Beginner’s Mind

A novice onced complained to a student:

“When I do this meditation stuff I just sit here doing nothing!”

The student left the room in a jealous fit.

In all Seriousness

If you are serious about having fun you have to act as if you’re not being serious.

If you are not serious about having fun you can act as serious as you like.

Try each, and answer in all seriousness: Which is more fun?

The Wall

From the mountain’s peak,
All the world is mist and dew,
Still I face the wall.

Ode to Kant

I don’t know!

How is it that you know that you don’t know?

Because I don’t have the answer!

How is it that you know that not having the answer means that you don’t know?

Because that’s what ‘I don’t know’ means!

How is it that you know that that’s what ‘I don’t know’ means?

I don’t know!

Five Questions

1. If life is perfect, how can you feel loss?
2. If you cannot feel loss, how can anything be missed?
3. If nothing can be missed, how can anything be loved?
4. If nothing can be loved, how can life have meaning?
5. If life has no meaning, how can life be perfect?

Masquerade

Not maid, not money, not monarch, not myth,
Not gold, glory or God,
None is so sweet or so sought for,
As a simple mask that fits.

For this life is but a play,
A farce, a deceit, a masquerade,
In which,
There is none so learned in misery and woe,
As the actor without a part to play.