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SHEEPISH
As a child, when Ihad trouble falling asleepmy mother would trot outthe ancient saw and tell meto just count sheep. I tried to point outto her that we livedin an upscale suburband there were no sheepfor miles for me to count. This hardly deterred herand she repeated herdirections, in a strongertone of voice that she…
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ASHES TO ASHES
He says he wants to knowwhat I want done with my ashesknowing I want to be cremated. I tell him I need to thinkabout that for a while, knowingthat “while” could be an evershortening lifespan, but Idare not tell him that, itsimply wouldn’t be acceptablehe would respond, setting offanother endless discussion. I don’t say that…
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THE GRADUATE
You really ought to pauseand wonder just how differentthe world might be todayif in that crucial momentthings had gone ina wholly different direction. A single moment canset the course for allof the moments that follow,a definite future pluckedfrom an infinite arrayof possibilities. I mean, of course,that moment whenMr. McGuire, in the guiseof Walter Brooke turnsto…
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Atop the Pole 無門關 四十六
Sitting atop a hundred foot poleyou are convinced there areonly two directions: pole and down.Old Osho asks, how will you proceedand you stare back at this lunatic.How will you proceed, he repeats? You release the polestep slowly away, lookingat ten directions before you,you move your feet, each onetouches the path of eachof the three worlds…
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YUN MAN’S EVERY DAY IS A GOOD DAY
Pause and consider why so many questionsrequire you, you feel, to consult your watch,to call up a calendar, to appoint time.Time has no appointments, time is notan arrow, though we strive always to aim it,to send it flying in our desired direction.Time is a point in space, surrounded byall ten directions, going toward none of…
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ANGLE OF INCIDENCE
Dusk reflects dawn much asdawn reflects dusk, and it isour fear of night and deep needfor direction that sets them apart. Imagine a photograph of the sunhovering just over the horizon,compass-less we do not knowwhat preceded, what will follow. We prefer day and dawn, forit is then we feel in control,our thoughts leashed, our fearslocked…
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DEFINE-ITELY
It takes only moments for someoneto ask for a definition of poetry. That task is at once terriblysimple and equally impossible, a poem is many thingsbut not now or ever: a paean to a self-aggrandizingleader without soulor sense of direction,moral and literal; a rant on howall are conspiringagainst you despiteyour stable genius; a Jeremiad decryingfacts…
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MAN OF GREAT STRENGTH 無門關 二十
From this place traverse a thousand paths visit the ten directions with unmoving feet and recount your tale with frozen tongue to we deaf quadriplegics. A reflection on case 20 of the Mumonkan (The Gateless Gate)
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ALOFT
She imagined what it must be like to have wings. She always wanted to be unmoored from the ground, to be free of its incessant pull, to look down on it from high above, and not with aid of contraption, just her, arms outstretched. The ground was a prison. She could move about, yes, but…
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RAISON
There is a reason – there must be a reason for everything, that is just how things are supposed to be, how we decree them. And when things are events, we are at liberty to tell them to comply with our direction. If they fail, then we consign them to miracles or the work…
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an old writer and his words 