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PAST DUE
It seems we have an endlesscapacity for imagining peace,exceeded only by our capacityfor greed and selfishness.We announce our beliefsin equality, equity, diversityand abide them so longas they don’t impede ourdesires, wants, wishes.We offer alms to the poorsolace to the weak, prayersfor the needy so long as theyremain anywhere we do nothave to see or interact…
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ZHAOZHOU ROTATES THE CANNON
If you ask a masterhow to become a Buddhahe will say, simply,that you are one,but, he will add,if you knowthat you areyou will nevertruly be a Buddha. A reflection on case 74 of the Shobogenzo, Dogen’s True Dharma Eye 正法眼蔵
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A GIFT
As your birthday approaches, Mother,I should pause and thank youfor your bequest of grace, a gift youleft me on you passing ten years beforeI found you, found myself again.It was more than the helical part of methat finally became apparent, morethan a heritage imagined but unknown.It was something as simple asa college yearbook picture, for…
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VISITORS
As much as he needed sleephe had grown to dread itfor each night they visited him,always whispering, he strainingto hear if they had wisdom to offeror were simply there to mock,to plague him, as recompense for someimagined sin, some innocent mistakeor simply because eternity canfairly quickly become boring.He knows their number willonly grow over time…
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INTO THE DARKNESS
We live in an age when logic has failed and our days come with the darkness of night leaving all of our plans and dreams derailed. We imagined a world, fully detailed to leave our children, that was their birthright. We live in an age when logic has failed and the battles we fought, the…
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AGAIN, REALLY?
As you age, and I writefrom increasingly painful personal experience,life becomes ever more paradoxical.Things you once could easily do,wanted to do often, become difficultand some almost impossible(get your mind out of that gutter,I meant things like heavy liftingAnd home maintenance projects).And things you never thoughtyou would ever do becomethe stuff of daily life (just askyour…
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THREADS
They keep arriving in my email,sometimes one or two a day,and then nothing for a week or more.I look at them out of curiosity,because I have learned all I wantedsome time ago and they are like icingon a cake I no longer intend to eat.But they are “family” of sorts, distantalways, remote usually, but I…
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MIMOYAN’S PITCHFORK
When you sitbefore the teacherand he asks whatis it you seekfrom him, if you answerhe will say he cannotgive you whatyou already have.If you say nothingand stay silenthe will say the worldis all yours. A reflection on case 73 of the Shobogenzo, Dogen’s True Dharma Eye 正法眼蔵
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A SMALL WONDER
It always amazes me thateveryone around me seems to agewhile I know that I have notand that it is the mirror’s liesthat try and make me think I have.True, my body cannot do muchof what it once could but thatI know is less a factor of ageand more one of over use,for even the best…
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AT GRAVESIDE
It is odd that cemeteries arequite often the site of oration,soliloquies delivered with great emotion,be it love, regret or anger.Often they are paeans or jeremiadsmeant to be delivered in personbut held back until it is only the stonethat bears the brunt of the words.And yet a burden is liftedfrom the speakers for they assumethe dead…
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an old writer and his words 