Our entire lifetime:
a short line drawn in water;
soon nothing remains.
It doesn’t matter what ink
or how much pressure you use.
What seems important
doesn’t leave an impression
in time’s vast ocean.
Each of us is a mirage;
Not even wetness is real.
17 FEB 2025
Grasping our nothing
we try sharing everything;
we are all alone.
Wholeness disguises itself
in the mirror’s reflection.
We hold our nothing
like a vast, sacred treasure;
our fingers give out.
Beyond the edge of owning,
true experience begins.
22 JAN 2025
When you want to learn
don’t start with what you don’t know;
examine yourself.
Remember, your ignorance
begins at the beginning.
When you want to grow
don’t start seeking the sunshine.
Connect to the ground.
Until your roots are dirty,
you won’t need much chlorophyll.
When you want to love
don’t start with the external.
You won’t find much there
only the same emptiness
reflected in the mirror.
06 DEC 2024
So many words for such a thing so small
it barely leaves a ripple at the shore,
and all its no-so-grand comings and goings
are little noticed after, or before.
So brief an episode is this thing life:
a moment’s breath in an eternal now
that being full, is emptiness itself,
containing neither what nor who nor how.
What good is such a nothing span of time?
What works can be accomplished end to end?
Alone, it has no substance to speak of;
it makes no mark to show that it has been.
And yet without it all we have is words;
just rocks that never grow to become birds.
03 DEC 2024
Without gratitude
to season today’s living,
the soup of being
has little or no flavor.
Who would eat such a bland dish?
Without noticing
the beauty of this moment,
a colorless world
clothes our life in only gray.
Who would want such a sad view?
Without compassion
leaking from our open wounds,
life’s armor will rust,
making any movement stiff.
Who enjoys such a forced dance?
Without awareness
of the truth of emptiness,
we become so full
of our own self-importance.
Who finds joy so all alone?
27 NOV 2024
There is no practice, way, or path,
No future place, no lingering past,
Nothing is real, and nothing dream;
Everything that is, just seems,
and is connected but still free
to think with selfish vanity
That by itself it came to be.
What folly, to imagine this
and seek elsewhere for endless bliss
That is already here and now
Without your discipline or vow.
Each breath you take is sacred space
Transcending time, and self, and place.
You are already where it’s at,
And gone beyond. Imagine that!
24 AUG 2024
Breathing in and out
Isn’t just for the cushion;
It’s the entire thing.
If you practice just sitting,
This moment is everywhere.
Try to stop breathing,
And your attention can’t last;
You are mind and body.
Pretending at something else
Requires a lot of thinking.
Everything you do
Requires breathing in and out;
It’s all important.
So everything is sacred,
And that is also empty.
21 JUL 2024
