Sōgi bows before Ikkyū. “Master Dōken rebuked me this morning,” he says. “What did you do this time?” replies Ikkyū.
Quantum Enlightenment and the Watched Pot
Ikkyū and Sōgi discuss creativity and the infinite: a koan
“Output is finite,” says Sōgi. “Input is eternal.” Sōgi sits at a small table. Before him are several papers covered in numbers, formulas, scraps of text, and … well, doodles. “What’s all this?” […]
Ikkyū and Sōgi on Art and Enlightenment: a koan
How can a thing be both path and obstacle at once? The poet Sōgi said to Master Ikkyū, “I am vexed by the koan of the tree falling in the forest. It […]
There is no future: the ironic peace of learned hopelessness (#zenofdoc)
We must be prepared to laugh with the universe at the banality of our own immolation. Full moon. Snowfield, vast beneath the mountain: to understand the truth of people, study their contradictions. […]
The worst of both worlds: The "Shimano problem" underscores clash of cultures when Buddhism spread to West
Buddhist teachers — Eastern and Western alike — who sleep with their students have left a trail of human wreckage in their wake. Russ Wellen at Scholars & Rogues.
Sundays with Uncle-God Momma: the baseball diamond sutra
I remember childhood afternoons at Tiger Stadium. The smells, the sounds. The Game. And the old men who followed it through cryptic pencil notation in their programs. Baseball was perhaps a pastime […]
Sundays with Uncle-God Momma: wash your bowl
An adept asked his master, “I have finished my breakfast, what shall I do?” “Wash your bowl” was the reply. To eat in a Zen monastery is both sustenance and ritual. Like […]
Daxis, pt. 3: snake on a plane
by Michael Tracey There had earlier been another development that caught the attention of the local US intelligence services based in the embassy. In July Daxis had told me that he had […]
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