Literal Plum Blossoms

 







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At the Gate, through the Gate (Allen)

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  The monastery gate affected rust, but this was an optical illusion. By exposing coat after coat of red-dirt primer, the resulting bumps and crevices simulated aging. This had the advantage of appearing decrepit to casual passersby, the grounds uninviting in their assumed impoverishment. Mike the UPS driver tapped one foot until finally a young monk cheerfully swung open the right panel of the gate. Mike carried a shoebox sized package wrapped in brown paper.   Young Monk: I’ll take that. [He holds both hands out, palms up and slightly cupped as if it to receive it in sacrament.] Mike: Can’t. Instructions are it has to be hand-delivered to some guy named Dogen. Young Monk: I’m new here. I don’t know any Dogen. Let me find someone who does. Wait here. * * * Tenzo: You have a package for Dogen? Mike: Yes. Tenzo: I’ll take it. It’s probably his favorite dried apricots. He says the fresh ones are too sweet. They need air to ripen. Mike: Like I told the other g...
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Interesting article about cave paintings

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WHAT THE CAVES ARE TRYING TO TELL US                                                                                           (image from the article)   I came across a 2017 article by Sam Kriss about cave paintings (linked above) and I thought it was relevant to the Painted Rice Cakes reading. Cave paintings embody the idea that artistic representations are somehow more than just an image. It is a fun read and pretty short, but I'll include some of the passages that made me think of our class readings: "There's a powerful magic in representation, the gift of creating the world in simulation, the ability to turn charcoal and ochre into something that is also a real horse: might it have had an effect on the horse its...
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Concluding Thoughts (Herreid)

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"The real way circulates everywhere; how could it require practice or enlightenment? The essential teaching is fully available; how could effort be necessary? Furthermore, the entire mirror is free of dust; why take steps to polish it? Nothing is separate from this very place; why journey away? And yet, if you miss the mark even by a strand of hair, you are as distant as heaven from earth. If the slightest discrimination occurs, you will be lost in confusion. You could be proud of your understanding and have abundant realization, or acquire outstanding wisdom and attain the way by clarifying the mind. Still, if you are wandering about in your head, you may miss the vital path of letting your body leap (907)." The first paragraph of this passage articulates so well the fundamental questions that we have been discussing in regards to Buddhism. It is paradoxical, that the simplest things are the most challenging, that one must re-learn how to coexist with time, and with one'...
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