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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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“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.”
A photograph of David Bowie by Gavin Evans
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“It was my family that wanted me to be a teacher. That was safe, you see. To be a painter was terrible.”
Date Issued: 1980-09-12 Homage to the Square: Glow postage stamp by Josef Albers.
This stamp commemorated American education and the early establishment of the U.S. Department of Education. The design of this stamp is taken from a painting by Josef Albers, a German -born artist who contributed much to modern art through his investigation of color and light perception. Albers came to the United States in 1933 to teach at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. He later taught at Yale. The culmination of Albers’ artistic development is seen in his famous Homage to the Square series, on which he worked from 1949 until his death in 1976.
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“The problems of inventing a new language are staggering. But what else
can one do if one needs to express one’s feeling precisely?”
by Robert Motherwell