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

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

right and wrong are not part of the Way; they arise with the conversations that make us human

where do these lines I write come from?
these lines that are writing me

transparent: air to the bird, water to the fish, language to ourselves

the world emerging as we speak . . .
could even the gods ask for more?

because we are human beings, we live in language;
because we live in language, we live in time;
because we live in time, we have a future;
because we have a future, we have concerns . . .

(Adapted from a talk by Fernando Flores circa 1985)

spirituality has to do with our mood around the ultimate questions that arise because we humans live in language and, thus, in time

bullshit is fatiguing

sometimes at night I
(not speaking, but spoken,
not singing, but sung)
wonder at words
bringing the world into being

not two — the interpreter and the interpreted

all is discourse, some is song

we are fishes in a sea of words just beginning to feel wet

as told by Clifford Geertz:

There is an Indian story–at least I heard it as an Indian story–about an Englishman who, having been told that the world rested on a platform which rested on the back of an elephant which rested in turn on the back of a turtle, asked what did the turtle rest on? Another turtle. And that turtle? “Ah, Sahib, after that it is turtles all the way down.”

yes, but not turtles, metaphors . . . all the way down

fundamental distinctions are always obvious, but only after they’ve been distinguished