The forty-ninth day. I had become so use to having you around my friend. We had been together since you were four weeks old. Seven years is a dream a phantom a flash of lightning in a night sky. It's all a dream within a dream.

My Buddhist friends of the Sangha tell me your rebirth is now complete. That I should trust that you have had an auspicious rebirth, perhaps in the human realm where you can now practice.

I know this much...
You have already had a life of practice. You were my teacher, you showed me the Tao. You spent many hours, days, months and years hearing the chants, breathing in the incense, sitting patiently as I sat, walking endless miles through the mountain trails purposelessly with no mind.

I find no appeal in any alternative except for the one I instinctively know: That I will always be committed in some way to spirituality, everything else is so temporary and unsteady. Every thing enevitably comes to an end.

So now I remember the questions from the old Taoist Master:

Can you love people(and animals)and leave them without imposing your will?

Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course?

Can you step back from your own mind and understand all things?

Having without posessing

I'll miss you, think of you often and look forward to the day when our paths cross again.

Adios Ceasar

Behold the glow of the moon
illumine the world's four quarters
perfect light in perfect space
a radiance that purifies
people say it waxes and wanes
but I don't see it fade
just like a magic pearl
it shines both night and day Cold Mountain

Sitting straight up on the warm rocks, saying nothing
We gazed at that dragonfly, a string of smoke rising from Twocat mountain
The mind slows to a stop when tired
No need to chant, no need to sit in meditation.
(WATERWAY)
______________________________________________________________________

Our body is like lighting, there one moment, then gone.
Like the luxuriant foliage of spring, which turns yellow in the fall.
Contemplating the law of prosperity and decline, one has no fear
Decline and prosperity lasts the length of time a dew drop clings to the tip of the grass. (NGUYEN VAN HANH)

Seeing

Dharma Master Chih saw Dharma Master Yuan on the street of butchers and asked, "Do you see the butchers slaughtering the sheep?"

Dharma Master Yuan said, "My eyes are not blind. How could I not see them?"

Dharma Master Chih said, "Master Yuan, you are saying you see it!"

Master Yuan said, "You're seeing it on top of seeing it!"

Commentary
This passage comes from the "Bodhidharma Anthology," a collection of texts that are thought to contain the actual words of Bodhidharma and his students. These texts were uncovered about 100 years ago at the Dunhuang cave complex in Western China.

This particular story comes from Record II, which, because of its colloquial nature, is believed by scholars to be an accurate represenation of the words of these very early Zen practitioners. Not much is known about Chih and Yuan; they are thought to have been direct students of Bodhidharma and Yuan seems to rival Hui K'o in his attainment. Chih may have been a student of Yuan's.

The Vinaya, or monastic code, prohibits monks from witnessing "wicked things" and the butchering of sheep is listed in the first twelve wicked things.

These two worthies are not talking about witnessing and wickedness, however. They are using the Vinaya as a playground for present mind.

Source: The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen, by Jeffrey Broughton
Photo by Ben Pivenhttp://www.godrinktea.com/

When the greatest Tao was lost,
there came (ideas of) humanity and justice.
When knowledge and cleverness arrived,
there came deceptions.
When familial relations went out of harmony,
there came (ideas of) good parents and loyal children.
When the nation fell into disorder and misrule,
there camme (ideas of) loyal ministers. Lao-Tzu

Kairos moments never fail to bring me home. So now, I sit, I practice but with the innocence and openess of a puppy, a kitten. Practice is not focused on eliminating pain or becoming a better person. It's not some big special ritual with expectations of gifts from the sky gods. Simply to return to the grace of living which comes naturally from prajna the intuitive realization of being one with the Tao.

When a person looks at something, listens to something, eyes and ears move and follow the things until they have passed. These movements are all underlings, and when the Heavenly ruler [ch'i] follows them in their tasks, it means: To live togather with demons.

T'ai I Chin Hua Tsung Chih

The quote above provides insight to Chang-tzu's fasting the heart (mind)

You are trying to unify yoursel, so you don't listen with your ears but with your heart (mind); you dont listen with your mind but with your spirit [ch'i]. (Let) hearing stop with the ears, and the mind stop at thinking (or, at symbols). Then the spirit is a void embracing everything, and only the Tao includes the void. This void is fasting of the heart (mind).

It never ceases to amaze me how one can simply grab a book off a shelf and allow the universe to provide the path for the next lesson that is most appropriate to further personal evolution at that moment coincidence control. wink, wink. In the seventies John C. Lilly was one of my favorite authors.

Anyway-Here's what I read this morning;

The master came because it was time. He left because he followed the natural flow. Be content with the moment, and be willing to follow the flow; then there will be no room for grief or joy. In the old days this was called freedom from bondage. The wood is consumed but the fire burns on, and we do not know when it will come to an end.

Chuang-tzu writes of the death of Lao-tzu

Tracks in the Earth

Sammy and I went to the river. We took the long trail just below Moody Ridge. It was a bit muddy and slippery. Everything was fresh, wet and smelled like cedar, pines and earth. We've been going to all the places the three of us used to go to. Sammy ran off chasing a deer two thirds of the way down the trail, we met up at the river. He doesn't stay away long without you to run with Ceasar. I looked for and found your old tracks at the cave. A beautiful, sunny, crystal clear day. Sammy and I miss you Ceasar.

I was driving home
I turned to say something
You weren't there

Connections

It's been sixteen days Ceasar. Thirty-three more and then, release.