The flavor of tasting
stands, itself a
cello wrapped in
legs, a smoke or
a drop – this Cave,
this Redhead, Vortex
lips & tongue: release
without a knot
or even a phone!
John Bailes/Kotatsu Roko
Prospect Hill
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Everyday Zen Sesshin
Everyday Zen Sesshin
Eating lunch in silence
the sound of crisp pickled cucumbers
fills the dining hall;
rain on a tin roof.
For Tenzo Laura
John Bailes/Kotatsu Roko
Santa Sabina Center
17 September, 2011
Flying west to east in the middle of the night I think of John High
Flying west to east in the middle of the night I think of John High
You once wrote, and it is still written and in print too:
“why did you never ask me (if I love you)”.
I say, if I love you, will you ask me, or do you ask you, or do I ask me?
How particular is this asking?
Is it always or never?
Basking whales roll in the sea slipping through, occasionally eyeballing humans lucky enough to see being seen.
Most of us do not know our own seeing and especially being seen.
(Maybe there are vague inklings.)
John Berger wrote an entire book, maybe two, “On Looking” and “On Seeing.”
Does one have to look to see?
Does seeing occur only when there are no eyes?
Even when we think we have eyes, no eyes are seeing.
Always say I love you even if I never ask.
Is grace light standing?
Grace is light,
Standing.
I make up everything I say, even me, with a lot of help from my friends, the kindness of strangers, the albino deer, the one-eyed boy, the lake and the mere grain of sand I am.
With love,
John Bailes/Kotatsu Roko
35,000 Feet
Tuesday 20 September 2011, early morning.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3, 1935-1938 by Walter BenjaminMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
"Three essays into this gizmo & I'm totally awed by this guy! Overarching syncretizing intelligence: art, commoditization, architecture, archetypes, epochal dreams of bourgeois markets evolving through 19th century Paris: arcades, dept stores, high end gunk...upper middle class striving 2 b & 2 show as the merchants enjoy the freedom of post empire France...But then 2 an extraordinary review of Brecht's 3 Penny Novel!" I'm can't wait to continue reading!
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Zen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China by Bill PorterMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Go all the way to 10th century China carrying a cell phone, riding a bus, drinking tea, getting cold wet and tired...Go all the way! Travelling with Red Pine is so much fun and then he throws in his vast knowledge of Chinese Buddhism and literature, especially poetry. I hang on his footnotes. This book is the next best thing to travelling China with Red Pine. What an exceeding generous host to a world very far away and hard to reach. Only a few pass through and fewer yet come back and share the tale.
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The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures) by Victor Witter TurnerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Somehow I think it would have been much more fun to be in a graduate seminar at the University of Chicago with Professor Turner or even a bar on the South Side listening to the Blues applying all that knowledge, insight and creativity. I have heard some good stories. This book is definitely for the anthropology minded. But the liminal mind as accessed through ritual whether African, Episcopalian (and now I guess we have both joined being the African Episcopalians are a major force in that branch of the universe) Tibetan or Zen. We offer light, incense, fruit, sweet tea and our consciousness to pass through that threshold, that gateway which even Heidegger talks about and probably stumbled through as far as I can gather from his later mutterings. Be careful oh scientist, philosopher, your methodology cannot protect you. There is no working condom for life.
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