You want
to learn to catch a mouse?
Don’t try to learn from a pampered cat.
If you want to learn the nature of the world,
don’t study fine bound books. The True Jewel’s
in a coarse bag. Buddha-nature stops at huts. The
whole herd of folks who clutch at the outside
of things never seem to make the
connection.
You should know that
your own aware essence is neither finite
nor eternal, by nature neither defiled nor pure.
It is still and complete; it is the same in ordinary
people and saints, responding effectively
without patterns, apart from mind,
intellect, and discriminating
consciousness.
now that I have you I’ll never forget what I owe you
I believe in steep drop-offs, the thunderstorm across the lake
in 1949, cold winds, empty swimming pools,
the overgrown path to the creek, raw garlic,
used tires, taverns, saloons, bars, gallons of red wine,
abandoned farmhouses, stunted lilac groves,
gravel roads that end, brush piles, thickets, girls
who haven’t quite gone totally wild, river eddies,
leaky wooden boats, the smell of used engine oil,
turbulent rivers, lakes without cottages lost in the woods,
the primrose growing out of a cow skull, the thousands
of birds I’ve talked to all of my life, the dogs
that talked back, the Chihuahuan ravens that follow
me on long walks. The rattler escaping the cold hose,
the fluttering unknown gods that I nearly see
from the left corner of my blind eye, struggling
to stay alive in a world that grinds them underfoot.
he met the world in darkness and in light
There
isn’t any need
to seek outside yourself.
Look inside, allow ideas and
methods and ways of perceiving to
dissolve, and you will see that
your original face and that
of all the buddhas are
one and the
same.
Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 49 / Revolution
You
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Wei wu Wei Ching as part of a
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“now we terminate those who oversee the nuclear weapons, my lord”
I have said to the
crude-minded Fakhruddin Razi
and the dull King Khwarazmshah and
several other joyless philosophers, With your way
you leave behind the beauty of flowers and peacefulness
and walk steadily into darkness. You ignore the obvious miracles
in favor of smoke and ghosts. The false self of ego makes your
decisions. You feel confused and blocked, but wisdom
knows that this material world is a door to spirit.
Specific actions are required, and careful
We live in a place where
thorns and poisonous plants grow wild,
but fruit trees, roses, and vegetables need tending.
The diligent farming work is virtue. Fakhruddin and Khwarazmshah
disagree. They’re like the locusts who descend and eat crops rather than help
them grow. I wrap myself like Muhammad in this robe of torso, limbs,
and face, this splendid covering of phenomenal existence,
where I grow toward some destiny I know not,
only that I must live fully here
to reach the next.
