“…thoughts of the past, fantasies about the future, judgements and evaluations concerning…work itself–what are these but shadows and ghosts flickering about in our minds, preventing us from entering fully into life itself.”
~Philip Kapleau (Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys, Introduction)
“Suppose I invite you to join me for a cup of tea. You receive your cup, taste the tea, and then drink a little more…
“Now suppose I ask you to describe the tea. You use your memory, your concepts, and your vocabulary to describe the sensations. …concepts and words describe your direct experience of the tea, they are not the experience itself. Indeed, in the direct experience of the tea, you do not make the distinction that you are the subject of the experience and that the tea is its object, you do not think that the tea is the best, or the worst…There is no concept or word that can frame this pure sensation resulting from experience. You can offer as many descriptions as you like, but only you have had a direct experience of the tea. …And you yourself, when you are describing the experience, are no longer in it. In the experience you were one with the tea. There was no distinction between subject and object, no evaluation, and no discrimination. That pure sensation is an example of non-discriminative wisdom, which introduces us to the heart of reality.
“To reach truth is not to accumulate knowledge, but to awaken to the heart of reality. Reality reveals itself complete and whole at the moment of awakening. In the light of awakening, nothing is added and nothing is lost. …The moment of awakening may be marked by an outburst of laughter, but this is not the laughter of someone who has won the lottery or some kind of victory. It is the laughter of one who, after searching for something for a long time, suddenly finds it in the pocket of his coat.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh ( Zen Keys, pp.43-44)
The twilight bell
I waited for
is sounding —
if tomorrow is granted me,
I’ll listen for it again.
~Saigyo (B Watson: Poems of a Mountain Home)
“My right hand does a lot of things–it creates calligraphy and writes poems. Nearly all my poems have been written with my right hand because I don’t use a typewriter. There was only one time when I wrote a poem on a typewriter. When inspiration came to me, I did not have a pen at hand so I just put an envelope into the typewriter, and at that time my left hand participated. All the rest of my poems were written with my right hand alone, yet my right hand never says to the left hand, ‘You, you are good for nothing! You don’t do calligraphy, you don’t write poems. I do all the work, you never do anything!’
“The body never discriminates in this way. Don’t think that this is because our bodies do not possess any inherent intelligence. While trying to hang a picture on the wall, I held the nail in my left hand and hammered with the right. But instead of hitting the nail I hit a finger on my left hand. That happens from time to time, especially if you are high up on a ladder. Immediately the right hand put down the hammer and reached over to take care of the left hand, very naturally. The feet began to move to look for a bandage. Everything worked together very smoothly. Later the right hand did not say, “Hay left hand, remember how I helped you? Next time I need something you have to come and help me.’ Our innately wise bodies do not act in that way. So the wisdom of nondiscrimination is present in us as a living bodily reality. We have to train our minds to see in this way.
We form one reality. We exist in interbeing with all of life. When we understand this fundamental truth, our acts of giving will be made in the spirit of nondiscrimination. …we can offer a smile or a loving compassionate gaze. We can give the gift of calm, concentrated presence to help someone who is fearful or anxious. We can make an offering of our time and energy and work with the homeless, or with those who are prisoners or who are addicted to different substances, or to work on helping the environment. We have plenty of gifts to offer; we are far wealthier than we may imagine. We can help secure the happiness of many people even if we don’t have a single penny in our pocket.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh, Opening the Heart of the Cosmos
A river boulder embraced by a tree’s root…unusual
Won’t you sing?
I will get up and dance.
How can I sleep
with the timeless
moon this evening?
~Ryokan (K Tanahashi: Sky Above, Great Wind)
In the mountain shade,
water in the moss
drips between rocks.
I feel a glimmer of clarity.
~Ryokan (K Tanahashi: Sky Above, Great Wind)
See and realize
that this world
is not permanent.
Neither late nor early flowers
will remain.
~Ryokan (K Tanahashi: Sky Above, Great Wind)
An early summer morning in Poudre Canyon…submitted in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge
If someone asks
where I live,
say:
“The farthest end of
the heavenly river shore.”
~Ryokan (K Tanahashi, Sky Above Great Wind)
Cache la Poudre River
The headwaters of the Cache la Poudre River, also known as the Poudre River, are in the Front Range in Larimer County. The river descends from the northern part of Rocky Mountain National Park through the Poudre Canyon before it meanders across the plains of northeastern Colorado on it’s journey towards the South Platte River.
The name of the river (French for “Hide the Powder”) is a corruption of the original Cache a la Poudre or “cache of powder”. It refers to an incident in the 1820s when French trappers, buried part of their gunpowder along the banks of the river during a snowstorm.
cited: wikipedia
Would the flames of thought
that envelop your body
ever be quenched?
Never but of the blowing
of these cool winds.
~Saigyo (B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
A collage of multiple images (using WordPress’ tiled gallery) of rafters on the Cache la Poudre River in Northeastern Colorado
a meditative journey 
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