If as you walk
along the way
you come across
a small bird’s nest
fallen to the ground
its eggs intact,
you place it
back on the branch
without a thought.
If as you walk on
and come across
another small bird’s nest
fallen to the ground
its eggs intact
you place it
back on the branch
because it pleases you.
One right thought
and right action,
one wrong thought
and wrong action,
how can you
tell them apart?
A reflection on Case 15 of the Book of Equanimity SHôYôROKU 従容錄
Pause and consider, if only
for a moment, this question,
which you need not answer
as you will be right and
you will be wrong regardless
of what you say in response.
What if we are the cat in
some Godly thought experiment
and our degradation of the planet
is the bit of radioactive material,
of which we have in profusion.
Are we alive, or are we dead,
or both, until God again
checks in on us, so we must
hope He is too busy creating
other worlds and correcting
the errors he made in this one.
You are a searcher, you
look for answers, you look
for the right path
that will lead you
to enlightenment.
You see everything
as black or white, good
or bad, right or wrong.
You are a master
at division.
Stop searching, stop
seeking answers, stop
dividing, then sit
with Nansen’s cat.
That will be enough.
A reflection on case 8 of the Book of Equanimity
Thirty blows of the stick
if right, thirty blows
if wrong, or Namsen’s sword
and a severed cat
a half to each
a whole to none
Be thankful you
didn’t argue about a man
for with a shoe
on the head, your feet
may touch the sky.
A reflection on Case 14 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate Koans)
The first one felt right,
there was nothing deeper considered,
just that feeling that now,
I know, anyone might have provided
but then, it was something
in a world of nothing.
The second, really, was
certainly right, for life this time,
the wisdom of a single failure
enough to ensure success,
and when it came apart
thirty years later, it was
apparent it was never right,
just more than nothing.
This one is right, for it
does not require feeling so,
merely being in her presence,
a completeness I never knew,
which explains why this time
nothing can get in the way
of the ultimate everything.
I spend my day
looking at clocks, time
always present but never
knowing if they tell
the right time and what
difference it would make
if it were right or wrong.
Ostensibly time isn’t relative
but I cannot determine to what
it isn’t relative, so I just go along
wondering what time is.
Sooner or later
the moment arrives
when there is no option
left and you
have to decide.
There are never
facts enough, or time –
uncertainty is a most
unwelcome companion.
In this moment
indecision is not
an allowed outcome
and every selection is
at once right and wrong.
an old writer and his words 