(i)
To do nothing
is to let the doing
be done.
To solve no problem
is to let the problem
solve you.
To push not the ocean
is to let the surge
carry you.
To grow into nothing
is to let your pulse
fill you.
What is soul?
It is this.
(ii)
Water over stone.
This is essential.
Dynamic and unchanging;
all change is here:
this, that, and all the ten thousand things.
(iii)
For this metaphysical fetishist,
the uncarved block
is best left uncarved.
The transcendentalist illusion--
of a seperable ego
cast away like a ballast bag
full of sand--
is a balloon trip for others.
I prefer to unknot and upend the bag
on the immanent surface
of the uncarved block,
and get my hands dirty
building sand castles.
Here,
hand me that spade will you?
I'd like to finish this,
before the tide comes in.
(iv)
Dentistry done with the blacksmith's tools.
Reason hammers away
at joins not held by nails.
Much racket to be heard,
clanging inside the head.
The teeth were without blemish.
Yet the horse remains unshod.
(v)
Displacement is without measurement.
Time is without denaturation.
The ruler is not the span.
The surveyor sees
that which needs not
to be seen.
(vi)
The watch-mender is not distracted
by shiny things.
The smallest of levers
raises the largest of nations.
By this
the watch-mender
keeps time.
In time,
the philosopher king
forgets this.
Subtle knowledge takes
a delicate touch.
(vii)
Was Chuang-Tse a man
who dreamt he was
a butterfly or a butterfly
dreaming he was a man?
The dreamer woke long ago.
Flap your wings.
close your eyes.
feel your heart,
keeping time.
Bedtime passed long ago;
the dreamer is long dead.
The dream forgot to sleep.
Enlightenment is the lament
of an insomniac.
(viii)
Schrödinger's cat
lives in a box
of her own devising.
Open the box,
the wave function
collapses:
we all fall down.
Leave the box,
unopened;
wave fare-thee-well:
function as a cat does.
A cat proves herself.
(ix)
What does the Gnostic seek?
What does he seize?
What does the cat seek?
What does she seize?
Both kill.
One lives.
Barnum sold many an exit.
Get your tickets for
Enlightenment
here.
(x)
Eschaton and genesis
are likewise moot
in the face of immanence:
So many narrative
collapsings
of the wave function
of creation.
The creator can not
be known.
The creator can be
determined.
Why so determined
to know?
(xi)
Water seeks its level,
so the soul does.
Air passes, as wind,
so the spirit does.
A good table
with three
well-spaced legs
serves more good
than the highest placed shelf.
Spread out. Dig down.
Take root
in the Eden around you.
Extension
rather than
ascension.
It is this.
