It would be better to burn the yoke. A reflection on Case 33 of The Mumonkan (The Gateless Gate)
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SKELETONS
Their corpses have been gathering dust in the closet where I keep them, in boxes, once neatly labeled, but the collection has grown so large I’ve given up any attempt at organization. I do, periodically, take a glance into the boxes, take a few out and carefully consider them, but heeding the proscription, I always…
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USER’S MANUAL
In my dreams last night I thought I came across the Buddha while off wandering somewhere I could not recognize. I thought long and hard about following Linji’s proscription and killing the Buddha, but while lost in contemplation the Buddha took up his keisaku, said “if you cannot follow the simplest of directions, if you…
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an old writer and his words 