Thursday, April 3, 2008

Raining Dukkha



Drawn after driving 500+ miles from Oklahoma City to St. Louis, outrunning a predicted tornado with a car having expired plates, etc. etc.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Two Birds Drink . . .



I left a very special place in Austin today and saw these two birds drinking from a bubbling fountain. I looked in the water and saw one face shine.

Friday, March 28, 2008

No Such Things as Skeletons



Sometimes when I don't know what to do I turn on the TV. Within seconds someone says something that creates an image in my mind. Here's one of them.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Getting and Spending



Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we know of nature that is ours. (William Wordsworth)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Give Me Your Wallet Now!



I received an email today from a visitor to NYC. She wrote that the people are mean and the sun is not shining. I told her to say, "Excuse me sir . . . ."

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Friday, March 21, 2008

Ye Ol' Barber Shop



I love listening to the conversations
at the barber shop. I should pay extra
for that.
The older barber is a great listener.
Each customer is his favorite,
and he seems sincerely interested
in what they are going to do for Easter.

The other barber is off fishing,
or golfing, no matter who is
sitting in his chair. Maybe next
time I'll draw him.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Descartes



So the Buddhist said Descartes
had it backwards,
"I am therefore I think."
And another said I was wrong
saying "I am not me" because
asserting "I" is really
saying "I am me."

So I asked what do I say,
without much hope that
I'd figure it out by midnight.

"There is me," he said.
I thought of the little prince,
looking at himself, standing on the Earth,
and at the rest of everything,
all twirling around and around
and around.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Non-Thinking Again



I asked the abbot about
non-thinking yesterday
and found that it was a
desired state, where
we experience
rather than conceptualize.

I then asked if non-self
was related to non-thinking
and he said no. But the
more he talked, the more
I realized that "self"
was the illusion of our
though rather than what
we experience.

I am "me" is only true
because I create
that as myself.
That identification
sometimes functions
as a shield to protect
me from getting
to really know how I feel
as I interact with our world.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Around and Around Again



He was driving in circles,
around and around,
slowly,
day by day,
year by year,
as the landscape changed
by the light and seasons
and as the world spun and rotated
around its mother Sun.

He was getting somewhere,
then nowhere, not realizing
that the trip was only back
from whence he had come—
over and over again.

His mind was not on the road
but rather on the gluttonous
breakfast he had, and how
it refused to find its way
past the middle of his stomach.

As his car jumped over a deep pothole
he was jarred into consciousness
and wondered if the surroundings
were slightly familiar
or just a figment of his imagination.

And then his stomach growled once more
as he left the road once again
to travel
in his mind, around and around,
again.

Boyfriend

Rhinoceros Fan (an infamous koan) One day Yanguan called to his attendant, "Bring me the rhinoceros fan." The attendant said, ...