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ENIGMA
As the moon begins it’s slow departure we step carefully out into the receiving night. The neighbor’s black cat looks up at the sky warily, steps around the ladder leading against the house, and sits and contemplates the number thirteen, though it holds no special place in the feline world, it just seems the thing…
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KEMBO’S ONE ROAD 鐵笛倒吹 八十四
As you walk along a road do you know where it begins or where it will end and what lies along it. Perhaps the road is a twisted loop with neither beginning or ending, but if asked where you are on the road you are always here. A reflection on Case 84 of The Iron…
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SELFLESS
The true self is no-self, and this self is not self, but illusion and delusion, where delusion is enlightenment, and nothing is as it seems for nothing is and only seems and so it is with self, so let go of this self and no-self will appear, though it was always there.
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DEEP INTO THE COSMOS
I want to tell her to look up into the night sky and imagine the stars are forming pictures just for her alone, and what she sees is what the cosmos intended all along. She laughs when I say this, says, the pictures were all taken a thousand years ago and given names, like Orion…
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AMONG ELDERS
I sit outside, on the mesa having watched the mauve, fuchsia and coral sky finally concede to night. The two orange orbs sit twenty yards away, staring back and in this moment coyote and I have known each other for moments, and for generations, and we are content. Coyote tells me he was once an…
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USER’S MANUAL
In my dreams last night I thought I came across the Buddha while off wandering somewhere I could not recognize. I thought long and hard about following Linji’s proscription and killing the Buddha, but while lost in contemplation the Buddha took up his keisaku, said “if you cannot follow the simplest of directions, if you…
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NAMASTE
If you stare at it very closely and carefully you will soon see that deep within it there is silence. You may take it with you, it will go along willingly, but if only you don’t try and grasp it. It is soft to the touch, certainly, and has a sweetness that settles gently into…
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TO THE SEA
Today I would like to walk to the river, fashion a boat from a sheet of paper, and set off on it to a far distant sea. Most would think me crazy, but most see only the water flowing by under the bridge, and not the sea that lies out of sight beyond the horizon,…
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PURE DHARMA BODY 正法眼蔵 二十六
Standing at the foot of the mountain, what side do you see. Standing atop the mountain, what side do you not see. Close your eyes and you will see that the mountain has no sides. Close your eyes and you will find that there is no mountain. A reflection on Case 26 of the Shobogenzo…
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FELINE LOGIC
Yesterday the cat explained at great length that we occupy her house because she loves us, but that we dare not take this status for granted. I scratched her behind her ears to signify my agreement and so she took my simple act of kindness. You get another week she said, purring.
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an old writer and his words 