| Has a dog Buddha-nature? This is the most serious question of all. If you say yes or no, You lose your own Buddha-nature. - translation from 13th century text The Gateless Gate* Eastern Zen-Buddhist and Western Zen-Buddhist having a chat ― Western Zen-Buddhist says: Turns out Trump was wrong because Joe can’t be too Sleepy because he authorized bombing Syria which killed 17 people maybe more, for oil. No!, the Eastern Zen-Buddhist serenely exclaims, Trump was right, only the un-awake bomb people, so Joe is Sleepy yet more so, Saṃsāra Joe Saṃsāra is considered a sea of suffering, a perpetuation of ignorance and greed, a repeating cycle of misery and death due to bad karma, you could say – in your Western geo-political Buddhist terminology – a repeating cycle of Democrats and Republicans backed by militant corporations. Also floating around in this current sea of world suffering: microplastics, oil spills, and flushed down the toilet big pharma drugs and more, and along suburban roadways everywhere gas stations, and pharmacies selling little plastic bottles (helpful for some, of course), and convenience stores selling bigger plastic bottles the bigger the bottle the cheaper the price, the cheaper the price the bigger the problems the bigger the problems . . . How inconvenient! Seems no end to the plastics, seems no end to the cycle of Saṃsāra. i confess to hitting the glass bottle once in a while!, the Western Zen-Buddhist serenely exclaims, and then i like to watch Pat Sajak and Vanna White but this worldly wheel of fortune has got to go, this going around in greedy violent circles and expecting a different result, isn’t that the definition of insanity Einstein gave? The Eastern Zen-Buddhist takes a deep breath then gives the breath back to the universe from whence it came, then another deep breath and exhaling says: Plastics are extracted from the earth from natural gas, oil, coal, minerals and plants, another repeating cycle. With all the plastic casings – the keyboard, the mouse, the cell-phone, the car door handle, the gas pump handle – people have lost the feel for things and of where they come from, lost the feel for the actual energy moving through, like holding a hand, touching the rough textures of a tree, a dog’s soft hair, flock of birds wheeling in the midday air NOTE * The Gateless Gate, by Ekai, called Mu-mon, compiled by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki, 1934. See here. Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic, as well as a correspondent-poet for the WUSB 90.1FM radio segment “Radical Words”. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. His website is here. © Copyright 2021 by AxisofLogic.com This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you! |