Sitting With Koans

"Sitting with Koans" Zazen sits zafu'd in the zendo with the poetic monkey minds echoing the sound of two hands clapping producing sound bites bitten like Botticelli reprising polishing red apples for eating the shining listen to the sound of one sea shell borne leonine Venus swallowing the ocean sugar and spice salt and vinegar sometimes cyanide viper sometimes nice Koans was a philistine novitiate nun practicing the time bomb ticking two step walking a straight line sowing stitches most undonne for the unpacked unpicking the packed in the smoking bitumen with the other hips toting Ovid guns bound breezing down the middle road with the lotus eaters at loon junction towards the Noble Eightfold Path revving engines on automatic read led like Dobermans for fresh meat on their leads somewhere other another story laughs polishing holes in the soles witness a shoe shine kneeling at the feet of Buddha paradox a detour discourse smiling to let the light bleed in the road cross-bowed straight as an arrow psyche of Pythia hell bent sharp and sweet as manuka honey yet never unwinding the galvanised Oracle passes on the sal volatile extending violins for the vapours (LadyLabyrinth / 2022) “In the Waiting Line” / Pomplamoose https://youtu.be/Q5Fvj5LM3_Q “Give it Away” / Zero 7 https://youtu.be/HFBpKXaX_Eg “End Theme” / Zero 7 https://youtu.be/nGNWMxj3epQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Way https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/zazen https://www.britannica.com/topic/koan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path https://tricycle.org/magazine/noble-eightfold-path/ https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/manuka-honey-medicinal-uses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Botticelli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-donne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia koan. a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and provoke enlightenment. the shining. 1977 horror novel/Stephen King. The title was inspired by the 1970 John Lennon song "Instant Karma", which contained the line "We all shine on"... Inside each of us a horror story resides hidden, somewhere. It is reassuring when considering Lennon's lyrics, to contemplate that indeed, eventually, we do all shine on. But perhaps this is not the gist of the entire song. Spin the wheel, or take the wheel.