petrified metaphors a crow filledmeadow a barrier like a riverboat looking upat the skyhidden fumesin the hysteria of extinctionsomewhere helicoptered away from the deltathose sharp edges likeshoulderbladesthe land of my bodybreathed overwith floodlights
death
Zen and the Art of Dying
I remember when the thought of dying became real to me. I was 24 years old, serving a tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Marines. It was my squad’s turn to act as the quick reaction force (QRF) for our base. QRF is like the 911 of a forward-deployed unit. They’re on standby 24/7, […]
To Die Like Marat
The death of Marat wasbad, but at least he lookedgood.I don’t want to go out a slob,nothing against slobs.I want to die handsome, likeMarat, or at least the way Jacques-Louis David saw himwith a letter in his hand and the sunlight casting a golden shadowon his shoulders, forehead, and left forearm.Stabbed to death by a […]
America the Beautiful
In Charlottesville they worechinstrap bombs that turnedout to be nothing but dust and stone.In Sacramento, thrown like rag dolls,the flies evolved long, sucking mouths;in eternal darkness, reaching, if pushed,for the voice command in your throat. In St. Louis, the bodies leave no footprintson the land, and the nesting cliffs becomebattlegrounds, as they always have, wailingbehind the […]
Facing the Loss of a Loved One
Master Jingzong; English translation by Jinghua, edited by Fojin Two objects, A and B are fastened together by a rope. When A drops, it will naturally affect B if B is not anchored. However, if B is rooted, it will be able to hold up A and not let it fall, and will eventually pull […]
Master Huijing’s Dharma Words about the Purpose of Life
If we step back and pause to reflect a little, we’ll realize just how many concerns dog us in our daily existence. As Buddhists we shouldn’t seek to ignore the conventional realities that can cause concern and vexation to arise in us. I’d be the first to confess that I have plenty of worries. But […]
Life, Death… All a Matter of Perspective
We like to tell ourselves that we intellectually (even if we struggle to emotionally) grasp the significance of death as the end of our present existence. But time, life, and death are nowhere near as commonsense as we think. In an article in The Independent, professor Robert Lanza lays out the concept of biocentrism: ‘the universe […]
Postcard from Raymond: We Never Truly Die
One of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s most eloquent and moving teachings is a summation of Buddhist doctrine about life after death: we do not leave this world until full, total enlightenment. We are integrally part of it and even when our personal time expires on this beautiful but hurting planet, we don’t disappear. […]
No Tomorrow
Inspired by the Maranassati Sutta The moment she was born Gemma knew she was about to die. By all accounts she was unlike any other child: she never got excited about Christmas and she never got upset when she was grounded. In fact her brother tells me she didn’t even bat an eyelid when her […]
My Dear Master
Raymond Lam Recently I got a call from my Dharma sister: my preceptor is bedridden in hospital after suffering a stroke. His health had been deteriorating rapidly for the past half a year thanks to having suffered several physical accidents. The Venerable is also 93 years old, about a decade older than Zen Master Thich […]