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WAVES
If you ask me the true measure the passing moment I will tell you it is at once invaluable and, by equal measure, useless, lost in the detritus of time’s wave, now receded. Do not try to cling to it for your memory is all that is impermeable, and then only in a moment already…
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CROW DANCE
Sunday They gather in the trees remarkably silent one speaks their morning prayers and they return home. Monday Only three arrive to commentate our morning walk. We appreciate the silence. Tuesday There is a reason for all sentient creatures but the crow tests our credulity. Wednesday A wintered branch breaks under the weight of the…
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MINDFUL (THREE HAIKU)
the bell rings three times outside the birds fall silent all sitting zazen clocks come to a stop time no longer has meaning in meditation apple blossoms fall covering the ground in pink promising summer
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OLD MONK
The old monk stooped carefully, gingerly picking each browning leaf from the dry garden and gently placing it in the sack he carried. With each leaf he would increase his count, always certain that it fully fell into the sack. When the last leaf was picked and even the autumn tree dared not drop another…
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THREE HAIKU
an entire flower and a single rose petal duplicate beauty a whole universe exists in a drop of dew life evaporates two crested ducks pay no attention to people offering nothing
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HAWK
A red tailed hawk watches carefully from the tall pine that stands proud in the next yard. It is not clear for what he is watching, perhaps it is nothing at all, or something my human vision cannot discern. I stare at him, but he does not return my stare, and after some time lifts…
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KINHIN (WALKING MEDITATION)
The entirety of this practice is to learn to walk with a lightness, so that you contact the earth, the grass, not tread on it, so that the earth and the grass caress your feet and not try to push them away, and all the while there must be a gentleness of breath, so the…
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THE LAKE
Sitting out in the middle of the large lake is a very small island. It’s more of a large rock just sticking out of the water, but everyone calls it an island. Moss grows all over the exposed part so you don’t know it’s all stone unless you row out to it, which no one…
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NIGHT SONG
The evening shows no reluctance in enveloping the dregs of the day, leaving a cool breath of promise. The clouds build in enveloping the moon half pillow, half shroud. Tomorrow is an empty promise that will accept what we offer or nothing at all, save the rain it will hold back another day. One star…
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CUP OF TEA 沙石集 一
When the cup is half full what more can be added? In the garden, the moon can exist in a full cup or one only half full. It is the empty cup that can hold entire universes, infinite in capacity. A reflection on Case 1 of the Shasekishu (Sand and Pebbles)
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an old writer and his words 