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MIRRORED
It isn’t the seeing of something that matters, for what is seen was there to be seen so seeing is just its natural consequence. It is only when you label it, give it a name that it ceases to exist, for you at least, for at that moment what exists is the label and no…
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PURE DHARMA BODY 正法眼蔵 二十六
Standing at the foot of the mountain, what side do you see. Standing atop the mountain, what side do you not see. Close your eyes and you will see that the mountain has no sides. Close your eyes and you will find that there is no mountain. A reflection on Case 26 of the Shobogenzo…
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EVENT UALLY
A week from this Thursday something will happen that no one could have ever foreseen. This is the beauty and the horror, at once, of our limited vision, afraid to see the present although it is all that is clearly within our visual field. Instead we look back into the shadows where memory substitutes for…
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AROUND IT
It is remarkably simple, really, a single circular brush stroke in a monochrome black on rice paper, always nearly perfectly round, never is the circle complete, always some small thing left wanting. You stare at it, more at the small gap, imagining it filled, hoping it cannot be for it holds out the promise that…
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ENLIGHTENMENT
He wasn’t sure he wanted it, was fairly certain he did not, and in that moment,was certain he would get it, so he began developing elaborate plans on what to do with it when it arrived. He laid them out in painful detail, each step, each move carefully choreographed. He waited patiently, each minute washing…
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LIGHT
The light always enters unseen, knowing without it nothing can be seen. Light sees the infinite green pallet arrayed on a single leaf, the complex hues of a rainbow painting the white wisps of morning clouds, the blaze red forehead of the moorhen patrolling the pond. Light will always willingly share its vision if we…
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HAWK
A red tailed hawk watches carefully from the tall pine that stands proud in the next yard. It is not clear for what he is watching, perhaps it is nothing at all, or something my human vision cannot discern. I stare at him, but he does not return my stare, and after some time lifts…
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ABIDING
Do not look behind you to see if the Emperor is following, for if he is, he will not see you. If he asks nothing, tell him that there is no truth, that everything is true. He has no teacher and looks at each passing person to find one. You should not be worried because…
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I will, or may see something today that may surprise me. It may reveal itself in aquiet moment, it may be nothing more than a fleeting thought or an image, I am certain. It won’t be brought by Magi nor even magic, though on reflection, it may seem somehow magical. I suspect most will miss…
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YAKUSAN’S LAKE 鐵笛倒吹 八十八
When you travel from home and are asked if the lake on the shore of which you live is now full, what can you say. Will you speak of the rains that soaked your fields and what of the herd of water buffalo come to graze since you have left. The eye sees only now,…