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FOUR HAIKU
In this momentabsolutely nothingsamadhiBuddha, outside the zendoa hundred birds gatherchanting the Dharma the cat sitsat the foot of Buddhaenlightened a girl gigglesBuddha laughs aloudpigeons bow
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RECALL
As you sit in your suburban homes,by the pools at your country clubs,in your vacation resort villas, tryfor the sake of the patriarchsand matriarchs of our faith, to rememberthat we were the poor, we werethe huddled masses, we yearnedto breathe free, we the tempest tossed. Remember the tenementsof the Lower East Side,the sweat shops, the…
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NANSEN CUTS THE CAT 無門關 十四
Thirty blows of the stickif right, thirty blowsif wrong, or Namsen’s swordand a severed cat a half to eacha whole to none Be thankful youdidn’t argue about a manfor with a shoeon the head, your feetmay touch the sky. A reflection on Case 14 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate Koans)
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MARCH ON
We marched regularly, often carring placards,this week against an insane warin a place we had no busines being,next week for the racial justicepromised for a century but never delivered,and then for the ecology, trying to savethe world that our parents promisedfor us as little children and failedto provide, choking through the smogand the teargas, scraping…
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PROGRESS?
It is progressing, but thatshould not come as a surprise to you,for they told you it would happenand you accepted that as a fact. It is the speed at which it has progressed,much faster than you imagined,what was once clear, now vagueever more amorphous, half alreadyeffectively gone, and the other half? I imagine what would…
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HUP TWO, MY ASS
WARNING: A SHORT STORY, SO A LONGER READ THAN USUAL. BUT WORTH IT HOPEFULLY He wondered why he allowed himself to be in this position. Heknew that he didn’t actually allow it, he courted it. But you couldclaim allowance when you chose the lesser, by far, of two evils.As a child, his mother always told…
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DIFFERENT TODAY
The air we breathe is different today,and we inhale more deeplywith the energy of our youth. The tears we cry today are notsolely tears of loss and sorrow,but also of promise and hope. The wine that we drink todaywill be the same as before, butnow sweeter on the tongue. The sleep that we sleep tonightwill…
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HUANG PO’S GOBBLERS OF DREGS
You have heard that whenthe student is ready the teacher appears,and you believe you are ready,but no teacher has appeared.I can tell you that you are ready,that you will never be ready,that I am not the teacher,that the teacher is here,and that the teacher will never appear.But the path you seek to findwith a teacher…
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FORGETTING
What they don’t want to see, or areperhaps blind to, is that it alwayscame down to boats, and fear wasalways overcome, the ocean tamed. Today, it is trucks, trailers, and stillboats, and fear is still overcomefor the promise of better, forthe hope for life without terror. None of the arrivals came invitedmany were turned away…
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LADDER
You have to stop and wonder,the child said, why peoplecan take joy in killing, whypeople can scheme each other,why people can cheat if they can. Birds, the child added, onlytry and scheme people for food,why they cheat for the sakeof cheating, kill for pleasure,yet we say we are the higher species. Perhaps, the child concludes,it…
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an old writer and his words 