A Taste of Zen
He went to the theater
Told his story
A Noh actor
It was all in gesture
Motion came to moment
Every breath a stop
The whiteness of her cheeks
Was tradition
His hands tradition
The light
The light of shadow on the past
"Motion came to Moment"
Beautiful line, Peter!! I also love the last line!
K.Q.
Same thing when the masters talk about zen, over and over, on and on and on, never ending. Look into the void, be empty, void, empty, void, nothingness, blah blah blah blah. Course they're right.
That's why I don't go to the temple very often...don't miss nothing.
a dr. of letters using double negatives.... forshame.
a dr. of letters who grew up in seven different ghettos before he learned to speak academic nonsense at the age of 19 as a second language...
besides, I speak the same language as Chaucer and Shakespeare and they used double and triple negatives before the 19th Century Grammarians decided to tell everybody how to talk...
you could have become the guy Elvis was talking about,,, I never saw a ghetto until I was in my adultrey, we couldn't afford neighbors. Nearest was about seven miles away. Prefer that to the projects.
Interesting to come from the ghetto to academia at that level Pete, you musta done good somewhere along the line.
I am fluent in Bill's Blarney, but a cowboy speaking Chaucerese causes Mars to wobble in it's orbit.
hey, cowboys and slum kids have more in common with the good people Chaucer wrote about than they do with some of those people spinning their wheels in academia. But I am weary of the world today. which is why I don't make the grand decisions.
true, I've always liked the knight's tale..// or the horse's tail.
Eh, more I study it, more I suspect the enigma being a carefully crafted safeguard. I suppose I wouldn't be violating any code of conduct in stating that.
nay, ya wouldn't be.
I keep asking myself the same question, gentlemen. I wonder, why is it that I pursue these things more than others? Why, when the benefits seem so outstanding, am I often found alone in these things? Would you, older men of opposite lives, tell me the experience through out your lives relating to how others you've met approach such questions? You know me, I hope would you know my intentions by now are one worth aiding.
Most that I've met don't understand the question. So I shoot them.
You seem to be replying to the other thread's question? If not, are you saying that those who do not seek to better themselves tend to lessen themselves, and due to the interconnected nature of life, lessen others, thus need being rid of?
Naw, I don't think I would have said that. Just shoot the ones you don't like.
It was Donne who said "Every man's death dimishes me" wasn't me.
Then what are you trying to say?
I don't usually try to say anything. English can be pretty direct. Shoot them. Problem solved.
Ah, but that doesn't fit the above question.
That depends on the calibre, of the person, the situation, or the gun.
Yes, I get it, you kill people. I'm unimpressed. You well know peace requires more than that.
Ok, opt for peace. Spend months being lied to by someone who wants to kill you, rob you, take everything you have worked for. Get to know the psuedo honest person with whom you deal. Make treaties that will be as valuable as the ones the white man signed with the Apache. Let them into your home. Teach them everything you can teach them so they will respect you and appreciate what you can do for them. Then when they get the chance, they will shoot you. Problem solved.
Indeed. And the result of perpetual war is?
Perpetual income for mercenarys.
I was just reading about Ununoctium. I spent several minutes memorizing the noble gases, not including methane, which sometimes has some pretty noble qualities,,, anyway, there were always helium, neon, argon, radon, xenon, and krypton. Now some commie has come up with Ununoctium.. HOWEVER, if you would like to breathe some ununoctium, or use it in your oxygen shielded welder, you have to be really fast,, they made only one atom of it in 2002 and two more in 2005. They shot 2.5X10 to the 19th calicum at some Californium (98) anitnoid and gee whiz they got it done. That is about two babblezillion dollars per atom. It would seem that spilling milk in Fresno would get the calicum and californium together, but I guess not in the quantity needed.
Quit with the details, you're getting me hard. Also, wrong answer. Annihilation.
Not the wrong answer, annihilation is the end of a probably very short war. Not perpetual at all.
I did wonder how long your talk could stay out of the gutter. Not perpetual at all.
By the by, I have seldom killed since my democratically controled government quit telling me I had to , back in 64, while Pete was 19, I was 21 and come home with a uniform stained in blood, mine and others. In my chosen line of work others have died. Usually at the hand of another, I have actually saved many more lives than I have taken. Problems are not solved with gunfire. They are solve with explosives.
A Taste of Zen
He went to the theater
Told his story
A Noh actor
It was all in gesture
Motion came to moment
Every breath a stop
The whiteness of her cheeks
Was tradition
His hands tradition
The light
The light of shadow on the past
There is more to history
than the history of war and peace:
The unspoken lives survive
forgotten youth
survive headlines
and economic plans.
My world extends to
the end of the bus line.
The end of the meal
with my friend.
The top of the staircase
where we talk for two hours.
My sympathy goes beyond
the nicotine patch,
beyond two fine women
quarreling in the cafe...
beyond the man in the hospital
who I barely know.
I am bored by dramatics.
All I wish for
Is that your world get better
till the day you die,
friend or stranger.
Perhaps I was a bit vague. What I meant was extinction, anyone who lives only to destroy will eventually destroy everything around them before getting to themselves. Clearly not the case with you, but I'm sure you've seen examples of this.