The garden wilder than ever today, Sunday morning wind seems to whip even the sun here and there. Is something ending or beginning? September is neither near nor far. What season is it? This one. And in his sutra, the layman Vimalakirti said: "Ah, Rahula, you should not speak of the benefits and blessings gained [...]
After this month away from writing here, I return with the essential: As Master Dogen said, "Why give up your own seat and wander about in the dusty realms of foreign countries?" If we don't practice here, where will we practice? If we don't practice now, when will we practice?
Heading off to retreat in Portugal. Thus stillness visits for a week in the absence of words here. Yet the coming and going is open-ended. And presence is neither here nor there. How sweet it is.
There is still space for the weeklong retreat with the Wild Flower Sangha in France (Normandy)/Il reste de la place pour la retraite d'une semaine en France (Normandie) avec le Wild Flower Sangha: August 23-30/ 23-30 août Information/registration: zenscribe@free.fr
This morning, a butterfly in the garden was not like anything. I sat. The butterfly fluttered, then it didn't, it folded and unfolded its hazel-brown wings. I sat. The butterfly came and went nowhere, although it left my sight and entered it again. I sat. Only a thought made the butterfly like my mind, a [...]
The pages filling please me. I write to no end: The traces of doing gratify without reward apart from the doing itself, stroking to the drop-off.
I rest quietly and Apollonaire brings this to mind: Emperor Shukuso asked Chu, the National Teacher, "After a hundred years (after you have died), what do you want me to do?'' "Build a seamless tomb for this old monk," replied the National Teacher. "I ask the National Teacher, please show me the design of the [...]
Apollonaire, on the nature of a memorial for a fictional poet: "Il faut que je lui sculpte une profonde statue en rien, comme la poésie et comme la gloire." (I must make him a profound statue built of nothing, like poetry and fame.)
What might that be --- "traces of the sacred''? A museum tries many replies, all valid, yet ... What of that which is not in the show --- the beggars and buskers, the fancy cars and cheap shoes, tired workers on the Métro returning home, girls reading celebrity papers, smokers outside cafés, kids on bikes, [...]