Death is the one event that everyone knowsnever happens the way it is supposed to.Death is a secret realm. It has an entrance with fountains scented with lavender masking the stenchof blood. On the loudspeakers, the rhythms of eternity.On the front door, a quote by Rachel Carson: each grain on a beach is the result of processesthat go […]
Author: Teahouse
The Firebrands
What is the real reason Jupiterdid not let humans have fire? When the brutal winters camehe saw that they were unhappy. Was it to make them suffer, out of joyor boredom, in the rotting, barkless cold?Was it to merely expose their interiorsas hollow space for veiled, powdery, pinkish-salmon, gill-like phobias? Was it just a dark game between them – […]
Looking for a Place to Go
The last time I checked the Buddha never went toa Zen center to meditate.Jesus never talked to his fatherin a church or ate the bread ofhis own limbs at the altar.Moses never needed permissionfrom a rabbi to climb mountains,talk to burning bushes, or read tabletsto the masses down below, those whoare always looking for a place […]
The Art of Being
We do not paint. We are the pigments,resins, solvents and additivesthe soft animal bristle andhand-assembled metal bands. We do not write. We are the molecules linked together in crystalline structures,soaked into paper, allowingour thoughts to bleed at the edges. We do not make music. We are strings vibrating,communicating rhythmic visions hanging in air, that feeling of wanting to bethrusted towards […]
Suffering the Process of Decision-Making
Several years ago, I went through a period when I struggled with unemployment—no matter how many job applications I submitted, nothing seemed to come of my efforts. That is, until one day (as it often happens) I got two job offers at the same time. The offers were both appealing to the same extent, with […]
If the World Falls Down
What happens if the world falls down?If Atlas is no longer around to hold it,is anything or anyone strong enough?When Atlas gave up his burden we allpicked it up like a cannonball until ourshoulders began to hurt, and our back gave out, and we began to ask: What if I should drop it?Each and every one of […]
I Searched Back
Becoming many-celledfrom whitish to pale tan,consuming the soft crystalof my confiscated skin,the alien searched me.Like a probe sent into the outerhemispheres of my consciousness. I searched back.I wondered intoits yucca-sized eyes,and the room became calm, a cream-colored scent of smokerising as the holy spirit does for Baptistson Sunday mornings when they really need it. George Cassidy Payne […]
Before Words
By the time it is written down it hasalready passed. Even the animals,the brute beasts of the fields, dumband blind to the ways of poetry in books, feel it in the soul of their hoovesand the simple sensations of their tonguestouching the grass, or a pig rolling in the mud, as birds sing for no reason but […]
Rima Fujita: Art and Action
Rima with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. ©Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL An enlightened, ineffably wise face deep in contemplation of the bottomless realities of the cosmos. Yet the colours are so vibrant as to have an almost childlike, playful quality. This vibrant and vivid aesthetic is Rima Fujita’s instantly recognizable artistic style, which has captured the attention of […]
The Teacher Who Dispels the Darkness of Ignorance and Brings the Light of Wisdom
28 October marks one year since the passing of my beloved teacher, Professor Alexander Fedotoff (1956– 2018). He was an outstanding erudite, a polyglot, and professor of Korean, Mongolian, and Tibetan literature. He was born in Novosibirsk, Russia and graduated from the Department of Mongolian Studies and Tibetology in the Faculty of Asian and African […]