Saturday, April 23, 2011

Watching the reel as it comes to a close
Brutally taking its time
People who change for no reason at all
Happening all of the time
Can I go on with this train of events?
Disturbing and purging my mind
Back out of my duties, when all's said and done
I know that I'll lose every time.

Love is only real

When shared!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Chop wood, carry water

"Before Enlightenment chop wood, carry water.
After Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."

Monday, April 18, 2011

Loss

It all hurts so very, very much.

Recovering.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Veil



"There's always this veil. That's why we like a striptease. Because, there's an implication, that you should never give the show completely away. There's always got to be a little bit of a veil left. There always is. Because even if you find the striptease artist gets completely naked, there's really something hidden. What's the motivation? What sort of a person is she? Would I really like to embrace her? Or would she have bad breath? [laughter]

You know? Or something. You never really know. You never really get to the bottom. That's why all men poets say that women are basically mysterious. And they ought to be! So are men, basically, mysterious. From women's point of view. Although they play that they're not. See, this is the way that it goes: men are supposed to be very open and they say, “Well,” of a certain situation, “this is the way it is, after all, it's perfectly rational, it's a matter of practical affairs.” And women say, “Well, I'm not as articulate as you are, but I know there's something you've left out but I can't explain it.”

And by this means, everything is kept going. [laughter]"

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

"The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt." -- Thomas Merton

Friday, April 1, 2011

Ryōkan


"I watch people in the world
Throw away their lives lusting after things,
Never able to satisfy their desires,
Falling into deeper despair
And torturing themselves.
Even if they get what they want
How long will they be able to enjoy it?
For one heavenly pleasure
They suffer ten torments of hell,
Binding themselves more firmly to the grindstone.
Such people are like monkeys
Frantically grasping for the moon in the water
And then falling into a whirlpool.
How endlessly those caught up in the floating world suffer.
Despite myself, I fret over them all night
And cannot staunch my flow of tears."

---

"Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent."

---

"Where beauty is, then there is ugliness;
where right is, also there is wrong.
Knowledge and ignorance are interdependent;
delusion and enlightenment condition each other.
Since olden times it has been so.
How could it be otherwise now?
Wanting to get rid of one and grab the other
is merely realizing a scene of stupidity.
Even if you speak of the wonder of it all,
how do you deal with each thing changing?"

---

"Though I think not
To think about it,
I do think about it
And shed tears
Thinking about it."

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