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TERMINAL
Birth, he said, is the first and only real terminal disease. You only realize that, of course, when it is far too late and there is nothing at all you can do about it. Cancer and all manner of diseases merely shift the timeline, but once you’re on the path, there is only one way…
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TO THE SEA
Today I would like to walk to the river, fashion a boat from a sheet of paper, and set off on it to a far distant sea. Most would think me crazy, but most see only the water flowing by under the bridge, and not the sea that lies out of sight beyond the horizon,…
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ONLY NOW
Tomorrow, in all likelihood, the park will still be there, we will still be walking there, the Austrian Pines will still stare down at us on the path, and the cardinal will flash by, his cry for attention in a red blaze. Tomorrow all this will likely happen as it did yesterday and last week,…
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MU MONKAN
Walking on the road today, I didn’t see the Buddha and thus had no need to kill him. I did find what I thought to be a dog’s Buddha nature, but it proved to be nothing- ness, so I walked on through the gate that led exactly nowhere. This evening it rained and I picked…
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BUDDHIST RELATIVITY
Now then, he says, and at once he is again victim of the confusion that he spreads in his wake. She takes him to task again, but he protests that what was now is clearly then, now, and this now, too, is now then, for each now is gone in the time it takes to…
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WALKING
The entirety of this practice is to learn to walk with a lightness, so that you contact the earth, the grass, not tread on it, so that the earth and the grass caress your feet and not try to push them away, and all the while there must be a gentleness of breath so the…
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SOZAN’S FOUR DON’TS 鐵笛倒吹 九十二
You may seek to follow the path of the dove – a fool knows many roads. You may wrap yourself in fine linen – an infant wears only his skin, and knows this moment is already gone. Think long before you speak of how to walk along the path, of where it leads. The baby…
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FINDING A DIAMOND 沙石集 二
There are endless paths on which to walk, yet we find one and remain on it even when it becomes rocky and rutted. We do not see the road, nor those who cross it, watching only our feet. It is only when we step off of the cliff that our feet are free to walk…
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an old writer and his words 