an old writer and his words

  • BANZAN’S A BETTER CUT

    At the butcherbe careful what you askfor if it is a better cutthe wise man with the knifemay slice off your handand present it to youwrapped neatly in paper. But will it beyour rightor your left? A reflection onCase 21 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • Q.E.?

    Religion, he said, is inherently illogicaland the older the religion, the more illogicalit becomes, accreting absurdity over time.A corollary of this proposition is thatthe more organized a religion claims to be,the more its spirituality is buried underrules and regulations which only illustratethe principal proposition set forth above.Humans create religion not to explainthe unexplainable but to…

    Lou Faber

  • 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…

    Lou Faber

  • TOZAN’S GOING BEYOND BUDDHA

    The greatest speechis given onlywhen the mouthfalls shut.To talk of peaceis to beat war with peace,to speak of waris to be at war.When listening disappearspeace reemerges,when peace emergesthe listener appears. A reflection on Case 12 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (The True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • 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…

    Lou Faber

  • 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…

    Lou Faber

  • 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,…

    Lou Faber

  • DEFINE-ITELY

    It takes only moments for someoneto ask for a definition of poetry. That task is at once terriblysimple and equally impossible, a poem is many thingsbut not now or ever: a paean to a self-aggrandizingleader without soulor sense of direction,moral and literal; a rant on howall are conspiringagainst you despiteyour stable genius; a Jeremiad decryingfacts…

    Lou Faber

  • SEIJO’S SOUL 無門關 三十語

    Open your mouthand let your soul fleeon the dance of your departing breath. Inhale slowly, leta different soulfind purchase in your lungs. Both souls are your soul,neither soul is yours,but is it the moonor an obscuring cloud? A reflection on case 35 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate Koans)

    Lou Faber

  • FINITE LOOP

    As it turns out, lifeis an ongoing process of accretionand deconstruction, of growthand eventual shrinkage. I started with 20 teethI am told, and got to 32,only to fall back to 23thanks to orthodontia and wear. We start with 270 or morebones, but we knit that numberdown to 206, or in my case under200, the orthopaedist’s…

    Lou Faber