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BORROWED LIGHT
The gray, velvet curtain of clouds parted ever so briefly last night revealing a moon, growing more full of herself, as she peered out. I was there to see her, the form of smile shared between us despite the chill of the too winter-like spring. This morning the sad drooping daffodils said they saw her…
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NANSEN’S REJECTIONS 鐵笛倒吹 四十四
If you come before Master Nansen will you come holding the posture of a monk or a lay person and when Nansen turns you away how will you exit the room? Nested hands and gassho hands both are so easily manacled, why leave the room at all? A reflection on case 44 of the Iron…
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TOKUSAN’S ASSEMBLY 正法眼蔵 三十六
When the Buddha offered true wisdom, no one was present to hear it. Those who were not there understood it fully. Where will you look for true wisdom? Will your ears here what your mouth cannot say? Only with closed eyes will the light become clear. A reflection on Case 36 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s…
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ODE TO THE CAT
I read a poem today about a cat and the memory of my last cat came to mind, and with it, the certainty that cats have an innate sense of people which people utterly lack. It may be that cats are completely ignorant of the masks we wear, or simply that they could care less…
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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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ENSO IT GOES
I spent much of yesterday trying to draw perfect enso. You would think it easy to draw the simple circle, one easy stroke, but my efforts suggest otherwise. It is my Western mind, my teacher once suggested, always linear, this moment next to that, and then the one that must naturally follow. If not a…
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ULTIMATE TRUTH 鐵笛倒吹 四十三
When the stick is raised a truth hovers nearby, will you accept it? When the student is struck does truth leave the polished wood, sinking into the student’s shoulder or does it rise up within the student to meet the falling stick? Sitting zazen do you ask directions to the zendo? A reflection on Case…
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LEGACY
We often believe that the best way to honor the dead is to praise them. When my time is gone, do not praise me for your praise will fall on deadened ears. If you believe in the power of the word speak aloud in my name, if you dare, commit the deed as you believe…
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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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an old writer and his words 