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A PAUSE
Now just stop and imagineif one event in your youth had gonein a wholly different direction,where would you be today?Follow this alternative universebounded only by imaginationand such amount of logic as you choose,and create the framework of a lifethat never existed until that moment.If you wish, pick another event,and another until you havea cosmos of…
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THE FAR SHORE
The old monkstanding alongsidethe ever still pondpicks up a pebbleand tosses itinto the pond.The ripplesspread outever wideras the Buddhaon the far shoresimply smiles.
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WRITING
I wrote my namein the waterof a still pondpracticing untileach letter wasperfectly shaped.I smiledat my signatureas a morningshower rippled itto the surroundshores.
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GOKOKU’S THREE SHAMES
When you throw a pebbleinto a still pondwhat is it you look for?If you say the ripplesthe pebble has madeI will say there is no pebble.If you point to the pebbleon the bottom of the pondI will say there are no ripples.If you point to the skyyou will have found the way. A reflection on…
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A STONES TOSS
If you toss a stoneinto a placid pondthe ripples will washaway from the landing spotas so many small waves,and unseen, the areaof the pond’s surfacewill grow imperceptibly. If you toss a stoneinto an vast ocean,the ripples will washaway from the landing spotsmall unnoticed wavesand unseen, the areaof the ocean’s surfacewill grow imperceptibly. Ask yourself now,whether…
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THE LAKE
Sitting out in the middle of the large lake is a very small island. It’s more of a large rock just sticking out of the water, but everyone calls it an island. Moss grows all over the exposed part so you don’t know it’s all stone unless you row out to it, which no one…
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MUGO’S FANCIES 鐵笛倒吹 語十九
If you stand on the shore of a still pond and toss a stone into its middle the ripples will spread slowly until the water laps your toes. If you stand on the shore of a still pond and toss a ring of the finest gold into the middle, the ripples will spread slowly until…
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AT THE BORDER
Out at the edge of the universe, time has no beginning and stretches endlessly, as a stone dropped, its ripples spreading outward across a shoreless lake. There is no time here at the margin, no space consumed by all space. I would touch the edge and press it outward disrupting balance until it all draws…
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RIPPLE
In this moment there is, and can be, no other. And when it is gone it never existed, much as the next will never exist. So it is with us, a reflection of the ripple of the long sunk stone now nestling the bottom of the pond.