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UNKNOWING
I don’t know what I am, the Buddha said. I don’t know why my mother gave me up at birth or how many cousins walk the streets of Glasgow or where I lost my first tooth I don’t know what became of the nickel or why the tooth fairy…
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ANOTHER VISIT TO SHOBOGENZO
YANGSHAN’S NO ENLIGHTENMENT Within nothing there are all things, within all things there is nothing. The Buddha asks in your binary electronic world how can I count on you to survive if zero is taken from you. NANYUE POLISHES A BRICK There is no reason to sit zazen, it is worthless yet it cannot be…
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FALLING IN LOVE, WALES
I I fell deeply in love with her, I standing in a small jewelers shop in Bangor Wales on a November morning. In truth, cradling a small silver Celtic cross in my hands I knew then that I, taken that plunge within moments of our meeting and recognition was all that remained. II We poets stood…
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FINDING TEACHER
He had been searching for . . . well it was impossible to say for how long, even he could not remember when he began the search, but he was sure it was some time ago. People would seem him searching, most would ignore him, either afraid to interrupt the search or afraid of him, probably…
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DIALOGUE
She says the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. He doesn’t have the heart to tell her that on a cosmic scale space is curved and no one wants the short straw anyway. She can, of course read him, a skill she notes, reserved to women, and one of infinite frustration to…
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NATURE’S VACUUM
Nature abhors a vacuum a fact not lost on God, who spent considerable time filling voids and creating vessels, pots and the odd variety of containers, some quite will suited to their contents and others, man as a shining example, illogical, and worse still, leaky so that once packed with thought and emotion it spends…
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SUMMER NIGHT
The moon etches itself into the cobalt sky. Orion rests on the margin of too tall eucalyptus that reach up to ensnare him. Luna’s face floats on the gently shifting pond staring up at the moon recognizing no one. She wonders why the stars move slowly as she sits transfixed. On the window sill Shakyamuni Buddha…
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KANNON
Under the compassionate eye of the Bodhisattva the cats at Senso-ji Temple curl around the incense burners on a cold December morning, ignoring countless pigeons hopping impatiently, awaiting flocks of school children in neat uniforms and rainbow backpacks, each with a slice or two of stale bread. The Buddha watches with a gentle smile.
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AT THE TEMPLE
The Buddhist priest in golden robes rocks gently to and fro, chanting from the prayer cards over the din of the flea market swirling around him, The faithful stand with heads bowed, as the stone Buddha draped in red and gold nods his approval
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KNOWING
She wants to know if I could be an animal which would I choose. Part of me wants to answer panther – sleek, black, catlike eyes glowing in the night – but never coyote, crawling out of the hills in search of rabbits darting through the sage, never the trickster. I am an animal, I…
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