an old writer and his words

  • JOSHU’S WASH THE BOWL

    In the early morningwelcome the sun,as the day retreatswelcome the sun.When you are walkingalong the garden pathwhich foot is forwardand which footis behind? A reflection on case 67 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • ONLY A BUDDHA AND A BUDDHA

    We walk forwardto try and seewhere we are going,always wantingbut never seeingwhere we have been.Is it better towalk backwardseeing clearlywhere we will not gowithout ideaof a destination.Look down and decide. A reflection on Case 92 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • REGARDING HISTORY

    We stand aroundin the shadowof the Coliseumstaring atthe Roman Forumimagining lifein the timeof the emperor. Fast forwardtwo or threemillennia,and imaginethe facesof those staringat the ruinsof our civilization if we have notdestroyed alllife by then.

    Lou Faber

  • KEEPING FOCUS

    It is of little surprise that we find this a dizzying world, for we always try to look forward, but since the future is often vague, we try and keep one eye on the past to understand what our other eye is poorly seeing. The mind does not care to be pulled in two directions…

    Lou Faber

  • LOOKING BACK FORWARD

    Between now and eventually lies all of history. We are unable to see it though it lies in our field of vision. That’s the problem, we only know how to look backward. We are barely able to see where we are. It isn’t that we don’t want to be here, merely that here is difficult…

    Lou Faber

  • STARING

    If you stare at it long enough it is certain to become familiar, as though you have seen the very thing in the very place and time before. You know this is not possible, but it allows you to conceive of the future, even though that cannot exist, any more than the past can now…

    Lou Faber