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mai 2008

Cartwheels on the path

By | 2015-10-02T20:08:05+00:00 mai 16th, 2008|Textes|

Do I really want to say nothing or do I not? Remember the man who woke up. He came down or out, from the mountain or forest, and returned to old camrades, fellow seekers still at it. They asked where he had been. He told them: "Over there. Sat for awhile. Looked up. Saw the [...]

Only now

By | 2015-10-02T20:08:26+00:00 mai 13th, 2008|Textes|

"...il est clair que le besoin de la durée nous dérobe la vie, et que seule en principe, l'impossibilté de la durée nous libère." Georges Bataille, Théorie de la religion (Gallimard, 1973) ("...it is clear that a need for duration robs us of life, and that in principle only the impossibility of duration frees us.") [...]

The sound of within

By | 2015-10-02T20:08:50+00:00 mai 11th, 2008|Textes|

What is the shape of afternoon, in the garden, in spring? Birdsong is the constant outline, coming from nowhere and everywhere, the sound of within. The swallow's rhythmic coo is the call of the inside of the world -- the inside that has no outside. Mind is shapely. The master asks, "How do you stop [...]

Zen in Paris

By | 2015-10-12T16:21:06+00:00 mai 8th, 2008|Textes|

A day of Zen practice in Paris with the Wild Flower Zen Sangha and Amy (Tu es cela) Hollowell Sensei May 18 (Sunday) 9h30-17h30 Come one, come all. Beginners and experienced practitioners welcome. Registration (required) and information: zenscribe@free.fr

Beauty lurks

By | 2015-10-02T20:09:12+00:00 mai 6th, 2008|Textes|

Behind words, within, beauty lurks. To open the space around words, to free them, I try other tongues. One language limits more than two or three or more. Tree is arbre is baum. Willow is saule is weide. Elm is orme is ulme. Birch is bouleau is birke. And yet the mot word wort is [...]

I Am Not Near, Not Far

By | 2017-04-04T06:58:22+00:00 mai 2nd, 2008|Textes|

"Don't try to figure out who you are," said the Zen master Tozan Ryokai. "If you try to figure out who you are, what you understand will be far away from you. You will have just an image of yourself." And Eka, the student who would become the successor of the Zen master Bodhidharma, said [...]

The last word of the perfect tongue

By | 2015-10-02T20:09:53+00:00 mai 1st, 2008|Textes|

Writing my "book," or reading, walking in the rain along a Belgian canal, riding the Métro on a holiday afternoon, letting the cat out and in, pulling on a black sock, sitting at the window, I am always seeking what without fail eludes me: the say of it. I want the last word of the [...]

avril 2008

Familiar Twists of Strange Branches

By | 2015-10-02T20:10:17+00:00 avril 20th, 2008|Textes|

Often in the afternoon, I turn from the Boulevard Raspail onto the Rue Emile Richard, which on each side is lined by parked cars and the stone walls of the Montparnasse cemetery. It is a straight street, and narrow, and on clear days it is bathed in the setting sun. Motor traffic runs only south, [...]

When the server serves

By | 2017-04-04T06:58:22+00:00 avril 15th, 2008|Textes|

Please forgive zenscribe's unforeseen absence in the blogosphere: The server was serving. Which serves as a flagrant example of what is so often forgotten or overlooked: The constant disappearance of all I know. There is the sudden hail of hail and then the sudden not-hail of hail, the no-more of hail. Now is the hail [...]

One day replete/Une journée pleine

By | 2015-10-02T20:11:00+00:00 avril 10th, 2008|Textes|

The whole day of words is wordless. I rest. To be quick, I must be quiet. Phone calls are answered. A friend offers tea. The stairs lead up and down, but one by one, nowhere. Thus I go. *** A monk asked Ummon, "What is speech that transcends the buddhas and goes beyond the patriarchs?" [...]