From the category archives:

the Unsayable


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





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.





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)





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





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





spring 1967 –
one night in the kitchen
two friends stand talking when . . .
words stopping the world.

emptiness . . .

light . . .

laughter . . .

words . . .

the world beginning again,
one night in the kitchen.

for GG





whether to speak of the One, emptiness, God, or even in the philosophy of Zen, the nothingness beyond God, is not to describe reality, but to make a poetic choice





the pointers of a master never reach the Way





All idleness in the back patio,
away from the world for a while,
poetry, a cigar, a pot of tea.

One moment empties into the next…
the Protestant Ethic has left this life.





the peace that passeth understanding can’t be understood





No longer concerned with place in the world,
time relaxes, days fill with quiet mystery.
Everyday life unburdened, cooking, once a chore,
loses its tedium. I cook and eat at home.

In the garden a sapling soaks after planting.
I sit in the radiance of things as they are.





even the darkest clouds do not refute the sky





no fruit of hard work,
but a gift from elsewhere:
absence deepening in presence

(with thanks to Mei Yao-Ch’en)





little to show for this life:
few things the world desires

the early summer sun cool,
light breeze empties passing thoughts





long dead Chinese poets
point to Way with their words –
presence summoning absence





pushing the river does not effect the outcome of the voyage; it’s just tiring





ease in living accompanies acceptance of life’s finitude





dwelling in ease neither entails nor precludes an easy life





you can no more lead a horse to water than you can make him drink





at some point life may disappoint us into the realization
that it turns out only as it does, not as we wish –
afterwards, ease may appear





you can’t cross from listening to Silence — there’s no you in Silence





the 10,000 things,
utterly themselves
and utterly sufficient,
include the self





Growing older, my idleness perfects itself.
Morning I drink tea, afternoon gaze into empty clouds
drifting so slowly by they seem to last forever.

Reading poems, notebook at hand,
I capture one thought, then another
as they disappear into a silence that has no name.

Tranquil in this college town, I savor passing time.

(with thanks to Po Chü-i)




ease 3

04/28/2009 · 0 comments

in the Unsayable


an unlooked for gift: delight in the Way





morning arrives with blues,
the afternoon brings bliss,
questions of why, no longer asked –
who knows which of 10,000 things comes next?





preoccupation with right way and wrong way obscures Way





apparent contradiction . . . using words to end words





what can be said about the Unsayable?




words 2

03/16/2009 · 0 comments

in the Unsayable


while the Way is beyond words, words are not in the way





there is only the One, which, as it happens, is empty





true idleness is nothing doing





Do you think that you can take the world in hand and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.

The world is Tao’s own vessel.
You cannot control it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to cling to it, you will lose it.

So sometimes things move forward, and sometimes not;
Sometimes breathing is hard, and sometimes easy;
Sometimes we find strength, and sometimes weakness;
Sometimes we are up, and sometimes down.

Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, arrogance.

(Adapted from several translations)





the Unsayable speaks for itself




a-drift

02/18/2009 · 0 comments

in the Unsayable


when you no longer push the river, the river no longer pushes you




ease 2

02/07/2009 · 0 comments

in the Unsayable


a special grace: to be granted contentment with one’s lot




ease 1

02/06/2009 · 0 comments

in the Unsayable


life’s ultimate pleasure: to be free from care

(adapted from Baisao)