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STEPPING
I know I should find a riverand just sit on its banksand stare at the water flowing I don’t have to step in it onceto know I couldn’t step in twiceif I wanted, so that problem’s solved. And with dry feet, I can walkalong its banks with a bit morejaunt in my step, which should…
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ISAN’S GIFT 正法眼蔵 語十六
If someone has much,give him little,if someone has little,give him much.If you have much,give much, butif you have little,give only little.Little and muchare both the samewhen given and received. A reflection on Case 56 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye)
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HOME, NIGHT
Living in a bamboo grove, she said,is very much like living in an old house. Look up at noon, into the canopyand imagine you see rays of lightpiercing the ill-thatched roof. Listen to the growling winds of autumnand hear the ghosts of the old housemaking their way up creaking stairs. And when you truly find…
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HOLY
The sun slowly climbsup onto the mountain’s minaretand announces the call to prayer.The waves in the quiet Lakedip their heads watching treeswith the reverence reserved for morning.The loon sits on the altarand intones the sermon, the wavesstilling for a moment, then ebbing into the day.
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EVEN HERE
As winter closes in around us,even here, the Great Blue Heronsgo about building a nest,inviting us to watch as theymake a home of gatheredbranches and twigs, obliviousto the state of our world,of the pandemic gripping us. We watch respectfully, knowingthat in this darkest of seasons,we are about to witnessour own little miracle and willsoon bear…
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INSIDE, UNSEEING
I’ve been trying to discover howit is that those inside the beltwayelected to office, or workingfor those who were elected,have all sense of irony (andin some cases. civility) erased. How else to explain that for manythere can be no climate changewhile the nation they serveis bearing its cost, climatologicallyand in discourse and diversity,and still they…
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ON BEING
They arrive unannouncedoften not seen untilthey have been among usand won’t say howor when they arrived.Some claim to have seentheir arrival as theyhave seen other visitorsvisible only to them,and predict their departurewith a certainty bornof a delusion or a sensebeyond the understanding.Others say that theare merely us in masquerade,it is we who are deludedfor there…
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APPROACHING
The perfect time of dayoccurs only as the deadof night approaches, thatmoment when the heartof the city falls almost silent. In smaller cities this momentis protracted, arising as the moonreaches toward full expressionand such as pass for tallbuildings settle into sleep. In the great cities, thosethat claim never to sleep,the city reverberates, echoingoff the endless…
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MONA
Of course, she’s sitting there,calmly, staring off onto space.She has to know somethingis amiss, no one has cometo visit her in days, but sheknows that whenever, if ever,whatever it is that is happeningis finally over, that theywill once again return, stareat her, wonder aloud and silentlywhy she is smiling, and shewill as always say nothing,…
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ARE YOU CRAZY?
The birds look at us as though we had two heads. They cannot, they say, comprehend how we can stand to live in boxes, to travel in metal containers, to be stuck forever to the ground. They say that food should be picked then eaten instantly, not packaged and half thrown away. They say they…
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an old writer and his words 