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 5 Mar 2004 @ 02:18
At a given moment I open my eyes and exist. And before that, during all eternity, what was there? Nothing.
---Ugo Betti
A monk clamored to ask Chao-Chou the most important principle of Zen. The Master excused himself by saying, "I must now go to urinate. Think, even such a trifling thing I have to do in person."
---Zen mondo
Step by step, the early morning breeze.
---Hakuin
Spiritual neurology
A mystical union
Mar 4th 2004
From The Economist print edition
A small band of pioneers is exploring the neurology of religious experience
The renowned French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot once scribbled some notes while under the influence of the psychedelic drug mescaline. Colleagues were puzzled because among the scribbles was the incongruous statement, written in English, “I love you Jennifer”. Still more puzzling was the question: who was Jennifer? That was not the name of his wife nor of anyone else they thought he knew. Despite the mystery, Dr Charcot's colleagues never thought to question the scientific value of the experiment. More >
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 26 Feb 2004 @ 01:21
At that pond
the frog is growing old now---
among fallen leaves.
---Buson
How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become---to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being?
---Antoine de Saint-Exupery
One day, while Nan-Ch'uan was living in a hut in the mountains, a strange monk visited him.
Nan-Ch'uan greeted him saying, "Please make yourself at home," and then left to work in the fields. He worked hard all day and came home hungry and tired.
The stranger had cooked a big meal for himself, threw out the leftover food and broke the utensils, and went to sleep. When Nan-Ch'uan stretched himself out to sleep, the monk got up and left.
Years later, Nan-Ch'uan told this story to his disciples, commenting, "He was such a good monk, I miss him even now."
---Zen koan
Celestial Beings Sing and Dance for the Holy Couple
Miniature Painting On Paper, Kangra School
Artist Kailash Raj
There is a slight difference in the latest sheaf of poems from John Tagliabue, my beloved mentor and friend from college days. Hard to believe we've known each other some 45 years---and have laughed and cavorted the whole way. The difference is an aura of summing up that pervades the poems and commentary. Well, that's a big difference right there: commentary. He not only tells us his references, but journals off into the people and places right there at the poem...or on the back of them really. He sometimes does that at his poetry readings, but not so much in letters. He knows I put some of them up on the Internet...and even though he refuses to get involved in computers, he likes what I'm doing. More >
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 25 Feb 2004 @ 02:25
In the shop,
The paper-weights on the picture books:
The spring wind!
---Kito
Wisdom is better than wit.
---Jane Austen
To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point: we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.
---Shunryu Suzuki
I mean, can too many choices be as frustrating to one's freedom as having no choice at all? You may say obviously all those brands and grades of cough syrup in the midst of my suffering, and all those breakfast cereals are maddening and absurd...BUT the free market is better that some (other) kind of dictatorship. Not so fast. Here comes an article in the current The New Yorker that treats exactly this conundrum. Actually a book review, nevertheless I found it struck a chord~~~ More >
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 18 Feb 2004 @ 21:08
There is no wealth but life.
---John Ruskin
The master, Hseuh-Feng, asked a newly arrived monk where he had come from. The monk answered: "From the Monastery of Spiritual Light."
The master said, "In the daytime we have sunlight; in the evening, lamplight. What is spiritual light?"
The monk had no answer.
The master said, "Sunlight. Lamplight."
---Zen mondo
The sun shines not on us, but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.
---John Muir
As I may have told you, two weeks ago I submitted to a biopsy of my prostate gland. Such a procedure is not altogether uncommon for men my age. It involves removal by a kind of slicing needle of six tissue samples from the gland, and was performed in my urologist's office without sedation and I drove home. More >
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 14 Feb 2004 @ 11:13
I have never waited for anything the way I've waited for today, when nothing will happen.
---Marguerite Duras
And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
---T.S. Eliot
Approach it and there is no beginning; follow it and there is no end. You can't know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life.
---Lao-Tzu
In the Woods, c.1900-04
Watercolor over pencil on paper
Paul Cezanne 1829 - 1906
A break in the weather and, while it's still cold outside (around 20 degrees Fahrenheit) here's a chance to restore and replenish. Southeast Ohio has been so wet this fall and winter, relieving a few years of drought conditions, that the ground is completely saturated. Any more rain or thaw after snowfall means flooding at once, so time at home has been used fortifying against the elements. Today is calm and rather bright so I was inspired, as the Valentine ladies laze about a bit this morning (plus Ilona's friend Tara who spent the night after the big Middle School dance) to get after a few chores. More >
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