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The old, rotund monk is his gray robes stood outside Osaka Station gently swinging his small bell, chanting . A child of five tugged on his mother’s sleeve as she pulled him toward the subway. “Is he the Buddha” the boy asks, pulling back “No,” she said, “he is not though he searches each day…
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THREE CONVERSATIONS WITH BUDDHA
I How do you make an axe handle if you have no axe? Sharpen your mind. II How do you hear a tree fall in the forest if you are in the city? Turn a deaf ear. III How do you find the path to enlightenment if you have no…
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SNAKE EYES
Einstein said, and I assume he believed, that God didn’t play dice with the universe. Hawking disagreed, said God was an inveterate gambler and worse still he would not only throw the dice but he is so sarcastic that he would gladly confuse us by throwing them where they can’t be seen. You have to…
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BUDDHA IN WALES
Sitting cross legged I dance between mindfulness and Samadhi, slipping the unmarked boundary until engulfed by the void. Buddha crawls into my lap an utter stillness until she touches my cheek with sand paper tongue and kneads my chest with rhythmic paws. I run my fingers down her spine. We purr, wedded in perfect enlightenment.
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SEEKING THE BUDDHA
I looked for you on the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo, but perhaps you were in the unreserved car sharing a seat with a small girl, and a withered old woman, eyes closed, staring placidly at the holy mountain shrouded in clouds.
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BUDDHA AND HILLEL DINE TOGETHER
The meeting occurred by chance, two old men sitting in the same park staring at the same empty chess board as the waves of the Stygian Sea lapped against the break wall, the ferryman now at the helm of the great cargo ship. “So,” said Hillel, “you come here often?” Old, bent Buddha paused “as…
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QUANTUM
The universe is both enormously vast, measurable only in metaphor – and so infinitesimally small, it is an idea that would fit in the corner of a grain of sand. As you walk the beach grasp universes between your toes and kick them into the tide of the cosmos.
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THE FLUTE PLAYER PLAYS ON
HYAKUREI’S ATTAINMENT 鐵笛倒吹 四 Sitting with a monk at the feet of the master when his mouth opens what will you hear? If you both see a sudden light will you say something when asked? Walk slowly away from questions and keep your answers tucked away in your straw hat and lit all be…
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SENBAZURU
The crane stands placidly staring through the window as we earnestly attempt to imitate him, hoping he will honor the effort and not the result. The Master is graceful and we far less so, and out of the corner of my eye I see what could be smile, but could be derision as well, and…
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THREE NOTES FROM THE IRON FLUTE
MANJUSHRI ENTERS THE GATE 鐵笛倒吹 一 Like Manjushri, stand still outside the gate and listen for the call of Buddha from within. When he calls, answer but is Buddha inside and you without? There is nothing at all to see, and the gate has fallen from its hinges so answer yourself carefully. …
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