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watercolor 8x6in
2019 LVP
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The future is a concept, it doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now. That’s one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.
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The Gates of Paradise
A soldier named Nobushige came to Hakuin, and asked: “Is there really a paradise and a hell?”
“Who are you?” inquired Hakuin.
“I am a samurai,” the warrior replied.
“You, a soldier!” exclaimed Hakuin. “What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar.”
Nobushige became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued: “So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably much too dull to cut off my head.”
As Nobushige drew his sword Hakuin remarked: “Here open the gates of hell!”
At these words the samurai, perceiving the master’s discipline, sheathed his sword and bowed.
“Here open the gates of paradise,” said Hakuin.
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The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves
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Hair Band
charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic on paper
16″ x 13.5″
2010
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We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between a causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality.
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Thich
Quang Duc had prepared himself for his self-immolation through several
weeks of meditation and had explained his motivation in letters to
members of his Buddhist community as well as to the government of South
Vietnam in the weeks prior to his self-immolation. In these letters he
described his desire to bring attention to the repressive policies of
the Catholic Diem regime that controlled the South Vietnamese government
at the time. Prior to the self-immolation, the South Vietnamese
Buddhists had made the following requests to the Diem regime, asking it
to:
1. Lift its ban on flying the traditional Buddhist flag;
2. Grant Buddhism the same rights as Catholicism;
3. Stop detaining Buddhists;
4. Give Buddhist monks and nuns the right to practice and spread their religion; and
5. Pay fair compensations to the victim’s families and punish those responsible for their deaths.