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ENSO
In the interstitial momentbetween birth and deatha universe comes into existence,something that never before existedand existed always, newand well-known, unseenand visible for eternity. Measure it wellfor it is incapable of measurement,and ends without warningand precisely on schedule.In the momentary breaththat marks the transit,we proceed nowhereand cannot return to where we began. Reprised from March 27,…
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AS IT SHOULD BE
Day gives way to night. Life gives way to death. Truth gives way to truth and falsity to falsity. Nothing moves, nothing cedes, all is constant. This is enso, one stroke, complete and incomplete and this is mu. You may enter freely, but will never leave, and once captured you have never been here and…
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AROUND IT
It is remarkably simple, really, a single circular brush stroke in a monochrome black on rice paper, always nearly perfectly round, never is the circle complete, always some small thing left wanting. You stare at it, more at the small gap, imagining it filled, hoping it cannot be for it holds out the promise that…
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ENSO IT GOES
I spent much of yesterday trying to draw perfect enso. You would think it easy to draw the simple circle, one easy stroke, but my efforts suggest otherwise. It is my Western mind, my teacher once suggested, always linear, this moment next to that, and then the one that must naturally follow. If not a…
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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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QUARTET (HAIKU)
pond’s surface ripples each following another stone hidden from sight the old monk listens to the song of the passing breeze stars sing the refrain Buddha walks the road ignoring all around him each finds a teacher a circular path will take you nowhere quickly again and again
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an old writer and his words 