new year

fast pace
new times coming
sad news
bad times for others
death in the air
material things of little importance
friends, family, loving caring..
keep this in mind-----
reach out to others
help them and hold them close...
remember the fleeting of time..
love to this fast moving world
to all....

New Years Eve

Getting ready for new years eve. Kids all excited. Ordering the sushi, picking up wine. Everything seems so busy. Then some bunch of noise will happen. We will head home for brief sleep. Got a 6 am flight for the coast so I have to be up by 4. Hope to sleep on the plane. Ten days in the mountains with the lama.

Hope everybody is safe in 2004.

Mirror-like Nature

Surrounded
by dim light
almost darkness
yet

one lone
candle

directly before the eyes a singularity


enveloped in
infinite singularities
each

reflecting

all things arising

or

not

Dimensionless Nature

Sitting
struck by the
falling snow

light
and snow
display themselves

no dimension
at all

Iran

So
many
lost

so
many cold
and lonely

this
day

Duck

black branch
clatter on
a windy day

two ducks
V-ing the surface
of the wind
pattern on
the canal

mostly empty
of water

mostly full
of stone

Canal Walk

Went out on a walk on the canal. Did some walking meditation. Felt some real gratitude for those in buddhism that brought it to me. Nobody else out. Dreary wet cold day, wind in the face.

Absolutely perfect.

Christmas Eve Day

The tree is lit, my daughter plays with the puppy, cookies everywhere. This jolly Buddha is feeling alot like Santa. Like the fat old jolly chinese buddha with a sack on his shoulder, sanse the white beard.

So many times this year I was asked "Do budhdists celebrate anything this time of year?" Several answers came up over the week:

1. Any time of love and joy is a time for buddhists to celebrate
2. Peace and compassion
3. Giving and Generosity
4. Santa
5. Ho Ho Ho

Bushmills Fog

too much egg nog
and Bushmill's
golden irish whisky
leaves this morning
filled with
dull fog
on occasion
the mind
thudding through

dimensions of emtiness

Last night
4:03 waking
to sit in snowlight
focus
focus and point of departure
to find
no dimension
in the vast expanse

Christmas

not
that
he
rose
nor
water
to wine
nor healing
but
existing
arising
from
pure
emptiness
like
each
snowflake

Lord Of The Rings

Took the kids to LOTR last night. Fab flic! The beautiy of some of the scenes in Rohan, the mountains surrounding the vast plains. So much like Tibet. Made me realize how much I long to return. To just stumble around endlessly in the vast opens. The great emptiness of the landscape. To see this and feel homesick at the same time.

Tonglen Teaching

Met a girl on Saturday
pretty little dakini
but she's been cut off
can't empathize
to connect
with others pain

She's smart though
sharp tack
directly penetrates and sees it
sought out dharma
working through it

So I tought her Tonglen


..... saw the tears in her eyes.....

Morning Melt

Temp hit forty last night
hard when you go past that number
everything melts

   runs down the rain gutters

   making that gurgling sound

   ground covered in snow

   now slushy and soaked

but as I write
new snow falling in the gray

Butch

What's wrong with wrathful, he asked us?

I'm a reminder of what you need to know;
what is important to reach enlightenment.
Don't you want to be there?

Give me understanding when I look in your eyes.
Look in mine and recognize who I am. Who I was.

I am there now and am watching you.

You remember all my messages and what I was like in the old days...keep in mind we all have different paths.

Mine was tough!
So be it if that's true about yours.

Work harder, work harder! I'll watch from a distance.

Bright sun clear sky mind

..A north coast morning. Bright sun and clear sky. Black coffee.. steam rising...
last night practice was like kayaking the Tsangpo. Raging river of thought..
I entered the shrine room (my bed room) in the dark to not wake my wife. After sitting for a few minutes the eyes adjust and I see four black spots before the shrine on the floor..

... Dog shit....

after returning to my seat from cleanup, car sits outfront music going
another passes by b-boom-b-booming base
then turns heading west..

.. heading west my mind runs to California, hopes of seeing Rinpoche in January..
two of them actually, young and old
I can see them smiling
photo click mind
.
...

from Emptiness: Fifty Poems From The Heart Sutra

Emptiness (34)

realizing
prajnaparamita
one proclaimed
touch
is universal
and form and
universal
elements
should touch

from Emptiness: Fifty Poems From The Heart Sutra

Emptiness (33)
incorruptible
mantra sound gate gate
pain and truth
neither gate nor paragate
avalokita hear
illusion and and on
arrive here
sound or mantra
one taste