Echoes in a Hollow Space

Random quote of the day:

“Zen pretty much comes down to three things—everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.”

—Jane Hirshfield, interview, Fooling With Words by Bill Moyers



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Key and Peele, Celine Dion, or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

 

Random quote of the day:

“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

—Zen proverb

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Lucy and Ethel, Justin Bieber, or the Kardashian Klan. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“Little things are big.”

—Yogi Berra, What Time Is It? You Mean Now? by Yogi Berra and Dave Kaplan

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Lucy and Ethel, Justin Bieber, or the Kardashian Klan. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:

“Zen is the fight against reliance on words.”

—Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Random quote of the day:


“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."

—Ray Bradbury, Zen and the Art of Writing











( Illustrated version. )


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:


"The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing."

—Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki








And now, here's your moment of zen:


( Illustrated version. )


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

You thought you'd escaped the painful poetry moment for the week, didn't you? I may have also posted this one before, but again I couldn't find it. Probably a while back if I did.


From the notebooks, August 12, 1998:



Dead Man’s Zen

My dead friend wrote in the margin of my book:
“Nothing’s your fault, and you are responsible
for all of it. Maturity.”

The wolf stared at me and I got scared.
I cried, thinking my time was gone,
but time still ticked in my heart.
Time was not my problem.
What to do with time was my problem;
how to use it well, how to be used by it
and not mind so much.

The wolf still stares,
hungry, unapologetic, bluntly assessing
whether my tottering legs can outrun it.

But wolves aren’t only hungry for flesh.
Often it is for honesty:
sifting, weighing, natural selection.
They want authority and submission,
a leader to follow, or a pack to follow them,
arranged alphabetically.
They do not accept excuses,
or acquiesce with lies and self-delusion.
Their gleaming eyes know fraud,
and seek out weakness.
They hamstring the liars,
bring them to the ground
to meticulously devour pretensions.

Nothing’s your fault.
You are responsible for all of it.
Maturity.

Dead man's in his Heaven.
I'm here with the wolves.
Be straight with yourself—
and get to work.

Stephan

At the end he needed so little from me.
Certainly not my tears, my sympathy.
At the end his eyes were clear and deep,
already piercing the clouds separating us
from that place beyond dreams, hopes, fears,
pitying us because we could not yet see.
Lightened of greed, and envy, and regret,
he wore our sorrows like a cloak of feathers,
his smile radiant with sadness, the exquisite
illusion of the world fading, fading--here
this moment, then gone. He needed nothing
I had to give, except love. And all he had
to give was love . . . and a beautiful pain.
Then that, too, was gone, and only love remains.


###


Dead Man’s Zen

My dead friend wrote in the margin of my book:
“Nothing’s your fault, and you are responsible
for all of it. Maturity.”

The wolf stared at me and I got scared.
I cried, thinking my time was gone,
but time still ticked in my heart.
Time was not my problem.
What to do with it was my problem;
how to use it well, how to be used by it
and not mind so much.

The wolf still stares,
hungry, unapologetic, bluntly assessing
whether my tottering legs can outrun it.

But wolves aren’t only hungry for flesh.
Often it is for honesty:
sifting, weighing, natural selection.
They want authority and submission,
a leader to follow, or a pack to follow them,
arranged alphabetically.
They do not accept excuses.
They do not put up with lies
and self-delusion.
Their gleaming eyes
know when you are a fraud,
and they seek your weakness.
They hamstring the liars,
bring them to the ground
and slowly devour pretensions.

Nothing’s your fault.
You are responsible for all of it.
Maturity.

He’s in his Heaven.
You’re down here with the wolves.
So be straight with yourself--
and get to work.