...

Inwardly strive to develop
the capacity of mindfulness;
outwardly spread
the virtue of uncontentiousness.
Shed the world of dust
to seek emancipation.

- Kuei-Shan (771-854)

The universe is female
Eluding the science of men
You sway and you swagger with your neat little dagger
You're gonna blow it again

I'll prove her existence in everything
The soul of her rivers and stones
Her acquiescence in everything
Her essence, her presence, her bones

Lust and love take the masculine
Ambition and war take the boys
Pin the tail on the alpha male
A little man making big noise

It's not the engine or chassis
It's not the weapon or length
Your war dance I guess got this place in this mess
But there's something that's stronger than strength

Metaphor is a goddess
A king that's fit for a queen
The opposite side of that armored old hide
I hope you know what I mean

~ Steve Kilbey, 1990.

Look at how our heads and feet
Are capped and shod without a second thought.
It is like the man who had a long beard,
But did not anguish at its length
Until one day someone asked him
How he arranged it when he went to bed.
First he put it inside, then outside the coverlet,
The whole night he spent looking for the best position.
And tossed and turned until the dawn of day.
In the end he wanted only to chop it off!
Although this fable is light and humorous,
Still it contains a much deeper meaning.
When I asked the dharma master about this,
He gave a smile and nodded his assent.

- Su Shih (1073)

The substance of a sage
Is nameless and cannot be spoken of;
The empty door of truth as it really is
Cannot be tarried in.

- Pai-chang (720–814)

Over the ages you have followed objects,
Never once turning back to look within.
Time slips away;
Months and years are wasted.

- Kuei-Shan (771-854)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i hope to anger the master by asserting that months and years do not exist

ah, damn my desire to do things!

My hut isn’t quite six feet across
Surrounded by pine, bamboos, and mountains,
An old monk hardly has room for himself
Much less for a visiting cloud.

- Shih-wu (1272-1352)
~~~~~~~~~~~

and so begins the process of transforming the shack into the hut

i'll get this hermit stuff right one of these days

@rookie54 said
To glorify the Way what do people turn to?
To words and deeds that match,
But oceans of greed never fill up,
And sprouts of delusion keep growing.
Plum trees in bloom cleanse a recluse;
A patch of taro cheers a lone monk.
But do hermits who live by rules
Ever see the Way for the mountains?

- Stonehouse

@hakima said
Reprise...

I took a quick search through the internet to see who Stonehouse was. I discovered that he was one and the same person, as the last ... posted author, Shih-Wu.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiwu

How very interesting.

@rookie54

"Alex, I'll take 'Hell, Nah' for 200"

😉

When I was a kid,
we'd sometimes go to Lum's
I'd have a tuna sandwich
and iced tea with a lemon slice

Ch’uan-tzu searched for the fierce
Fire of Enlightenment in water;
The Old One understood him especially well.
Because Chao-chou bequeathed to us
The perplexing problem of
Affirming or denying existence
He himself believed only in the
Absolute which is beyond existence,
It has become harder to avoid the
Question of good and evil in humanity.

- Takuan

Smiling is infectious,
you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner
and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled I realized
I'd passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile,
then I realized its worth.
A single smile, just like mine
could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin,
don't leave it undetected.
Let's start an epidemic quick,
and get the world infected!


Spike Milligan

The mind of a Wayfarer is plain and direct, without artificiality.
There is no rejection and no attachment, no deceptive wandering mind.
At all times seeing and hearing are normal.
There are no further details.
One does not, furthermore, close the eyes or shut the ears; as long as feelings do not stick to things, that will do.

- Kuei-Shan (771-854)

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

~ Alvin Toffler

Our instruments have no way
Of measuring this feeling
Can never cut below the floor,
Or penetrate the ceiling.
In the space between our houses,
Some bones have been discovered,
But our procession lurches on,
As if we had recovered.
Draconian winter unforetold.
One solar day, suddenly you're old.
Your little envelope just makes me cold,
Makes destination start to unfold.
Our documents are useless,
Or forged beyond believing.
Page forty-seven is unsigned,
I need it by this evening.
In the space between our cities,
A storm is slowly forming.
Something eating up our days,
I feel it every morning.
Destination, destination.
It's not a religion, it's just a technique.
It's just a way of making you speak.
Distance and speed have left us too weak,
And destination looks kind of bleak.
Our elements are burned out,
Our beasts have been mistreated.
I tell you it's the only way
We'll get this road completed.
In the space between our bodies,
The air has grown small fingers.
Just one caress, you're powerless,
Like all those clapped-out swingers.
Destination, destination.

~ Steve Kilbey, 1988