an old writer and his words

  • WALKING

    He walks slowly, with a stoop, born of time or knowledge of a world that has seeped away. He smiles, but you cannot tell if it is at the worm slowly crossing the sidewalk, or the young woman pulling on the leash of her far too large dog. He could walk this route with his…

    Lou Faber

  • SEKISO’S NOTHING IS CONCEALED 正法眼蔵 語十八

    When you look in the mirror are you real, is your reflection real? Be careful what you say, for if I look into that mirror and see you, is the you I see anything other than real? When you go through the gate you say “I am exiting”. When I follow you through the gate…

    Lou Faber

  • FINIS

    When it all ends, just what will you being doing the moment before. Of course you cannot know, for you have no idea just when it will end. And if it ends as a result of your actions, then you won’t know that it is your action that is ending it, so that is no…

    Lou Faber

  • STILL SMALL VOICE

    We listen carefully certain we can hear it if and when it appears. We hear nothing, but we are used to not hearing, but faith is a far more patient than it is given credit for and we have nothing to do in any event, other than to abide an event we cannot predict and…

    Lou Faber

  • UMMON’s KONSHIKETSU 無門關 二十一

    Ummon might say a pile of cow dung in the road – this may be the Buddha. Will you step in or walk around? A reflection on case 21 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate)

    Lou Faber

  • WHAT’S IN A WORD

    It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, a pictograph usually five or fewer, and a word, but a single one by definition, while a word, with two exceptions, has at least two letters, and with the same two exceptions, a letter is always wordless but can be symbolic. The Hawaiian language…

    Lou Faber

  • -NESS

    Last week it was hers but we felt it ours, and wondered why her furniture, her life was impinging on this “our-ness.” Today it is ours and empty, and it has a deep sense of “whose-ness,” where we can see how easily “ours-ness” might return. Next week it will be our home and we will…

    Lou Faber

  • NO REPLY

    You must be home now, or somewhere you can answer my call, and the busy signal or disembodied voice, purporting to be you can only mean that this very moment if you are calling me the busy signal or disembodied voice purporting to be me is giving you a momentary frustration rivaling my own. This…

    Lou Faber

  • RINZAI’S TITLELESS MAN 鐵笛倒吹 語十七

    If you come upon both beggar and nobleman see neither wealth or poverty, smell neither the fine rosewater or the crying need of a bath, hear neither the ravings of one or the philosophy of the other, taste neither the fine curry of the moldy bread crust, feel neither the tattered rag or the purest…

    Lou Faber

  • PALETTE

    He is for it or he is against it, and if you could predict the vacillations you could develop the means of measuring the flux of sanity. You could as easily grasp the water flowing downriver and by asking select questions determine the next heavy rain, but the odds are good you will be outside…

    Lou Faber