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Popping and Jotting

As these little
  aphorisms pop
I jot them down
  saying thank you
thank you
  thank you

::

A Life — Definition

A life is a door
  that can only
  be opened
from the inside

::

Karma

Intent is the only
  doing there is
ever has been
  or ever will be

::

Heaven Bound

I will go to Heaven
  for I remove
  the staples from
magazines I recycle

::

Future Books

Fifty years from now
  more books will
  be written about
  our times
than about any
  other subject

With titles like:
  The Trump Years
  The Trump Era
  Trumped by Insanity
  What on Earth Were We Thinking?
  We Have Only Ourselves to Blame
  Democracy in Peril
  The Trump Conundrum

Feel free to add
  your own suggested titles

::

Face the Music

It’s all a matter
  of living up to
what is
  to what
  truly is

And a matter
  of keeping
  your eyes
open wide
Clockwork
  Orange wide

::

Surrender

As long as there
  is someone
 (or something)
  to surrender
That is what we
  must do

::

Ignored

I have never
  seen someone
so ignored
  as that dog
barking at
  the ocean

::

Jhana

Jhana is not
  a fragile state
As here as
  the ocean
firm and strong

::

Pains of Magnitude

There is nothing like
  a greater pain
to shut
a lesser pain up

 Then again

There is nothing like
  no pain
to shut
  any pain up

::

Little Pains
  Come and Go

At my age
  little pains
  come and go
some in less
  of a hurry
  than others

::

Sleight of Hand
  Wordplay

Reasoning your way
  to Emptiness—
Is it wordplay?
Is it logical
  sleight-of-hand?

Is it remaining in
 the wheelhouse
when you should
  be swimming?

::

Bias and Equanimity

You cannot be
  pushed or
  pulled by
that which you
  unbiasedly
  observe

Or need to
  clearly see

::

My Pastime

Language
  without
  a doubt
is my main
  pastime

::

What is a Life—
  a Working Definition

Every Life
  has a door
  that can only
  be opened
from within

(Every door
  has a lock
  that can only
  be unlocked
from within)

Every Life
  has an out
  that can only
  be accessed
from within

Every Life
  is a cage
  that can only
  be uncaged
from within

Every Life
  is a death
  that can only
  be undied
from within

::

Mea Culpa
 A Daughter’s Accusation

I am a many-years
  vegan
and proud of it

Though my daughter
  still accuses me
of being
  a cereal killer

::

Sati is Memory

Sati means
  remembering
the prior state
  of affairs
3,000 times
  each second

::

A Truer Statement

This film is based
  on unverified
  rumor

::

Anapanasati

Empty
  and desireless
wide aware
  ever mindful
be but air

::

The Delimiter

With form as the
  delimiter
  of emptiness
Feelings
  Discernment
Volition
  Consciousness
all appear personal
  individual—
  boundaried

So, let go form

::

BBC’s Planet Earth

I’m sorry, God
  Eat or be eaten
is a fucked up
  sysetm

Shame on you

::

Adhesion

The glue
  of aversion
is just as strong
  as the glue
of attachment

::

Sutras

Can’t help but wonder:

How many sutra-words
  were put in the Buddha’s
mouth by well-meaning
  but misguided followers?

::

Admiration
  Poet’s Poison

To hell with
  admiration
It is an
  ego addiction
A heroin
  you can be
  deprived of
but never
  overdose on
for it will always
  keep you alive
  craving for more
and more
  and more

This spiritual
  insatiable hunger

Let it go…

::

Thin Skin

Some Christians
  I know
have Bible-paper
  thin skin
and so they suffer

::

Private Dictionaries

We all carry
  private definitions
for most
  every word

We all carry
  private views
to support them

::

A Life

A life is a fragment
  of the vast
unfragmentable

::

Teach Me

My cat can make
her cells glow
“Teach me,” I said
“Sure,” she said
and then did

::

Pure Peace

There is no peace
  quite like
  surrendering
the ego

::

As for Going Blind
  Word by Word

You know the
  writing is
  on the wall
when you can
  no longer
  read it

::

Poor AI

AI will never
  come up with
anything
  on its own—

It does not know
  what its own
  means

::

Two Divine Questions

God’s first question
  was:
How do I fragment?

God’s second question
  was:
How did I fragment?

::

Interference

The mind is
  running
  interference
between us
  and truth

To what end
  I am not
  quite sure

::

Pure Illusion

Life, as we know it
  is a very, very
convincing illusion

::

Egocide
  A Thing of Beauty

The other day
  I realized
that the ego
  is erasable

::

Tarn

I am tarn
  a small
  still forest lake

Dark and deep
  bottomless
  say some

No wind
  no ripples
embracing
  reflecting
  the whole sky

Just as the sky
  embraces me

::

Bubbles

Every being is encapsuled
  in a bubble (enbubbled)
  be it of air, or soap
  grass, wool, or steel

It has a clean
  smooth outside shell
  no door, no handle
  no lock

It is as varied within
  as there are beings
  to vary them
but every inside
  has a door, a lock
 and somewhere:
  a hidden key

There can never be
  outside help
only the captive
  the enbubbled soul
can find the key
  unlock the shell
and so evaporate
  into open sky

::

The Ego Cage

The ego cage
  has no
  outside lock

No one else can
  let us out

This cell unlocks
  from within

::

Still Mind

When, the other day
  I went to
  still my mind
I could not find it

Well, I thought
  that is probably
  as still
as it gets

::

My Nimitta

My Nimitta
  is a risen
  luminous
mind
  rendering
  of air

::

Sentient Beings—
A Key Question

Is the ant
  the sentient being
or is the anthill
  the sentient being?

Is the bee
  the sentient being
or is the hive
  the sentient being?

Is the tree
  the sentient being
or is the copse
  the sentient being?

Is the fish
  the sentient being
or is the school
  the sentient being?

Is the starling
  the sentient being
or is the cloud
  the sentient being?

::

Leaving

I have just
  discovered
that erasing
  the ego
is possible

::

Sloppy Saint

Aspiring saint
  equipped with a
Walmart grabber
  reacher picking
  up trash
along Pebble Beach

Saint in training
  spotting
  grabbing
  stuffing
thises and thats
  in his flimsy
plastic
  Walmart bag

Sloppy saint
  doesn’t stuff
  these thises
and thats
  too well into
his flimsy bag
  half the trash
falls back out

Littering
  Pebble Beach

Oblivious saint
  saunters on
Smiling
  blissfully
  saintly

::

Meditative Light

In Anapanasati
  the air is the light
  by which I see

::

Our Prison

Our prison is but
  mental images—
Mind bricks and
  mortar and bars

Not unlike Indira’s
  Jeweled Net

::

Our Brilliant Prison

We are
  brilliantly imprisoned
in Indira’s
  mental image web

::

Egocide

Egocide—
  it’s lancing
a smiling boil
  draining all
that ego puss

::

Unknowable

There is no such thing
  as an unknowable
To claim there is
  is to claim
  eternal effect

Forever imprisoned…

::

An Impossibility

Harder than
  herding cats:
Stepping on
  a shadow—

It will always
  step on you
before you get
  a chance to

::

Astronomical Waste

This is so:
  Only five parts
of every ten billion
of the Sun’s total
  energy output
of the Sun’s light
actually finds us—
  the earth…

What a waste

::

The Terrific Pacific

At times—
  the Pacific
just seizes
  your breath
and will not
  give it back

::

Decisions

A decision is
  a crystalized view
of a future state

::

Divorce

Why should I
  stay married
  to my past?

I think I’ll file
  for divorce
in Karma court

::

Wordplay

Oh, my word—
  an l-less world

 Oh, my woof—
  an l-less woolf

::

Self-Preservation

Of course
  the Universe
masquerades as
  Unknowable

For were we to
  truly know it
it would vanish

This is called
  Universal
  Self-Preservation

::

My Crossing

Nibbāna — My Destination
Magga — My Course
Stillness — My Compass
Dhamma — My Wind
Sila — My Sail
Zānāpānazen — My Vessel
Samsara — My Waters
Word — My Log

And may my
  crossing
stir a sleeper
  steer a seeker

::

My World

Buddha — My Sun
Dhamma — My Sky
Sangha — My Earth

::

Experiment Earth

I think Earth
  is an experiment
gone very

(a) wrong
  — if carried out with good intent
(b) right
  — if carried out with bad intent

::

Divine Savant
  a working definition of God

God, the Divine Savant
  or Rain Main
is that Awareness who
  like Dustin Hoffman
in the movie
(246 toothpicks)
  at a single autistic glance
can tell the precise number
  of sub-atomic particles
  in the universe

::

The Mind Hand

I am gaining a hold on
  the compulsively
gripping mind hand

The grasper of thoughts
  The chaser of notions

The finder of words
  The liver of dreams

The sounder of rhyme
  The eater of food

The painter of pictures
  The brusher of teeth

The hoper of hope
  The conjurer of image

The hidden projectionist
  The Wizard of Oz

::

Gluttony
  versus Integrity

The satisfaction
  of gluttony
versus the
  satisfaction
of a word kept

The one makes
  you burp
The other makes
  you smile

The one burns
  your heart
The other
  gladdens it

The one weeps
  in shame
The other sings
  with strength

The one is death
The other life

::

Story Length

I think a story
  should be as long
as it is
  compellingly told

Not a word longer
  Not a word shorter

::

A Friendly Whisper

I will tell you
  a secret
There is no god
  and he is
  always with you

::

Self-Induced Karma

We keep brilliant
  mental records
of our intentions—
  that is Karma

::

Shocking

Turn up
  the volume
on surprising
  really loud—
you’ll reach
  shocking

::

Our Mental Records

We keep incredible
  mental records

The amazing
  thousand-dimensional
  contents of a single
mental image
  is extraordinary
  is ineffable

Is devastating

::

Exegesis

The closest
  my father
ever came
  to explicating
flowers and bees
  was showing me
how to shave

::

Through Karma to Nirvana
  A Path of Letting Go

We all maintain
  immaculate
  impeccable
multi-dimensional
mental records
  of all our
  intentions

Of every single one
  even the smallest
  of wishes
whether for ourselves
  or for others

Each to one day
  resurrect and
bite (or pat) us back

This is all there is
  to Karma

Letting go
  as in cease
the record keeper
  aka mental recorder
  aka self
  aka ego
is letting go of
  all Karma

This the wise
  call Nirvana

::

Pains
  Small and Large

There’s nothing to
  make you forget
  a little pain
like a larger pain

::

True Peace

Peace is
  spiritual ease
is leaving be
  is letting go
is be

::

The Missing Syllable

Radical Islam
  lost the
  syllable not
to make it:
  Thou Shalt Kill

::

Simplify

A simpler way
  of saying
“just sit” is
just “sit”

::

Content

The mind
  craves content
emotionally
  distractionally

 Anything is
  apparently better
  than nothing

Any thought
  Any image
Any feeling
  Any anything

::

Sisyphus’ Trouble

Sisyphus pushed
  really well the
first ninety-five
  percent—
It was the last
  five he had
  trouble with

::

A Welcome Spring Sound
  A Welcome Spring Sight

You hear them
  before you
  see them
A thousand geese
  voices on the air

In not like a vee
  in more like a
  drawn bow
Valiant home
  wingers

Headed for
 Canada

::

Lethal Glues

Aversion glue
  is just as strong
as Attachment glue

Both quite lethal

::

Language
versus Experience

Language is
  a large gathering
of experiential
  synonyms

Language is never
  the experience

Language is
  only its naming

Humans share
  experience
but not language

This is the cause
  of many problems

God did a cruel thing
  at Babel

::

Blessed Silence—
  Sage Advice

If you have
  nothing to say
say nothing

::

Ego Borders

Thought cannot
  cross the ego
  border

Only with the
  help of
  language

Alternatively—
  Shed the ego
and with it
  all borders

Then think

::

Aging Hearing

My hearing
  has grown
very swift feet
  and is now
heading for
  the hills

::

Improbables

Don’t diss the spirit
  The liver is
more improbable
  than are ghosts

::

Surrender

Softly, softly
  surrender
Body, mind
  and ego

Surrender means
  relinquish control
return to lender

::

Memory

The purpose
  of memory
is to create
  the illusion
  of time

::

Maturing—
  aka Years Rolling By

You know that you’re
  getting on in years
when “the other day”
and “the other year”
  mean pretty much
  the same thing

::

Doings

Physical doing
  is called doing
Mental doing
  is called thinking
Spiritual doing
  is called being

Samadhi doing
  is called seeing
Buddha doing
  is called knowing
Nibbana doing
  is called ceasing

::

Buddhist Meditation

Buddhist Meditation
  is not unlike picking
an intricate lock

::

A Being

A being is be-ing
  whether
knowingly
  or not—
Being as verb

::

Cessation
  Into Stillness

Here and now
  there is no darkness
Here and now
  there is but will
Here and now
  there is no earth
No star, no sky
  and all is still

::

Dead Still

The other day
  I sat so still
My mind thought
  I was dead
  and took off

::