We spend far too much time
clinging to what was
as the flames fade,
and far too little time
feeding the fire
and grasping
what could be.
present
SOZAN’S FOUR DON’TS 鐵笛倒吹 九十二
You may seek to follow
the path of the dove
a fool know many roads.
You may wrap yourself
in fine linen, an infant
wears only his skin
and knows this moment
is already gone.
Think long before you speak
of how to walk
along the path, of where it leads.
The baby says nothing,
will not speak of where
he has been,
where he is going, for to him
there is only here,
and silence
is descriptive enough.
A reflection on case 92 of the Iron Flute Koans
EACH
imagine
these words
written end
to end, each
well known
but the order
setting
this apart,
in a long
single line
with
a half twist
Moebius-like,
and not
on a page
but a band
like life
nothing discrete
a continuum
each word
the only word
each moment
the only moment
if you wish
THE FUTURE’S PAST, PRESENTLY
Before the after
now is present.
It was never
like this before
it will not be
again anytime soon
for there is
no time soon
that has yet to be
or just gone by.
After the before
we find ourselves
here and now.
WHERE?
Is it the trip
or the arriving
that most matters,
or is it simply what
you expect once you
are there, if there
is where you expected,
for expectations are too
often misplaced and assumptions
reflect desire not truth.
In the end it hardly matters,
for you can never be
anywhere but where
you happen to find yourself.
ONCE
It was easier being Buddhist
when I was young, despite
the fact I had no good idea
what Buddhism truly was.
for a child the moment is all
there is, the past so short that
it means nothing, the future something
that will arrive as and when it wishes.
For a child, things will go wrong,
and do so with fair regularity,
but children are also physicists,
and the Lorenz effect guarantees
that it was never really their fault,
and when all else fails, they
simply blame karma.
THEN
Before the after
now is present.
It was never
like this before,
it will not be
again anytime soon,
for there is
no time soon
that has yet to be
or just gone by.
After the before
we find ourselves
here and now.
