Poetry
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(Gatha of Xuedou, Blue Cliff Records) Unevenness, non fixing…
Compiled by Zen Master Yuanwu Keqin (Engo Kokugon, 1063-1135) One, seven, three, five.The truth you search for cannot be grasped.As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean;The dragon’s jewels are found in every wave,Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, in the next.
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Hovering on above Caithness (Northern Scotland – Orkney)
arctic skuas, guillemots and black backs, probing – swaying – with low and high motion intersplicing retrieving coordinates – rangag, ruard glas mheall liath, coir a’ghiubhsachain skaill, point of hellia splitting through eastern sutherland hovering above caithness, plunging into clear green depths shining, from waters to coconut fragrance melting yellows, beyond into wide moors –
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Becoming transparent, movement underfoot (Northern Scotland – Orkney)
texture of a rockface perhaps, all golden, scratched fissures – present and distant becoming transparent borrowed scenery fading now movement underfoot – methods and signals, all interweaving
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Shimmering Spectrum
spaces and timelines opening wide deep cobalts and emeralds rocky textures thrown through shimmering the movement of experiences through a pulsating spectrum up into stratospheres and oceans limitless
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Remembering the Tohoku Earthquake
All about light silver and cereleum spaces – from the distant spring cumulus two buzzards appear as dots, gently soaring boundlessly circling
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Two haiku poems
Fallen Leaves with a rustling sound fallen leaves pursue and pass others on the ground Tatsuko The Scarecrow in the setting sun the scarecrow’s shadow leans out to the road alone Shoha
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Autumnal haiku poems
Autumn-Twilight The hills cast shadows, And pampas grass is swaying In sunlit meadows. Buson Autumn Moon Is there anyone Who will not take up his brush With this moon tonight! Onitsura three noisy mallards zipping through a shattered zone strewn detritus of torn ochre and golden pinks mashed into shards, blown hither and thither
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Drawing, poetry and camping at mountain altitude
MOUNTAIN SPECTRE WHITE WING BLACK CAIRN Loafing around up on the Cairngorm plateau Has many advantages – You can loiter in peace with the deep blue sky, Surrounded by tiny dots of stone after stone Fading into the ten directions, Eat some homemade granola and bathe in fresh mountain streams – After contemplating two deer
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Working on Tenzo Zen Cooking Notes…
In the last couple of weeks, with the kitchen work still fresh in my mind since being up at Ardfern with the Zen Group, I started getting some notes jotted down to help others on the practice of Tenzo, and particularly in terms of the preparation, timing, various kitchen duties and roles, that sort of