Sometimes words cannot hold what they carry.
The Three Oddest Words
When I pronounce the word Future,the first syllable already belongs to the past.When I pronounce the word Silence,I destroy it.When I pronounce the word Nothing,I make something no non-being can hold.—Poem by Wisława Szymborska (translated by Stanislaw Baranczak & Clare Cavanagh) from Poems: New and Collected
Ma-tsu is trying to trick us.
He can't.
So he turns to crow and crane.
Ha!
What a laugh.
Birds, birds, birds!
Can this matter of Zen be understood or not?
If you say that it can be explained and understood,
Then you are attaching to words and concepts
And miss the basic fact.
On the other hand, if you say
It cannot be understood, then how can the
Zen Dharma be taught to all beings?
What can you do?
Look clearly!
A crow’s head is black
A crane’s head is white. Ma-tsu (709-788)
since becoming demented
i've noticed less and less
I cannot see where United States
has gone
ive never been that bright, so much
escaped comprehension, like why
an empty-headed ideologue and
a greedy billionaire would want
to deprive poor and elderly
of security and care --
but I'm suffering dementia
and they're rich and powerful
a viral
infection
with no
restraint or cure
United States
Undresses
World looks
Away
Sometimes
nakedness
Seems like
abuse
Yes
(Just that)
Yes
About Trika Shaivism
The term coined by Guha-Majumdar to describe the quantum principles embedded within Trika Shaivism is ‘Quantrika.’ This concept within Trika Shaivism predates several pivotal moments in history.
To traverse timelines — the Darshanik foundations and spiritual insights of Shaivite Kashmir emerged nearly 400 years before the Islamic invasions, 500 years before Copernicus introduced heliocentrism, and 700 years before Newton laid the groundwork for classical physics. Most strikingly, Trika precedes Max Planck’s formulation of the quantum of energy by over a millennium.
Contextual and epistemological differences between Quantrika and quantum physics are undeniable, and Guha-Majumdar does not ignore them. Critics may contrast between the sutras, aphorisms of Trika Shaivism and the precise mathematical formalisms of quantum theory, but they will agree that the visionary sages of Kashmir explored a cosmic vision that resonates deeply with New Physics — revealing a sophisticated intellectual foresight far ahead of its time.
Just as Newton’s Classical Physics gave way to the more advanced theories of Quantum Physics, Trika Shaivism offers a deeper, more evolved perspective compared to Advaita Vedanta and Sankhya.
In a deep-dive, Guha-Majumdar meticulously explores core Trika principles, such as Abheda (non-duality), Spanda (cosmic vibration), and Pratyabhijna (self-recognition), and shows how they align with the most profound discoveries in quantum mechanics, such as superposition, entanglement, and the observer effect.
(—about book, From Shiva to Schrödinger:A Cosmic Convergence Of Mysticism and Physics, by Dr Mrittunjoy Guha-Majumdar. Hay House Publishers India. Pages 240.)
My purchased book was shipped from India in brown oilskin wrapping. It was, a few weeks ago, their final copy. It cost 1,460.97 INR (Indian Rupees) Source: https://usd.currencyrate.today/convert/amount-16.99-to-inr.html
Yes
A deep dive…
(And yet and yet and yet)
We touch on it in prison yesterday.
thick snow drops
through thin rain
on road outside window
this morning at prison
we spoke of
"enlightened self/other interest"
where both self and other
disappear with enlightenment
when "to be between" (inter-esse)
erases both opposition and its
opposite self-same, until no
difference or sameness exists
does not stand out from itself,
will not be seen as other
will not be seen as same
enlightenment is the instant
(one man said) where complete
feeling surrenders to reality
(he wondered if that's mysticism)
as conversation wondered if children
were the continuation of Itself unfolding
the way the trolly problem has no currency
in a world of enlightened self/other interest
(ES/OI or, esoi, in Hawaiian, "that's it") --
this forum of contemplation, fellows and
felons following language of the possible
this dance turning turning turning. Later
in corridor, old friends, one recovering
from stroke, one saying he'll be back, one
with Thor's hammer, one up all night studying;
our prison time together looking as we
are with and at where we are when we are
there one with one with one, no self no other
not yet a language that would want to be
pronounced nor kept silent, the playful circle
where, in her poem, Joy Harjo writes:
I release you
my beautiful and terrible fear
I release you
We are suffused and surrounded by vatniks.
Vatnik (Russian: ватник, pronounced [ˈvatʲnʲɪk]) is a political pejorative[1][2] used in Russia and other post-Soviet states for steadfast jingoistic followers of propaganda from the Russian government.[3]
I suspect, in due time, they will see the error of their ways, go through reeducation and rehabilitation, resign from congress and the current administration, and settle back into America.
Bless their hearts!
Again, thank you.
One additional “ethical option” might be called “enlightened self/other interest.” This is perhaps more a strategy above and beyond ethics, bordering on something of a spiritual/mystical stance in the face of behavior that has ethical and disciplinary consequences.
Namely: The option of self-sacrifice. Standing up, slowly looking around classroom, and declaring “I did the deed. I’m sorry. I accept the consequences."
What might result? The whole class isn’t blamed. The culprit isn’t outed. Brother has some closure. And your status, as self-sacrificing agent, is left to the character of your classmates — forever — to ponder.
I said “enlightened self/other interest” above for the following reason: if we were to eliminate the dualism/dichotomy from this kind of situation, is there any benefit? Perhaps. Perhaps not. It might evoke a moment of honest fessing up on the person who did the deed. But more than that — it might seep deep into the character/consciousness of all experiencing it that there is a more profound morality than our rational mentality usually addresses.
As a Christian (God help my failures) this taking on of one another’s burdens sounds familiar. I’ve not always liked it, not always understood it -- but your paper helped.
Cheers,
wfh
Dottore Nulla è Niente
Having taught philosophy (not well) and ethics (not well) at university, I retain the privilege of responding (not well) when students make the mistake of sharing their current studies with me.
It passed me
at 5:01AM --
then again,
everything passes
me -- how
fortunate,
really -- spring
(thanks, winter
for everything)
--for Chris, Doris, et al
I imagine
friends sit zazen
equanimous with
equipoise, finding
succor in stability
turning inner the
outer, rage trans-
formed into deeper
emotion -- consoling
understanding, no
blame, no vituperation
no hideous rash of ire
instead, nurturing fire
of compassion, fierce
and strong, unbending
yet gentle -- these folks
befriending the awful
taking in the strange
breathing out solace --
they are what family
should be -- there --
no matter what, no
matter the disgrace
no -- MU -- undoing
the multiple, the additive,
resting and residing with
what is here, as it is here
until what will come
is what will be, here,
with their composure
and grace, revealing
Where have I heard this type of thing before?
Trump and today’s MAGA Republicans are proudly ignoring those laws, not only in Trump’s attacks on the judiciary but also in things like the administration’s lie, reported today by Andy Kroll of ProPublica, that nearly 7,000 employees at the Internal Revenue Service were fired for poor performance despite the repeated warnings of a top IRS lawyer that this was “a false statement” that amounted to “fraud” on the courts.
The administration’s attempt to ignore the laws the Constitution charges it with executing amounts to an attack on the right of the American people to establish the rules under which we live.
In a webcast on Monday, Trump ally Steve Bannon defended the deportations even if, as his guest said, they swept in “some gardener or something who’d never been in trouble.” Bannon replied: “ Big deal…. Maybe some people got caught up in it. Who knows?... I think they got everybody who was a bad guy, but guess what? If there's some innocent gardeners in there? Hey, tough break for a swell guy. That's where we stand.”
(—Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, 19mar25, Substack)
Oh yeah . . . in the same place (ibid) where it all goes down the toilet. That’s where I’ve heard it before.
One car
Heading east
This vigils time
I am always
In monastery
Even when not
Einstein was right
Pollen and photons
At night in dooryard
Fall through light
Seen differently
By two beings
Maybe…angels
In that instant
Space moving
through time
It takes dog
And me to pee
... ... ...
Joseph, they say,
Worked with wood
That’s all we know
mentioned in passing
Remarkably little
It’s all folklore
Made up saga, myth
Hearsay, sawdust on
Floor, the scent of it
Still, I like him
Deep brown companion
Maybe celibate, who cares
He disappears from narrative
Maybe he hung around edges
Sanding smoothing rounding
All we know is his name,
Joseph, that’s it, not much more
Someone hardly on any page
But there
As sawdust is
Telling
sitting in dentist chair
cars pass by on route 1
my life remembering
fillings and fallings
failings and flailings
fulsome and foolish
fantastical fandangos
finishing fruitlessly
She was my sister
We were there for her final breath
Then, into the night
She was my sister
The night was deep and quiet
As is, each breath, given
Today, her birthday
Night gives way, breath
Sistering each and all
let's think about Jesus
as having come to earth
think about the creator
as having spoken the earth
think about air and breath
as holding everything on earth up
now, let's think about
"we all have to find a story
to live by or live inside
or we couldn't endure
the certainty of suffering"
(Niall Williams, in Irish novel
“This is Important”, 2019)
I'll take the story of the earth
which comes, from which all
comes, into which all returns
as the life of God, the life of
Christ, of all Breath Holy, all
experience and consciousness
longing for our listening, our
respect and compassion, a story
we must begin to hear, to feel
before and after one another
above and below nodding tree
The hoops
to cancel
unwanted
subscription purchase
charge
oy gevalt
They took a turn at march 17, came down the hill, and saw no flag on the stick.
if you want
to know
what I think
ask me
if you want
to think you
know
ask yourself
what is good
and stay still
while God
listens
I'm uncertain
a turn to evil
isn't the case
no one is arguing
the turn, as faces
smirk and snarl
and in homes
across the land
guns are loaded
all because
a little rich boy
lost at marbles
there is something
going on in america
that is more than cute
disagreement, we are
suffering a real death
some want to say
this harsh lawless
administration will
soon come to an end
I'm beginning to sense
it will be our end
with freedoms gone
it certainly seems some
perversion is afoot, no one
able to stop the bleeding
. . .
Prorsus credibile est,
quia ineptum est*
i've been thinking
about the man from Queens
occupying the Oval Office --
not. much.
*(It is wholly believable,
because it is incongruous**)
(Tertullian, d.240AD, in
De Carne Christi, V, 4)
**out of place, out of keeping, inappropriate, unsuitable, unsuited, not in harmony; discordant, dissonant, conflicting, clashing, jarring, wrong, at odds, in opposition, contrary, contradictory, irreconcilable; strange, odd, absurd, bizarre, off- key, extraneous; informal like a fish out of water, sticking/standing out a mile; rare disconsonant. ANTONYMS appropriate. (apple dictionary)