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ENSO WHAT
Today I again took up the brush,carefully mixed the sumi-e inkand with hand poised over a sheetof anticipating rice paper waited, knowing that the moment for a strokewas imminent but not yet at hand,and I dare not force it for brushpainting is a practice that cannot be compelled, a gentle mergerof idea, brush, ink and…
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TICK TICK TICK
He awoke this morning to discover his mortality. This was a concept he had never beforeconsidered, it had never crossed his mind. He had never been to a funeral, came froma small family, an only child, his parents and grandparents still living, not that heever saw them, he valued his solitude. But this morning, while…
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BLUE ON BLUE
The sun is shining brightly today,and the sky, with only the oddpassing cloud, is that certain blue. Do not ask me to describe that certainblue, but be assured it is not exactlythe blue that you are imagining right now. Even if I would describe it, in someinfinite detail, your vision of itwould at best be…
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WORMHOLE LOGIC
Getting a headache, are we? You feel like Schrodinger’s cat. It’s really like asking yourself if the Big Bang was the beginning of everything, what was there in that split second before the Big Bang? If God created everything, what created God? If time begins with the Big Bang, what time was it before there…
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CATHEDRAL
Images inviting tears,ancient steeples falling,the evening sky uplitby flames dancing devilishly. They all say it cannot happenthat we must stop it, thatwe are powerless to actin defense of a symbol to the omnipotent, the allknowing, who dare not intervene,for our tributes are only that,beautiful offerings never requested or required, and moreto appease our consciencebut we…
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BROKEN TRAY 鐵笛倒吹 九十
If you accidentally breaka wise man’s possessiondo you leave himwith one that is incompleteor two awaiting completion. If he asks you to replace ityou may search endlessly,bring him a thousand replacementsbut expect him to reject each oneas never being the sameas the original.If you grow dejected, rememberhe still has the originalin the cupboard. A reflection…
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BALANCING ACT
Push came to shove the other day. At least that was my position, although some said it was more propelled, or at best a nominal thrust. When my face hit the dirt I was convinced it was a shove, if not a ramming or bulldozing. And I’m sure the other guy wonders if it was…
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UNANSWERED
As strange as it seems, I canspend hours in a used bookstorelost in the marginalia, and textbooks, particularly those in psych and sociologyare generally the most fertile,for those students, though they would never admit it, pursued those fieldshoping to find answers to their ownproblems without having to ask. Yesterday’s visit was particularly fertile,but it was…
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REMEMBER THIS
He awoke this morning, and wassurprised to be there, he said,because when you are ninety,and can’t get around at all,you don’t look forward to tomorrow,for it will simply be a repeatof today when nothing will happen.And it is harder still, he says,because he can’t remember much anymore,so it’s hard to say if todayis any different…
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JOSHU MEASURE THE WATER
When your mind is ragingthoughts flowing, eddyingwhen you enter the zendowhat do you do in sitting? Do you take your stickand measure the waterto insure a safe fording,or do you sit amid the streamand let the floodwash over and around youdry and silent within? A reflection on case 47 of the Iron Flute Koans
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an old writer and his words 