an old writer and his words

  • FLIGHT

    One thousand cranes take flight and there is a sudden silence as the cat stares up, bidding them farewell. We barely stop to notice, despite the rainbow of colors replacing the clouds, even the sun seeming to pause in wonder. Two thousand hands made this happen, one person, unrelenting, knowing anything less would be nothing…

    Lou Faber

  • NOW?

      If the time is now how will we know it. And if we miss it how will we know what the consequences are? The better question is whether it matters for if we can be in each moment to the extent possible then nothing is missed and every moment is now and there is…

    Lou Faber

  • TOZAN’S GOING BEYOND BUDDHA

    The greatest speech is given only when the mouth falls shut. To talk of peace is to be at war with peace, to speak of war is to be at war. When listening disappears peace re-emerges, when peace emerges the listener appears. A relection on case 12 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • FORETELLING

      The chill foretells winter much as birth foretells death but for humans there is only the spring of childhood.

    Lou Faber

  • THREE CALLS 鐵笛倒吹 三十九

    If your name is called how do you answer? If it is called again and then again, will your answer always be exactly the same, or will you grow angry and deny even yourself? Surely your teacher knows who you are but knowing yourself, that is the highest mountain you will be asked to climb.…

    Lou Faber

  • WHERE?

      Is it the trip or the arriving that most matters, or is it simply what you expect once you are there, if there is where you expected, for expectations are too often misplaced and assumptions reflect desire not truth. In the end it hardly matters, for you can never be anywhere but where you…

    Lou Faber

  • NANO

    If there is but a single moment this one is not the one, and so we shall each of us continue to wait and wonder if the next one is the one, or even the one after that, or one next week. But the real question is, if there is such a moment, whether we’ll…

    Lou Faber

  • [ ]

    In the middle of my morning zazen I am no longer here. I have fallen deeply into my mat. The ending bell rings.

    Lou Faber

  • FELINE BUDDHA NATURE

    The cat is curled on my zabuton, and stares up at me only long enough to say, “now would be a good day to test Buddha’s advice – that you can sit almost anywhere and still your mind. So look around I have left you the rest of the room and your sitting bench, and…

    Lou Faber

  • UNASKING

    There is much you would ask the Buddha and so little he would tell you. But at the moment that you fall silent, when your last question slips away and you have no request – in that moment the Buddha will speak freely and provide the answer to unthought-of questions.

    Lou Faber