images

slipping between ideas and projected images we struggle to create a reality outside of truth. our job is to create some alternative and interesting story which transcends the mundane existence of our lives. we think if we can seek the controversy or seek the exotic that we will achieve success and fame. so we manufacture a reality outside of the truth and outside of presence. and the we try to live this story this play that we have written that seems more interesting than the life that we lead. the problem is that the playwright and the play have been extracted from the unfolding of a life which is flowing from its source. when we try to become the playwright and set a course that isn’t in touch with our situation then we realize there is no other moment.

a birthday poem

we walk this path and we are immersed within a life of direction and a life seemingly directed by idea and belief. yet what is it that we seek from our birth and what do we choose to transcend from our death? it is this coming and going, it is our life and our death that we see and yet we don’t see any of its significance. moments arise and moments pass, we engage and we disengage yet is this what we are? this life is simple if we just can see this very moment as it unfolds and comes into our consciousness. we are not our thoughts, we are not our ideas, we are not our opinions, we are merely this moment as it becomes and as it slips away. a very happy birthday I wish you all the best and hope to be with you soon.

there is a life

there is a life within a life that is within another life where we try to find meaning. it is this struggle between the present and the relative and the absolute where all of our ideas fall into the abyss. there is no way out nor is there a way in, we are simply here and most of the time we are searching and we don’t know it. the simple truth is always present, there is no this or that, and there is no here or there. we are already the truth embodied in our experience of each and every moment which is unfolding out of the not knowing, and within the absolute and within the relative and yet all of this is just thinking. just breathe and know the breath. just see and don’t make anything. just hear and become the sound. just taste and know that all experience is this. just touch and feel the firmness of now.

fishing

thousand foot fishing line, drops deep in the water– as a single wave radiates outward. following the ten thousand waves, a quiet night, cold water, the bait–as yet never touched. empty boat– on a still pond is full of silver moonlight.

August 1973

A Dream

guest tells host about last night's dream, host shares with guest about his own. who is it that can say that these two are also in a dream? originally nothing except absolute calm, so why does the western wind blow down the flowers? the dog is chasing after a bone, a frightened goose flys away..... gaw, gaw, gaw... July, 1973

One Mind

One mind perceives

infinite time.

One is all.

Everything is one.

To let go one's hands

when hanging over a cliff

is to be a great man.

Winter goes North,

Spring comes from the South.

by Zen Master Seung Sahn