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SEKITO’S GREAT AND SMALL CANON
This wave touches the shore just as it should. That wave touches the shore just as it should. You may wait an eternity for a wave that touches just not as it should, just as it should not, or you can sit and let the waves wash over you. A reflection on Case 53…
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WITHOUT BEES
In the photograph the two great blue heron’s stare at each other. We are not certain if this is love, or there is something far more ominous impending. Birds have a way of being inscrutable, and herons are often mistaken for cranes, although I cannot imagine a senbazuru of herons. In the photo, their beaks…
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DEFIANCE
The stone defies the flame, drawing it in unyielding, until it is licked by the snow of winter The page defies the words, denying them purchase, they are flat without eyes to see them the repose unbroken The barren earth defies the king who orders it fertile as sand swirls engulfing the palace tearing at its…
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LEILA
At the left click of the mouse my granddaughter appears barely a week old and with a right-click she is frozen into the hard drive. I remember sitting outside the Buddha Hall of Todai-Ji Temple in the mid-morning August sun the smiling at a baby waiting in her stroller for her mother to bow to…
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ESSHŌ’S PATH 正法眼蔵 三十七
If you are seeking the way do not consult a map and most certainly do not follow in the footsteps of the wisest person. Do not ever ask directions for it is only when you are utterly lost and have no idea which way to go, that your every step is a step along the…
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MUSHOTOKU
We spend far too much time clinging to what was as the flames fade, and far too little time feeding the fire and grasping what can be, what is.
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DRAGON HOWLING IN A WITHERED TREE 正法眼蔵 二十八
Cut the hook off the line and throw it into the lake, dump the bait container onto the damp soil along the shore. Now sit silently in the oarless boat in the middle of the lake and drop your line and wait for the dragon to bite. And when it does, yell at it, hear…
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THEN AGAIN
1970. The evening news is a procession of body bags, the halls of the VA Hospital are a storehouse of shattered bodies. He sits with a surreal placidity cross-legged on the small cushion, the corners of his eyes pulling up as if lost in thoughts of Kyoto. I sit, knees creaking even then, across the…
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TWO THOUGHTS
Stare at a still pond, hear the birds “Beedu, Beedu,” now truly listen. . . Tomorrow is gone, yesterday has disappeared. What moment is this?
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MUGO’S FANCIES 鐵笛倒吹 語十九
If you stand on the shore of a still pond and toss a stone into its middle the ripples will spread slowly until the water laps your toes. If you stand on the shore of a still pond and toss a ring of the finest gold into the middle, the ripples will spread slowly until…
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an old writer and his words 