alchemy

Nine times nine, hard task of immortality!

Firmness of will yields the mysterious key.

By bitter toil you must the demons spurn;

Cultivation will the proper way return.

Regard not the scriptures as easy things.

So many are the sage monk's sufferings!

Learn of the old, wondrous Kinship of the Three:

Elixir won't gel if there's slight errancy.

-written by a buddhist monk in Journey to the West

thanks to mom (today is her birthday) and dad

ready friend, i submit to the buddha victorious in strife...

Are we not drinking here

The shaman's drink,

The magician's drink !

We mix it with our drunken tears and drink.

In that mist for you the blue liquor

I dipped and poured,

I, having drunk, gave to you,

I drew you forward and set you in the circle.

You brought within and were gloriously drunk,

Then I was not ungenerous with beautiful speech

And with beautiful singing.

Thus, vying together, we made an end.

Inspired by a portion of the Papago ritual of the tiswin...

where to stand while drawing the south

Here I Stand,

The Wind is coming toward me,

Shaking !

Here I Stand,

A Cloud is coming toward me,

Shaking !

Here I am sitting

and with my power I draw the south swell toward me.

After the wind I draw the rain

that makes the wild flowers grow on our home ground

and look so beautiful.

--poem inspired by Stephen Buhner's book "Healing beers and herbal brews: ancient secrets of fermentation.

heart sutra of the great perfection of wisdom

When the Bodhisattva Guanzizai (Guanshiyin) was moving in the deep course of the Perfection of Wisdom, she saw that the five heaps (physical phenomena related to the senses, sensation or reception from stimuli, discernment or perception, decision or volition, and cognition and consciousness) were but emptiness, and she transcended all sufferings. Sariputra, form is no different from emptiness, emptiness no different from form; form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. Of sensations, perceptions, volition, and consciousness, the same is also true. Sariputra, it is thus that all dharmas are but empty appearances, neither produced nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing. This is why in emptiness there are no forms and no sensations, perceptions, volition, or consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or object of mind. There is no realm of sight (and so forth), until we reach the realm of no mind-consciousness; there is no ignorance, nor is there extinction of ignorance (and so forth) until we reach the stage where there is no old age and death, nor is there the extinction of old age and death; there is no suffering, annihilation, or way; there is no cognition or attainment. Because there is nothing to be attained, the mind of the Bodhisattva, by virtue of reliance upon the Perfection of Wisdom, has no hindrances: no hindrances, and therefore, no terror or fear; he is far removed from error and delusion, and finally reaches Nirvana. All the Buddhas of the three worlds (the past, present, and future ones) rely on the Perfection of Wisdom, and that is why they attain the ultimate and complete enlightenment. Know, therefore, that the Perfection of Wisdom is a great divine spell, a spell of great illumination, a spell without superior, and a spell without equal. It can do away with all sufferings—such is the unvarnished truth. Therefore, when the Spell of the Perfection of Wisdom is to be spoken, say this spell: “Gate! Gate! Paragate! Parasamgate! Bodhisvaha! (“Gone, gone, gone beyond, completely gone beyond! O what an awakening! All hail!”).

cape kiwanda, oregon coast