June 2007
59 posts
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 26
Planks of the seesaws
At Fayan’s lunchroom are straight
Made of hickory
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
3 tags
Pulling up the boat
On the sandy beach at home:
Then look! Two ospreys
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
Watching for ospreys
All morning on the big lake
No birds in the sky
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
3 tags
On a pebble beach
While two dogs search the island
Watching ospreys nest
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
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A leaking row boat:
I’m the king of Lake Murray
With two wet old dogs
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
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OK my good dogs
Let’s hop into the rowboat;
Visit the ospreys
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
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Today the sun turns
To slink toward the darkest time
Deep in mid-winter.
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
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On Wumenguan - koan 25
The butterfly lites
In the Buddhas’ paradise
Dreaming of Yangshan
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
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On Wumenguan - koan 24
Shut up and tell me
How to speak without speaking
But don’t make a sound
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
3 tags
What glows green & round
After spring exuberance?
The secret maypop.
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
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Avoid the word “mere”;
It only serves to reduce
The glory of grass.
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
3 tags
Flash of bright color
Deep in the green shadowed woods;
A blue plastic cup.
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 23
Original face:
Before birth and after death,
The face you’ve got now
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
The gathering storm
Chases my bike down the wet road:
Leaf before the wind
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
This bright sandy road
Wherever trees arch over
My feet seek the shade
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
4 tags
Late spring morning walk
Wildflower colors have left
Woods of intense green
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 22
Knock down the flagpole
Lock and bar the temple door
Ain’t preachin’ no more
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
“= “weAreLinked” (we’reAlittleDark, perhaps: aFuneralDance?...”
– renice
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 21
What’s not Buddha
Kamakura Amida
13 meters high
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
Quiet Sunday morning
Everyone else is asleep
Spoon clank in teacup
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 20
Foot loose & tongue tied …
No it’s the other way around
There is no third line
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
“There’s a glimmer of morning just over the tree line The sky full of...”
– Webb Wilder, The Rest (Will Take Care of Itself), Doo Dad
2 tags
“It’s four in the morning And the water is pouring down Out of work And my...”
– Anonymous?
2 tags
Out of work for months
There’s plenty of time to ask
What is my life worth?
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 19
You can’t seek Buddha
With the ordinary mind.
What else do you have?
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 18
Three pounds of burlap:
Not much. But three pounds of hemp
Now that’s the Buddha
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
3 tags
Osprey flying wild
Fishing the edge of thunder
Eyes piercing whitecaps
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
Low thunder since noon
Fades to silent graying sky
Suddenly cold rain
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 17
Scribbling in the dark
Somewhere someone is calling
No disappointment
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
Turn the wet earth brown
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
Gold boys on a red tractor
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
Across the green field
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
4 tags
After a long drive
The salt smell of the ocean
Ah now vacation
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 15
A long way from home
Tozan’s lion cub gets beaten
Right or wrong the same
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 14
Cat bodhisattva
To bless Nanquan’s cat rebirth
You died for their sins
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 13
I can see the nut
Even though I can’t taste it
To this nut I’m blind
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
“When we view the four directions from a boat on the ocean where no land is in...”
– Eihei Dogen Zenji (1200-1253)
3 tags
Death’s the best koan
If rideing bikes won’t wake you
Then nothing will save you
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
Ode to Ego
Monkey for good home
Quite witty for a primate
Jokes incessantly
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
w
Now here is the spot
Where I should have been from jump:
Completely confused
- Thinking about Wumenguan - koan 13
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 12
Zuiganji Temple
Echoes with earnest banter
Is the Master home?
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
2 tags
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Further thoughts on Wumenguan - koan 6
Yesterday the road
Was lined with passiflora
Today there is one
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
Further thoughts on Wumenguan - koan 1
A day so dense and still
The sky might burst with thunder
The crows scream No! No!
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
1 tag
On Womengan - koan 11
Tight fist and loose fist
Never the same river twice
Trout pools, mud puddles
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
Taking hold, one’s astray in nothingness; Letting go, the Origin’s regained. Since the music stopped, no shadow’s touched My door: again the village moon’s above the river.
— Nensho (1409-82)
2 tags
In the midst of winter
I find in myself at last
Invincible summer.
— Soen-Roshi
2 tags
“All the way to Heaven, is Heaven.”
– St. Catherine
1 tag
On Wumenguan - koan 10
Poor Qingsui drinks wine
Buddy can you spare a dime
Suddhodana’s boy
(via Twitter / John Hicks)
Content with chipped bowl and tattered robe, My life moves on serenly. The single task: allaying hunger, thirst, Indifferent to the murmurous world.
— Tonsui (?-1683)
- But Buson said it best in haiku:
Dewy moon - These saucepans are beautiful.
- Or my beloved Issa (1763-1827):
...