Spring, and trees bring gifts:
flowering blossoms rain down
beauteous petals.
(3/29/16)
Copyright © 2016 Carmine DeMarco
Tree Haiku
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Tag Archives: Buddhism
Divisiveness
Our divisiveness:
it blinds us to our one-ness,
spawning the world’s woes.
(11/9/16)
Copyright © 2016 Carmine DeMarco
Sesshin Dawn
Kinhin in the dark:
branching streams, shining brightly,
merge with the darkness.
(10/27/16)
Copyright © 2016 Carmine DeMarco
Practice
Polish that mirror!
Or choose the alternative:
You can stay asleep.
(10/24/16)
Copyright © 2016 Carmine DeMarco
(But Hui-neng: “Where can the dust collect?”)
Cogito ergo….
I think, therefore I
become what I THINK I am;
It’s not my true self.
(9/16/16)
Copyright © 2016 Carmine DeMarco
Impermanence
I’m falling apart
And so is the universe.
The way of all things.
(5/2/16)
Copyright © 2016 Carmine DeMarco
“I am he, as you are he, as you are me, and we are all together.”
“As remarkable as this may be, stunning results from a new study show that cells from other individuals are also found in the brain. *** We all consider our bodies to be our own unique being, so the notion that we may harbor cells from other people in our bodies seems strange. Even stranger is the thought that, although we certainly consider our actions and decisions as originating in the activity of our own individual brains, cells from other individuals are living and functioning in that complex structure.”
On quietude
Quote
“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.” ~ Blaise Pascal
“Everything is connected to everything else”
Professor Brian Cox explains from a scientific viewpoint why everything in the universe is connected to everything else:
Chirping Crickets
Noise inside my head.
Zazen brings the quiet mind
hearing crickets chirp.
(September 5, 2012)
Copyright © 2012 Carmine DeMarco
The moon cannot be stolen
Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal.
Ryokan returned and caught him. “You may have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.”
The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.
Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow, ” he mused, “I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.”
Quote
Thoughts create karma. Thoughts are actions. ~ John Daido Loori Roshi
What is it?
There is a Hindu story of a fish who went to a queen fish and asked: “I have always heard about the sea, but what is this sea? Where is it?”
The queen fish explained: “You live, move, and have your being in the sea. The sea is within you and without you, and you are made of sea, and you will end in sea. The sea surrounds you as your own being.”
Monkey Mind Haiku
Monkey mind have I,
clutching at shiny baubles;
Wrapped in a skin bag.
(November 20, 2011)
Copyright © 2011 Carmine DeMarco
How sweet it is!
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!
The 84th Problem
In a famous exchange with a farmer, the Buddha showed the persistent and pernicious nature of desire, the cause of all dukkha (suffering). The farmer said to the Buddha: “I like farming, but there are lots of problems. Sometimes it rains too much and my crops get flooded out. Sometimes it rains too little and they dry up….”
The Buddha listened attentively until the farmer finished and changed the subject. “I love my wife,” he said, “but she’s far from perfect. Sometimes she’s cold to me for no reason at all. Sometimes she’s so passionate that she wears me out….”
Again the Buddha listened patiently until the farmer once more changed the subject. “My children are wonderful,” he said, “but they’re always giving me trouble. Sometimes they fight with each other and break things. Sometimes they conspire against me….”
And so it went for quite a while, the Buddha listening quietly and the man continuing to complain. Finally the farmer finished speaking, and the Buddha said: “Thereis nothing I can do to help you, farmer. We’ve all got eighty-three problems, and that’s that. Maybe you can take care of one, but another one is bound to take its place. And some never change. For example, your farm, your wife, your children, even yourself – all will eventually pass away, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
The farmer, outraged, said: “You’re supposed to be a great teacher! What good is that teaching?”
The Buddha replied: “It may help you with the eighty-fourth problem.”
“What on earth is the eighty-fourth problem?” asked the farmer.
The Buddha answered, “You want not to have any problems.”
On letting things go
Two monks on a pilgrimage came to the ford of a river. There they saw a girl dressed in all her finery, obviously now knowing what to do since the river was high and she did not want to spoil her clothes. Without more ado, one of the monks took her on his back, carried her across, and put her down on dry ground on the other side. Then the monks continued on their way.
However, the other monk, after an hour or so, started complaining, “Surely it is not right to touch a woman; it is against our vows to have close contact with women. How could you go against the rules?
The monk who had carried the girl remarked, “I set her down by the river an hour ago. Why are you still carrying her?”
Heaven & Hell
The old monk sat by the side of the road. With his eyes closed, his legs crossed and his hands folded in his lap, he sat. In deep meditation, he sat.
Suddenly his zazen was interrupted by the harsh and demanding voice of a samurai warrior. “Old man! Teach me about heaven and hell!”
At first, as though he had not heard, there was no perceptible response from the monk. But gradually he began to open his eyes, the faintest hint of a smile playing around the corners of his mouth as the samurai stood there, waiting impatiently, growing more and more agitated with each passing second.
“You wish to know the secrets of heaven and hell?” replied the monk at last. “You who are so unkempt. You whose hands and feet are covered with dirt. You whose hair is uncombed, whose breath is foul, whose sword is all rusty and neglected. You who are ugly and whose mother dresses you funny. You would ask me of heaven and hell?”
The samurai uttered a vile curse. He drew his sword and raised it high above his head. His face turned to crimson and the veins on his neck stood out in bold relief as he prepared to sever the monk’s head from its shoulders.
“That is hell,” said the old monk gently, just as the sword began its descent. In that fraction of a second, the samurai was overcome with amazement, awe, compassion and love for this gentle being who had dared to risk his very life to give him such a teaching. He stopped his sword in mid-flight and his eyes filled with grateful tears.
“And that,” said the monk, “is heaven.”
