God is the original face before I was born. The lost part of my brain, drifting across beginninglesslifetimes, bobbing in the embryonic fluid. God is tortoise tracks and prayers bya beachside grave and the last daysof summer. Why the universe is so hot,crowded, and noisy, yet arrives quietly each lonely evening, on my doorstep, a bouquet of suffocating […]
Letter to an Editor
I think I know why I like this piece so much. It’s what I strive for in everything I do. It disrupts everyone. From Generation Z to those still living from the Greatest Generation, this one has something to unnerve and destabilize everyone’s sense of moral justice. No quarter. Almost no social or political allegiance whatsoever. […]
My Turn
When it was my turnto go in I sat cross-leggedby the ventilator and told my buddygoodbye. I could have cried but he deserved more than that. He deservedwhat carries no weight. Time. Before the lungs fill with river water, and the dream oozes away from fingers like the texture of drowning lotus petals no longercaught between the rocks.
Everything Is Invented
with words, including the age of rocksand trees and picked strawberries andparticles of sand, all those ideas falling apart between the lips and fingers and toes.
How To Fall Out of Love
If we are lucky, it is like an ant on thesidewalks of Times Square. This memory. This oval shaped, solid, durable, now fixed, singular, squishy, ripping sounding, earthy tasting, leathery,months-long, crimson-colored, knuckle sized thing.
Boulder, Colorado
Is the wry grin an old hippy makeswhen hiding a handfulof magic mushrooms. Or the way strangers feel innocentand accomplished at the summit. Nowhere but down to go from there. Sucking the jeweled teeth of the Flatirons like kids.
A Drowning
No one could save himonce he was lodged beneath the rapids.No one could breathe for himonce he was hauled onto the rocks. Weeks passed and the trips to the hospital became pilgrimages.We were just teenagers. Too arrogant to admit that it could have been any one of us. When it was my turn to go […]
Speaking of Humility
By Master Jingzong; translation by the Pure Land School Translation Team The human mind is like the earth. It possesses Buddha-nature and oceans of wisdom but is filled with the worthless debris of egotism and has lost its usefulness. If we use the shovel of humility to dig out the dust of arrogance and restore the […]
All You Need Is Love
More coveted than gold from lead is her belly laugh while chased around the kitchen floor More magical than wine from milkis the wise mischief in her smile when held, before bed with a fragile stillness The master alchemists of Chinawould do no better.
Maitridakini and Indradakini
Maitridakini and Indradakini Maitridakini (Tib. Maitri Khacho) and Indradakini (Tib. Indra Khacho) are two manifestations of Vajrayogini (Tib. Dorje Naljorma), the supreme goddess in the pantheon of Vajrayana Buddhism. Just like her, they are perceived as an embodiment of complete Buddhahood in female form. Maitridakini is a Tantric goddess, originated from the tradition of the […]