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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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DOUBLE ESPRESSO
Buddha walked slowly into the coffee house and ordered a large mochachino. He approached the sofa in the corner and folded himself neatly and precisely into and among its overstuffed cushions to the delight of a five year old pulling at his mother’s sweater as she struggles to finish her latte. “The body,” Buddha says…
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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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THROUGH THE GATE: FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE MUMONKON
The Beardless Barbarian 無門關 四 A young child has no beard. In one dream you are bearded and awake clean shaven. In one dream you are clean shaven and awake rubbing your long beard. When you meet your dreams and when your dreams meet you, which is real, Wakuan…
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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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ACROSS THE ABYSS
The gulf between dream and nightmare is easily bridged in a single step. It should not be a step taken lightly, but one taken in both directions. We coddle dreams, dread nightmares, but we tell them apart on a level neither they nor we can hope to understand. Both are reality. Neither is reality. And…
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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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INTERSTICES
In the interstitial moment between birth and death a universe comes into existence, something that never before existed and existed always, new and well-known, unseen and visible for eternity. Measure it well for it is incapable of measurement, and ends without warning and precisely on schedule. In the momentary breath that marks the transit, we…
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an old writer and his words 