1/27/2023

a thousand pianos in the valley

 


Seiho Takeuchi, 1864-1942 CE


        At the end of the service our congregation joins hands to bring a prayer into the world. Hand takes hand takes hand until we are like a lovely snake winding through the sanctuary. No one is left out, no one is omitted. The reaching out continues until all are joined by flesh, and then we all are joined in spirit by our prayer.

-

        Moonrise, and we swiftly climb up through the trees of light. Human beings on the move. Below us, the earth sings primitive verses in a low, rolling voice. The sun is just a golden memory now. Up through the trees we climb, like beasts. Love itself is illuminated. The moonlight shines on our animal faces.

-

        A forest of guitars, growing from the soil like trees. An ocean of drums, all rolling, rolling. In the mountains, saxophones and trumpets blow deep, rich notes, improvising in the snow. And the valley below holds a thousand pianos, a thousand xylophones, and one stand-up bass. The world is ready, friend, count off the beat. Life is an improvisation, let's begin.

-

james lee jobe



Ay-O, 1931-present CE

        If you are careless about the little things you will accomplish nothing. Everybody -- WAKE UP! 

Zen Master Hakuin


        Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.

Oscar Wilde


       If you have mindfulness enabling you to read yourself and understand yourself, craving will have a hard time forming. In whatever guises it arises, you can read it, know it, extinguish it, let it go.

Upasika Kee Nanayon




Keb' Mo' - That's Not Love 


Dawn Landscape

 

The last watch has sounded in K'uei-chou.

Color spreading above Solar-Terrace Mountain,

 

a cold sun clears high peaks. Clouds linger,

blotting out canyons below tangled ridges,

 

and deep Yangtze banks keep sails hidden.

Beneath clear skies: clatter of falling leaves.

 

And these deer at my bramble gate: so close

here, we touch our own kind in each other.


Tu Fu, 712-770 CE



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-jlj

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