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.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2022



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Date: 10/4/2022 8:57:00 PM
In the Waiting Line.
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Labyrinth Avatar
Lady Labyrinth
Date: 10/4/2022 8:57:00 PM
https://youtu.be/Q5Fvj5LM3_Q
Date: 10/4/2022 7:48:00 PM
Give it Away. violins...
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Labyrinth Avatar
Lady Labyrinth
Date: 10/4/2022 7:48:00 PM
https://youtu.be/HFBpKXaX_Eg
Date: 10/4/2022 7:37:00 PM
"Most safely shall you tread the middle path". Ovid
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Labyrinth Avatar
Lady Labyrinth
Date: 10/4/2022 7:50:00 PM
"Venus favours the bold". Ovid
Labyrinth Avatar
Lady Labyrinth
Date: 10/4/2022 7:48:00 PM
"Enhance and intensify one's vision of that synthesis of truth and beauty which is the highest and deepest reality." Ovid.
Labyrinth Avatar
Lady Labyrinth
Date: 10/4/2022 7:44:00 PM
"There is a God within us". Ovid
Labyrinth Avatar
Lady Labyrinth
Date: 10/4/2022 7:41:00 PM
"Unceasing the genius of poets pours forth, and recks not of the trammels of historic truth...I have been undone by your credulity". Ovid
Labyrinth Avatar
Lady Labyrinth
Date: 10/4/2022 7:38:00 PM
"The sharp thorn, often produces delicate roses". Ovid
Date: 10/4/2022 6:35:00 PM
"I am a little world made cunningly Of elements and an angelic sprite, But black sin hath betray'd to endless night My world's both parts, and oh both parts must die. You which beyond that heaven which was most high Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write, Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might Drown my world with my weeping earnestly, Or wash it, if it must be drown'd no more."
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Labyrinth Avatar
Lady Labyrinth
Date: 10/4/2022 6:40:00 PM
"Out of a fired ship, which by no way But drowning could be rescued from the flame, Some men leap'd forth, and ever as they came Near the foes' ships, did by their shot decay; So all were lost, which in the ship were found, They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drown'd."
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