true enough: we cannot be happy in the future,
we can only be happy now, in the present

the same is true for unhappy

go figure





not distinguishing pain from suffering is itself suffering





the experience of free will is neither proof of nor
an explanation for it





to be utterly without hope is also to be utterly without despair





past and future exist only in the conversations we have about them




shoulds

11/04/2009 · 0 comments

in human living


each moment is as it is;
to say that it “should” be some other way
only weighs down the one who says “should”





Earlier I wrote — “the peace that passeth understanding can’t be understood.”
What’s worse, it can’t be experienced.
Then what, we may ask, is it good for?
And, of course, the answer is — it’s good for Nothing.





the one free extension is almost done,
taxes are due in three more days,
I have no IRS approved excuse for delaying any longer;
I could do them now,
but there’s still three days

instead I write thes lines;
absent a true emergency
they’ll be filed on time,
they always are

I used to worry and call myself a procrastinator,
now I worry not and just call me me





gratitude arises along with the preference for what is





what turns you on is what turns you on . . . and sometimes it surprises you





in America one speaks not of the attendant sorrows of aging lest one be thought old





a critical distinction in living an examined life: your experience and the explanation of your experience





what once was unimaginable
has this day come to pass –
sixty-five





you discover your own path at the end, if there is one





when does the past become the present and the present, the future?





the illusion of certainty is just that, an illusion





low over the valley,
honking geese,
blossoms of fall





Granted a shattering glimpse of crystalline quiet early,
I came to understand it late.

Finding no one to explain the Unexplainable,
I kept a different kind of quiet;
drifted along some usual ways –
school, jobs, career, a run in public life.

Now and then, in a seeming desert wander, would peace descend –
alleviating for a while the dis-satisfaction of dis-ease.

These days I dwell inside my cottage in a large and fertile plain.
Through my doors a river runs. I do not interfere.

Without reason I study poetic lines revealing Way;
living unfolding within a gift of ease.

(with thanks to Wang Wei)





hopping up roof from the arbor
grape thief jay
flies prize away





so simple, yet so seeming hard to accept:
there is nothing that is not It





mortality appears
when the obituaries
could be yours





suffering includes the vain hope that right now things can be other than they are





having the “truth” won’t set you free, but it will blind the hell out of you





living always occurs, only occurs, in the present





the denial of aging is the denial of death





neither the flypaper
nor my hand
keeps the fly
from its appointed buzz





never too old –
college town shop girl
smites heart with smile





I’m taking a break from daily posting. I’ll start again by August 17th.

Best,
Richard





good friends are love in the Way made flesh





suffering comes from our attachment to preferences (or desires), not their occurrence

(with thanks to Seng-ts’an and Richard Clarke)






like autumn leaves I am dying,
much more slowly,
no less certainly





only now!
then is now!
only now!





we act on our desire, not our reason; without desire, nothing happens

with thanks to Humberto Maturana





different and the same,
different and the same –
the beauty of her face,
the beauty of this cove.

different and the same,
different and the same,
her face, this cove,
beauty is the same.

seagulls float
on waves in the cove,
I float on the ledge above.





if your boat is empty, nothing in the world can oppose you on the river of living

with thanks to Thomas Merton and Chuang Tzu





the self is good for distinguishing oneself from others, other than that…