Painted Rice Cakes

The Essential Dōgen
Edited by Tanahashi and Levitt
Shambhala
2013

The Essential Dōgen

Aspiration and Search

Hotsu bodai shin.
This is the way-seeking-mind.
Doshin finds itself.
The Young Man at Mount Taibo.
The Old Man from Tiantong.

Zazen
What's beyond thinking?
Nothing worth thinking about.
What price not thinking?
Thoughts are overpriced within
the marketplace of ideas.

Samadhi
To enter within
without ever coming out.
In through the out door.
What is in and what is out?
Sit without and be within.

Bowing
Bowing formally
in only one direction.
In this way the way
remains as the world retains
the basis for its being.

Each Activity is Sacred
Joyful mind, kind mind,
and great mind in everything
we put our mind to.
The tenzo worked sixty eight
years feeding talkative monks.

Robe
The outer, inner,
and great are the robes of the
liberated monk.
And the kashaya marks him
as a homeless, nameless, man.

Vulture Peak

The First Ancestor:

the face-to-face-mind-to-mind

transmission of Zen.

The udumbara blossom 

blinks and smiles to this day. 

Bodhidharma

The merciless snow

covered Huike to his waist.

Shedding frozen tears

strengthened his aspiration

for worldly amputation. 

Scriptures

The net of scriptures 

entangle those who write of 

the net of scriptures 

entangling those writing 

about this entanglement.  

Schools of Zen
There is no Zen school

because there's nothing to teach.

The many Zen schools

that continue to teach this

truth are worthy of the name. 

Authenticity

Realization

requires neither scripture,

nor teacher, nor self.

"Direct experience" can

be understood in this way. 

The Awakened Way

He studied Huineng's

old mud all-inclusively.

It took him eight years

to not speak about what it

is that thus comes to meet him. 

Enlightenment

The impermanence 

of the self and of the world 

is the beginning, 

the middle, and the end of 

achieving enlightenment.

July 2023

Longevity

Saturday July 01, 2023  

To be liberal  

is to be someone who thinks  

that cruelty is the  

worst thing that you can inflict  

upon another person.  

Sunday July 02, 2023  

He was not surprised  

to discover their secrets.  

They are written down  

in words for the world to read.  

The devil’s in the details.   

Monday July 03, 2023  

Once again it is  

the beginning of the end  

as he continues  

to revisit the ruins  

of his European past.  

Tuesday July 04, 2023  

Virtual silence  

is beginning to appear  

now that three quarters  

of the four-fold roadside vow  

have quietly come and gone.  

Wednesday July 05, 2023  

He hopes that it won’t  

last longer than expected.  

No one knows these things.  

All that he can do is pray  

that it stays that way for now.   

Thursday July 06, 2023  

The consequences  

of his own consecration  

have been recently  

revealed to his consciousness.  

How quaint the ways of wabi.  

Friday July 07, 2023  

He was listening  

to the Wrecking Ball record  

while remembering  

his life in the before-time  

before it was demolished.   

Saturday July 08, 2023  

It is lunacy  

to try and change the way things  

are now that he has  

habituated them through  

ten years of lonely living.   

Sunday July 09, 2023  

Come under her black  

wings little birds, all of you  

who have been unmade.  

They will make you one again  

once again until the end.   

Monday July 10, 2023  

Is it possible  

to be found in translation?  

At least AI tries.   

At this stage it is a mute  

point whether it will remain.   

Tuesday July 11, 2023  

He experienced  

both kinds in the span of a  

few years (give or take).  

Invasion of the Body  

Snatchers is not just a film.   

Wednesday July 12, 2023  

“Love” is another  

word for “paying attention.”  

Even the slightest  

instance of attentiveness  

can make a world of difference.  

Thursday July 13, 2023  

All it took was two  

acknowledgments for his world  

to become different  

from how it had been for the  

past seventy-two hours.   

Friday July 14, 2023  

They really do need  

to be avoided as much  

as possible now,  

despite how much it costs him.  

Is it a small price to pay?  

Saturday July 15, 2023  

Heaven and Earth must  

be moved before he ever  

considers changing  

his manner of life - it is  

a matter of life and death.  

Sunday July 16, 2023  

Carnap’s principle  

of tolerance still applies,  

now more than ever.  

Most people talk using the  

material mode of speech.   

Monday July 17, 2023  

He understands that  

it is better to be safe  

than to be sorry.  

Leaving well enough alone?

Err on the side of caution. 

Tuesday July 18, 2023 

Less will remain less. 

More is much more than he needs. 

He knows it will change. 

His history confirms it. 

But at least he is reading.  

Wednesday July 19, 2023 

While he wants to be 

respectfully sensitive 

to their form of life, 

still, it will turn out to be 

their loss if nothing changes. 

Thursday July 20, 2023 

An SVDM 

once again would be the worst 

thing that could happen.  

It is a reductio 

ad absurdum from the pit.

Friday July 21, 2023 

At the last minute 

he was asked if presenting 

his findings would work.  

Their timing is no concern. 

Their intent, however, is. 

Saturday July 22, 2023

More than anything

else, it is friendship that stands

the test of timing.

The only prerequisite?
Primal punctuality. 

Sunday July 23, 2023 

“So, you still do that?” 

A remark like this is like 

the natural nudge 

of a finger against a 

wall about to fall over. 

Monday July 24, 2023 

The trickster archetype. 

The spite to get it just right. 

The unconscious myth. 

The wish to follow the bliss. 

The definite article.  

Tuesday July 25, 2023 

And three days later 

it is acknowledged again 

(this time tellingly).  

Why do the minutes feel like 

mountains that he must surmount?

Wednesday July 26, 2023 

He did not know what 

he was looking for until  

it opened the door 

(that he had been knocking on 

all these years) and asked him in.  

Thursday July 27, 2023 

A dream like that is 

a definite harbinger 

of a joy that is 

unspeakable and full of  

undeniable glory.

Friday July 28, 2023 

From Platonism 

to Positivism to 

Pragmatism to 

apophatic Poetry: 

Keep it secret | Keep it silent.

Saturday July 29, 2023 

If by eternal 

life we don’t mean infinite 

duration in time, 

then Tolstoy is right: eternal 

life is the present moment. 

Sunday July 30, 2023 

The closest he got 

to camping while growing up 

was Holiday Inn. 

To this day he still loves the  

scent of chlorinated pools.  

Monday July 31, 2023 

He is a letter 

writer from the ancient school  

of literate love.  

The romantic troubadours 

of old have nothing on him.