an old writer and his words

  • KEGON RETURNS TO DELUSIONS 鐵笛倒吹 語十二

    If a gentle flowerfalls from its branch,do you mourn its departure?The fool attemptsto place it back in the tree,the wise one waitsfor another flower to appear. Each is the same flowerbut how will the foolbecome wise? A reflection on case 52 of the Iron Flute Koans

    Lou Faber

  • 詩

    The Japanese inventedhaiku certain that a paintingof great beauty couldbe completed with onlya few strokes of the brush. The Japanese have no wordfor what we claim is higherorder poetry, academic andpedantic are two other Englishwords which easily apply.And the Japanese are hard putto comprehend so much of whatwe deem experimental, the result,a friend named Yoshi…

    Lou Faber

  • SEPPO CUTS TREES 鐵笛倒吹 二十三

    Will you spend all of your time sharpening the blade or will you use it on the tree and if you strike the pith what will you say then? To speak of the sap flowing freely from the wound of the axe is utter foolishness it has no taste on the finger better to feel…

    Lou Faber

  • REMEMBERING ANOTHER FATHER

    It was scrawled on the back of a grocery receipt, barely legible. Charles H. Boustead Tunnel, fryingpan river. The river is lower case, its capitals dangling by serifs in one of the tunnel grates that constricts the water’s flow. Outside the full moon is ensnared in the gnarled, barren branches of the white birch. She…

    Lou Faber

  • A MOVING MIND 無門關 二十九

    Do not be a foolish monk stare up at the sky is that could moving? The leaves dance on the morning breeze, is the wind moving? take a picture of the tree a moment of time frozen There is no motion of the tree, none of the wind only the mind moves. A reflection on…

    Lou Faber

  • BUDDHA NATURE

    A singe egret sits calmly on the lowest branch of a long barren tree, where hours from now a thousand birds will arrive for still another evening and night. He stares at me as I am mindfully vacuuming, watching carefully. I pause and ask if by chance he is a Buddha and he lifts his…

    Lou Faber

  • IN SEARCH

    He’d been searching for ever, or so often seemed, for no-self, and he couldn’t fathom why it was so difficult to attain simple absence, nothing must be less than something, after all. He knew, like Sisyphus, he would continue to search until he succeeded, the gods of his soul decreed it and you don’t fuck…

    Lou Faber

  • RINZAI PLANTS A PINE

    If you have a seed in your pocket what will you do with it? Even a small seed planted carefully in the middle of a forest may take hold and grow. Tamp the soil with your toe three times, three times again secure in knowing this tree will never provide you shade. A reflection on…

    Lou Faber

  • UNGAN’S SWEEPS THE GROUND

    As you stoop to pick up fallen leaves are you cleaning spring, summer or autumn? What seasons are deep within the winter branch? How does your work and that of the tree truly differ, and what leaves do you shed? A reflection on case 83 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)

    Lou Faber

  • CUBIC

    In the center of every city there ought to be a park, an expanse of green, trees older than the first European to arrive, so old they need not feign indifference to the humans who have invaded and refused to leave despite the mother (nature)’s request that they do so immediately. Some cities comply, but…

    Lou Faber