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WHEN YOU MEET A MAN 無門關 三十六
On the road, you will meet many. Greet each with a silence that speaks loudly. All of the books of the dharma are contained in a single gassho. A reflection on case 36 of the Mumonkan (“The Gateless Gate”)
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SOZAN’S FOUR DON’TS 鐵笛倒吹 九十二
You may seek to follow the path of the dove – a fool knows many roads. You may wrap yourself in fine linen – an infant wears only his skin, and knows this moment is already gone. Think long before you speak of how to walk along the path, of where it leads. The baby…
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SHE SAID
She said that we are little more than clay to be molded by God and carved by fate and we count on nothing more than this day. It’s but a week since she has slipped away, we expect our sense of loss to abate. She said that we were little more than clay, just so…
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THE WORLD HONORED ONE ASCENDS
The student may comment, “Hillel was asked to sum up all of the teaching while standing on one foot and did so.” If this student asks the teacher to provide the essential nature of Dharma in one sitting, what choice does the teacher have but to rise and leave the room. The teacher may comment,…
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GENSHA’S BLANK PAPER 鐵笛倒吹 四十九
If you ask me to write on paper all that I know of zen I will hand to you three empty sheets. Study them carefully for upon them the Dharma waits to be seen. I will draw you a circle almost complete a bounded space having neither inside nor outside, another gateless gate. A reflection…
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MANDALA
Day one, and they are hunched over the mat meticulously drawing faintly on its deep blue surface. Day two and sitting, leaning forward they precisely place the first grains of sand. Day three, the same and the picture begins to emerge though they dare not breathe. Day upon day, minute upon minute hours on end…
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LINJI WAS(N’T) HERE
I very strongly doubt that Linji ever walked along this path, given that it wasn’t even here fifty years ago. He never saw the egret staring back across the pond, or the flock of ibis doing what seem like prostrations. He did not see any of this, which saddens me a great deal, but taking careful steps,…
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THE MESSENGER TIRES
He says, in a quiet aside he hopes no one will overhear, that he has grown tired of being an angel. And not for the reason we might think, he adds with a wry smile. The work is not all that difficult, in fact there seems to be less of it week by week, but…
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VAIROCANA (NARA DAIBUTSU)
Daibutsu, you sit placidly staring down at the throng that slowly bows before you. You can small the faint essence of the joss sticks wafting from the great cast iron pot outside the massive doors. “Do not act as if the world were real” you whisper, or so it seems to my chilled ears, “it…
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an old writer and his words 