mai 2008
The sound of within
What is the shape of afternoon, in the garden, in spring? Birdsong is the constant outline, coming from nowhere and everywhere, the sound of within. The swallow's rhythmic coo is the call of the inside [...]
Zen in Paris
A day of Zen practice in Paris with the Wild Flower Zen Sangha and Amy (Tu es cela) Hollowell Sensei May 18 (Sunday) 9h30-17h30 Come one, come all. Beginners and experienced practitioners welcome. Registration (required) [...]
Beauty lurks
Behind words, within, beauty lurks. To open the space around words, to free them, I try other tongues. One language limits more than two or three or more. Tree is arbre is baum. Willow is [...]
Totem
On the corner the building is gone with a figure I can’t remember brushed on its gray shutter an unavoidable curve an unrecognizable spiral I didn’t know every- time was a climax looping out of [...]
I Am Not Near, Not Far
"Don't try to figure out who you are," said the Zen master Tozan Ryokai. "If you try to figure out who you are, what you understand will be far away from you. You will have [...]
The last word of the perfect tongue
Writing my "book," or reading, walking in the rain along a Belgian canal, riding the Métro on a holiday afternoon, letting the cat out and in, pulling on a black sock, sitting at the window, [...]
avril 2008
Familiar Twists of Strange Branches
Often in the afternoon, I turn from the Boulevard Raspail onto the Rue Emile Richard, which on each side is lined by parked cars and the stone walls of the Montparnasse cemetery. It is a [...]
When the server serves
Please forgive zenscribe's unforeseen absence in the blogosphere: The server was serving. Which serves as a flagrant example of what is so often forgotten or overlooked: The constant disappearance of all I know. There is [...]
One day replete/Une journée pleine
The whole day of words is wordless. I rest. To be quick, I must be quiet. Phone calls are answered. A friend offers tea. The stairs lead up and down, but one by one, nowhere. [...]
Die to live/mourrir pour vivre
Yesterday in sitting I see it: My thoughts wander, and "I" follows, running in aimless circles along trails that just double back onto themselves. This is going nowhere, blindly, incessantly yearning to come and arrive. [...]
La vulnérabilité des choses précieuses/Vulnerability of precious things
"La vulnérabilité des choses précieuses est belle parce que la vulnérabilité est une marque d'existence." Simone Weil, La pesanteur et la grâce (Plon, 1947) "The vulnerability of precious things is beautiful because vulnerability is a [...]
mars 2008
Beyond good and evil
"Pour les Anciens comme pour les mystiques, ce champ qu'ils s'accordent à reconnaître comme celui de la divinité se situe au-delà du plaisir et du déplaisir, au-delà du bien comme du mal. Quiconque veut y [...]
Abundant nothing
If you knew there was nothing to get, would you keep grabbing? If you open to the abundant nothing, what is there left to grab?
The less I know
In the garden this morning, I am looking where I always look. Blossoms stand ghostlike in abundant tree foliage. A dead leaf hangs captive in the frayed strands of a flag, flit-flapping. Undergrowth and overgrowth [...]
No Idea
How can it last, this headline world of shortcuts carved daily in no space and time?
Days of sitting
Two days of Zen practice in Paris with the Wild Flower Zen Sangha and Amy Hollowell April 6 (Sunday) May 17 or 18 (Saturday or Sunday, date to be confirmed) 9h30-17h30 Beginners and experienced practitioners [...]
La présence intérieure/Inner presence
"...ce secret n'est que la présence intérieure, silencieuse, insondable et nue, qu'une attention toujours donnée aux mots (aux objets) nous dérobe..." Georges Bataille, L'expérience intérieure (Gallimard) ("...this secret is nothing but the inner presence, silent, [...]
View of the Unknown: Saturday
Outside the window beyond the kitchen sink narcissus in yellow bloom.
Life is movement and rest at once
I might say that having never left, I am back again. A long weekend in Portugal and now return to Montreuil, Paris, Neuilly. There was a second jukai ceremony, with photos to come, either here [...]
février 2008
Photos of the Jukai Ceremony
Quelques photos que j'ai faites le jour de la prise des préceptes de Sarah, le 10 février 2008 à Breuil Bois Robert en région parisienne. Emmanuel Download
Alexis says:
Alexis says:
Alexis says: