an old writer and his words

  • RINZAI’S BLIND DONKEY

    When your teacherhands you the dharmawhat do you find in your hands? What will you dowith the dharma you are given,where will you keep it,or will you give it awayin silence, and in suchgiving have it with youat all times and places. A reflection on Case 13 of the Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)

    Lou Faber

  • CELESTIAL RHYTHM

    It was a certain rhythm that he loved,one he felt it in total silence, yet it fadedin the presence of sound, a doumbekof the soul he would describe it. He remembered how it was beforetheir one god rendered him and his kindmere mythological creatures fit onlyfor poetry and dusty library shelves. He would have his…

    Lou Faber

  • A WELL REHEARSED SILENCE

    Of course there is something I oughtto say, moments like this require it,it goes without saying, painfully. I practiced lines for hours, rehearsedin my dreams for weeks, knewfor years I’d be rendered mute. My tongue swells, threateningto escape my mouth or take refugedeep within my esophagus. Your silence is only compoundingmy anxiety, how can I,…

    Lou Faber

  • SIEGAN’S COST OF RICE

    How long have you wanderedalways searching for the oneanswer, the hidden truththat, when revealed to you,will show you enlightenment? Where have you searchedfor this one truth, onethat will collapse the past,present and future intoa single moment of purepresence which you can graspand carry with you through life? Stop and ask the infantstrapped to his mother’s…

    Lou Faber

  • DEEP

    Deep beneath the Arctic icethe whale songs shimmerin the harsh lightof a frozen sun.We strive to hear them,hear nothing, hear onlyour thoughts echoingthrough cavernous memories.With thoughts of what was,what we wish had been,we are ambient noisein a universe whichcradles hope, craves silence.Dolphins dream of dayswhen the sea was theirs,lives lived in a slow paradisea world…

    Lou Faber

  • GENSHA’S THREE VEHICLES 正法眼蔵 四十語

    Describe this momentwithout use of word or sound –see where you arewith eyes pressed tightly closed,hear a song with utter silence,taste the pure mountain airreach out and touchthat which has no shapeor form, no essenceand you sitin the middleof reality. A reflection on case 45 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • The World-Honored One’s Intimate Speech 正法眼蔵 三十四

    The wise one deliversmost knowledgewithout opening his mouth.The sagacious studentdoes not hide the wisdomhe inherits but offers itin utter silence.What is ityou wished to sayfor I am readynot to listen. A reflection on Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans Case 34 (True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • ENFORCED SILENCE

    The city is a ghost town,the ghosts peering warilyfrom windows they nowwish they had takenthe time to have cleaned,and now there is timeand no one to clean. They fear the silence,cannot fathom the smellof the air, somethingfaintly like a cool morningfrom their suburban childhoods. They have found pots,pans cast aside or usedfor any purpose otherthan…

    Lou Faber

  • CHATTER

    The cat tells me thatlong after we have goneto bed for the night shehears the argumentsof the authors of the bookslining our living room shelves. The poets, she says, quibbleover rhyme and meter, claimthis one is academic, thatone merely skilled in doggerel. And don’t, she adds, get herstarted on the Buddhistauthors, who argue endlesslyover their…

    Lou Faber

  • ZHAOZHOU’S “LOSING THE MIND IN CONFUSION”

    Be forewarnedthe greatest wisdomis written on wateron a cloud –the sun reads it clearlyso why are youso blind to it? A blind man will notbe mislead by signsa deaf man cannotfall victimto the siren’s song. A reflection on Case 11 of the Shobogenzo Koans (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber