index

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February 24, 1999

http://hwy50zen.com


Highlights:

hwy50zen.com has a new home page that makes it easier to go right to the new stuff.

eSangha is now larger and extensively annotated.

A new Head Monk Comix: Clothes Made of Emptiness. Not really new - just freshly inked. More memories from summer camp.

Not much for now, but like they say: There's much much more to come. (but now a few excuses for slacking)


Where did the time go? January gone! February nearly used up!

Surrounded by falling snow in the Oregon Cascade mountains. On retreat. Quiet. Time stopped.

Today it moves at wrap speed. Nanosecond by nanosecond.



_______________________________________________________ ON THE MENU

David Byrne * Once In A Life Time

Chao-chou * another 24 hours

nila northSun * 2 deaths from A Snake in Her Mouth

Jim Harrison * from After Ikkyu and Other Poems

Basho * on time as always

Ruth fuller Sasaki * from Why Zen Buddhism appeals to American people



_________________________________________________Once in a Lifetime

And you may find yourself
living in a shotgun shack

And you may find yourself
in another part of the world

And you may find yourself
behind the wheel of a large automobile

And you may find yourself
in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife


And you may ask yourself

Well...How did I get here?


Letting the days go by (let the water hold me down)
Letting the days go by (water flowing underground)
Into the blue again (after the money's gone)

Once in a lifetime
water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?

And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?

And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!

And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!


Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by (let the water hold me down)
Letting the days go by (water flowing underground)
Into the blue again (in the silent water)

Under the rocks and stones
there is water underground.



And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?

And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?

And you may ask yourself
Am I right?...Am I wrong?

And you may tell yourself

MY GOD! . . . WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was


David Byrne
from the Talking Heads album: Once In A Life Time

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A monk asked Chao-chou, "How should I use the twenty-four hours?"

Chao-chou said, "You are used by the twenty-four hours. I use the twenty-four hours."




________________________________________the 1st one i ever saw dead

was when i was still young
12 maybe
we were at this indian dance
an old man wanted to do
a special dance
just him
dancing around & around
singing
wearing his feathers
all by himself
nobody knew what it
was about
but
when he was done
he went back to this log
he had been sitting on before
& died
just like that


- nila northSun
a snake in her mouth


________________________________________________they just fade away

old man
dead in the alley
leaning against trashcans
ruby port dripping from pocketed bottle
ruby dripping from cracked lips
his crumbled body
remaining like
a crumbled leaf
in somebody's wind
like a forgotten
shopping list
in somebody's pocket


- nila northSun
a snake in her mouth


_____________________________________________________________ 28

Lin-chi says, having thrown away your head so long
ago, you go on and on looking for it in the wrong
places. The head's future can be studied in a spadeful
of dirt. The delightful girl I loved 40 years back
now weighs, according to necrologists, 30 lbs. net.
Why does she still swim in the eddy in the river's bend?


- Jim Harrison
After Ikkyu and Other Poems

_____________________________________________________________

Journeying through the world
To and fro, to and fro,
Cultivating a small field.

-Basho

__________________________________________________ 1883 - 1967

And then some evening their bodies will
become quite comfortable and their minds
quite still. Ah!

And for a moment, a bare
moment, they have an intimation of what
Hakuin meant when he sang:

This very place is the Lotus-land,
this body Buddha.


Afterwards, without speaking a word, they
will put on their coats and go home.


- Ruth fuller Sasaki


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