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BY DECREES
As King, newly appointed, he mulled over what to do for his first official act. The predecessor King was known to be much a recluse, one who tolerated people as a necessity of a Kingdom, and he would say, a good source of revenue to the King. That one didn’t last long, never imagined the…
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RINZAI’S ENLIGHTENMENT 正法眼蔵 二十七
If you ask your question you will find an answer but ask another and the stick will respond each time. If you seek another teacher will you change the question or the answer, and does it matter. Take up the stick, who will you strike, your teacher or yourself, and is there any real difference?…
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AN OLD FRIEND
More than a bit ratty, would be mildly putting it, near bald almost everywhere, fully so in far too many spots to count. Eyelashes are minimal, hard to see for their fineness, one eye a bit out of focus, a faint cloud covering its internal horizon. You might say it is sad looking, and no…
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GOING DOWN
Hell is a place where what you least desire becomes eternally yours, or so we were told as children, well not us, not the Jewish kids, for us Hell was our mothers’ finding that copy of Playboy we stole from our father’s stash our mother didn’t know about, and which he would deny, throwing us…
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My back bemoans its age, knowing the alternative is far worse, and as we limp along, we await the call to attend the unveiling of the resonance images which draw us in and will, in short order explain everything if, even, there is no answer no underlying truth and certain it will not find the…
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HOLY VISIONS
Night has swallowed the city and in the laundromat, dryer 42 decries her loose drive belt. The young girl turns, “can you see it the Virgin Mary, in the glass porthole”. No, I think, only white cotton panties and several pair of jeans in endless rotation. “She speaks to me, asking for my forgiveness for…
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STARE DOWN
I stand still, staring, as you stand as still staring back, neither of us yielding in what will be a long played-out game on a day of intense sunshine. I am certain you will concede will depart, and I am ready, much as you assume I will tire as my kind always do, and turn…
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KEEPING FOCUS
It is of little surprise that we find this a dizzying world, for we always try to look forward, but since the future is often vague, we try and keep one eye on the past to understand what our other eye is poorly seeing. The mind does not care to be pulled in two directions…
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QUESTIONING THE BUDDHA 無門關 三十二
Sit in utter stillness, turn away from words, let non-words wash over you, and give them no hold. The shadow of the whip will dance toward you like a cloudless sky blue and not blue – take to hoof and gallop. A reflection on case 32 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate) For Something Different, a…
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VISIT
He expects that she will stop by and visit. This is a perfectly reasonable expectation though he knows she behaves as she chooses and that is not always in accordance with any standards of reason. Nevertheless, he waits for her visit which doesn’t happen. He will later get the courage to ask her why, she…
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an old writer and his words 