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TOUCH
I would reach out in touch you but as it is my fingers barely reach the keyboard. I would take your picture the next time I see you, but it would appear instantly, no waiting for someone to tell me as you were merely a blurred image appearing days later pulled from an envelope. Perhaps…
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WITH A CAUSE
She says if you could only peel back the photograph, you could read the entire story that lies beneath. It is deeper than the image below which it lies trapped, and wider, imbued with a meaning the image could not capture, just as, she says frowning, there are no words for parts of the picture,…
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ETERNITY OR A WEEK
He only wants to live forever, or if not, at least until a week from Thursday. Important things always happen on Wednesdays, he is convinced. He has no logical reason for his belief, but it is his and he will not be shaken from it. “It is a matter of faith,” he says “and you…
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COSHAN’S DHARMAKAYA
He spends considerable time looking in the mirror trying hard to see what is there, to see inside himself, to truly see himself as he imagines others see him. The mirror denies him a static image, it is always shifting, and try though he might to grasp one single image he finds it impossible and…
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WWJD?
He walks into the room hoping he won’t be seen and if seen, won’t be recognized. Not many know him, none, he is certain, truly know him, merely his image and the idea they have of him. It has been this way for centuries, and he can barely recall the acts done, the words spoken…
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DONGSHAN’S ILLNESS
When someone says you are not looking at all well, who is it that is ailing? When that person says you looked better the last time he saw you, which you did he see? If you look in the mirror do you see someone looking ill, and if you do, who is that person, for…
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MIRRORED
It isn’t the seeing of something that matters, for what is seen was there to be seen so seeing is just its natural consequence. It is only when you label it, give it a name that it ceases to exist, for you at least, for at that moment what exists is the label and no…
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DEAR CASS
She’s getting downright boring, every night lying up there, staring down when she decides to part the clouds, saying nothing, as though all of the words of praise for her must come for us, unreturned. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised by her vanity, it is why, after all, she is up there now, unable…
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KANNON’S STATUE 鐵笛倒吹 語十八
If you meet the Bodhisattva, you don’t ask someone to carve the image from your mind. To the carver, she weighs but an ounce and can be carried on his fingertip but try to lift her and you will not be able to move her from her place. All Buddhas are one Buddha but his…
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TREACHERY
René Magritte was born and died in Belgium, neither happened on this day, but he painted a most realistic picture of a pipe, which he captioned “Ceci N’est Pas Une Pipe,” which of course it was not since it was only a picture of a pipe and he entitled the work The Treachery of Images.…