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

  • NANSEN’S NOTS 無門關 二十七

    What can you teach of Dharma? Nothing can be taught Dharma must be learned in not mind seek not-Buddha find no thing. A reflection on Case 27 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate)

    Lou Faber

  • SEKIKŌ’S SHORTCOMINGS 正法眼蔵 語十

    If you have no earlobes there will be nothing at all to hear. If he has no eyes, it is you who grow blind and your silence can drown his ceaseless tongue. The stick speaks louder than you both. A reflection on Case 50 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • HOJU TURNS HIS BACK 鐵笛倒吹 七十二

    If a beggar approaches do you turn away from him. If a rich man calls to you, do you receive him openly. How do you tell them apart? If a poor thief in fine, stolen silks stands before you what do you offer in welcome, and what for his battered victim now wearing the thief’s…

    Lou Faber

  • GOD HAS COME, OR NOT

    It is the wet season when the rains wash the village carrying off the detritus of poverty. On the adobe wall of the ancient town hall some villagers say a face appeared one morning. To some it was the face of Christ to others that of an old man a former mayor, perhaps, to most…

    Lou Faber

  • BODHIDHARMA’S “VAST AND VOID”

    You want holy teachings boiled down, synthesized digestible in bites so dine on the holes nothing, emptiness is sustenance enough look at me, at a window as you do a mirror no knowing, a familiar face but whose? the face will depart yours or his you will awaken to endless absence learn no thingness overflowing…

    Lou Faber

  • DESHAN’S THIRTY BLOWS正法眼蔵 三十一

    If I come before the teacher he will give me thirty blows. If I do not come before the teacher he will give me thirty blows. It is the same for everyone, his arms never grow tired but if I never see my teacher, I give him thirty blows and my arms are suddenly heavy.…

    Lou Faber

  • VERITAS

    Denial grows easier with practice until you get to the point were even the existence absolute proof is little more than an obstacle to be skirted. They know it is easy, a facile task to an audience that wants to believe. That is the key, for wanting to believe is enough to make the false…

    Lou Faber

  • THEN NOW

    The gap between hail and farewell is small an unbridgeable, no one can walk across, and yet the mind spans but falls away, to hail and ultimately to farewell and between they stare into a chasm they call life

    Lou Faber