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MISSING
In my dreamI went for a walk alonga boardwalk but therewas no beach to be seen.I came across a little girlsitting, leaning againstthe railing, forlorn woulddescribe her fairly.I took off one of mygray socks, a black seamacross the toe, stuck iton my hand, nowa sock puppet.She smiled so Igave her the sock.She arose and seemedto…
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ROBE
Robe of liberationembodiment of emptinessin prescribed formonce Brahmin garbtattered strips of clothcarefully stitched togetherstitches made, pulledand resewn, bitsof dharma wornover the heartwanting silencebeneath the Bodhi treeawaiting the bell,the dawn,the triple recitation,the three prostrationsBuddhas and BuddhasIn waiting, abidingfailure and compassion.
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ON ARRIVAL
When I arrived it was as thoughyou had expected me, althoughneither of us had anticipated meeting.You wondered if we had metin some former life, but I wasthen a skeptic for circumstancehad never really conspiredto cause me to cede my tightgrip on what I was certainwas the only possible reality.When that evening endedmy flotilla of certainties…
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GUTEI’S ONE FINGER
As you sit with the sutras,as you search for the dharmaand for a teacherto guide you on the pathshould you cometo a true masterdo not be surprisedif in answerto any question you askhe gives you one finger. A reflection on Case 84 of the Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)
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OUR SONGS
Each morning between fourand five AM the cat comesto the bedroom door, the gatewayto the one room she is deniedand for five or ten minutessings her songs which I,on the now rocky shore of sleep,imagine as a lullaby.She cannot expect me to respondbut each morning it isthe same, the songs differ,and when I finally ariseand…
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TURNING
It has been six full turnsof the shēngxiào since the dayyou brought a baby dragoninto the world and as quicklyset it free, never looking back.It is again my year, and youhave been gone for two decadesbut I was born of waterand so it is perhaps naturalthat on special daysI continue to honoryour memory with my…
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TIMING
Time travel has becomea standard trope of science fiction,a protagonist going back in timeby intent or circumstance, fearfulto take any action for thatmight change the universeand the future as it would have beencollapses and is replaced bysomething wholly different.But this is where logic fails,for the traveler from the futurecannot affect the futureor he could not…
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ALIGNMENT
There was that moment oncewhen everything seemed alignedeverything where it should beand time ceasing to matter.You wondered if this hadhappened before, hopingto grasp the moment, elongatedso that time would slow to a crawl.Now you wonder if that moment,or one just like it, will come again,how would it be different,how would you be different?Was it truly…
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DOGO’S NURSING
If the teacher asksyou how is your practiceyou may tell himthat it is not good,or you may tell himthat it is good.Both answersare wrong, for howdo you measure goodand not good?Practice is onlypractice, zazenis only zazen. A reflection on Case 83 of the Book of Equanimity, Shoyoroku 従容錄
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JUST STOP
Stop what you are doing,put down your devices,turn off whatever you are streamingand look around you.Take careful note of what you see,inventory it if you wish.Now use your mind is a Time Machineimagine yourself right heretwo hundred, then four hundredand then a thousand years ago.What do you see? How is that worlddifferent from this one?…
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an old writer and his words 