Vikāla-bhojanā in Thailand
Evening’s calm descends,
Stomach rests as mind awakes,
Night’s peace feeds the soul.
Moonlight on the street,
Noodle steam tempts weary heart,
Guilt stirs with each bite.
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Train cancelled, cause rain
Damp robes, stay equanimous
Wet, late, not easy
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Texts are just words; but
monks listened to the Buddha,
Not hermeneutics.
Off-topic rant about hermeneutics
I’m sick of being told the text doesn’t matter - it’s not perfect, but that doesn’t make it worthless. Attempting to understand the intent of the author, assumed to be a Buddhist monastic who believed they were authentically transmitting the teaching of the Buddha, is not “textualism”, “literalism”, or other slurs: it is Buddhism. It is having faith in the teachings of the Buddha being true, and faith that the teachings of the Buddha have been preserved to the extent you can interpret the text to rediscover what the Buddha meant. Buddhist hermeneutics have led to incredible developments in interpreting the suttas, sunyata and prajnaparamita for example, but there are contemporary Buddhists who for lack of a better expression see the hermeneutics as the teaching.
“Sometimes, anuttara-samyak-sambodhi is just anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.” - Freud, probably
Forum discussions
Hard for me to grasp; next life
higher IQ please 
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Is your IQ low
Or is your wisdom too high
To engage in such?
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wisdom is better
to measure dhamma progress
than intelligence
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Clear Lake is only
fifty feet deep; its people,
here thousands of years.
Anapanasati, enough for me!
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A haiku for Ajahn @jagaro
These waning nights there’s
Still plenty of moonlight for
Those with eyes to see
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Being the cat I have
Captured a wild nightingale—
She flaps in my chest.
Having to try hard
To ensure we don’t have to.
Samsara is weird.
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Reflecting on Right Effort, specifically the four right exertions.
As a gentle breeze
Ripples across a small pond,
Mind guides mind to peace.
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Reluctant to post
Either punished with silence
Or crushed from above
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Bullish striving
Some walk around with no soul
Just a program with swollen ego
Endless talks of their deathlessness
And their biggest not-self.
Don’t know how to do their own laundry,
Nor what love is,
Nor the difference between control and care.
Oh! They love so deeply
Yet close their eyes,
shut the doors on those
who were there once to help.
Got a PhD in Psychology
Just to be toyed by Mara
again and again.
Got a PhD in feeling
just to suppress it all down
into resentment:
“Everybody is broken except me.”
Oh clearly, for honey to reach the soul
the Bee has to work.
Have you done your homework?
Whiskey, luxury, Hawaii,
renouncing all the bodies, thinking:
“Not a single lady knows
the bottom of my soul.
I am hurt the deepest,
I outgive humanity,
I got Phd in loving-kindness.”
I love money the most. That, I know.
Greatest self awareness.
So I trade away my life to the market,
I will beat the system and be rich.
Like Captain Ahab and his whale,
the market is my Moby-Dick.
I will win at all costs.
So all women would love me.
I will build many monasteries
and manage the Sangha.
Eventually I will become the next Māra, or Buddha, or Brahmā.
And they will then see my greatness.
I got a PhD for a reason
Now I lost my way
in too many retreats.
My ship sinks and I stink
Sumanā is calling me a Narc.
I should diagnose her first
But I have the softest heart of all.
I am the First Noble Truth — minus one.
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“Friends” on the path
set better traps than Māra!
Puthujjana, and their aims.
Spiritual flame
Burn every mask!
Moksha to ash!
Visuddhiya!
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Finally it dawns
I am not the person who
Will get enlightened.
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Dawn at Fowlers Gap
Gibberbird calling
in stillness of the landscape
announcing the dawn.
Dark sky turns to pink
followed by a golden glow
as Sun rises up.
Diamond of light
rose above the horison
dispersed the darkness.
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Night at Fowlers Gap
Night sky magic show
with Pointers and Southern Cross
and the Dark Emu.
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Diamond-shaped pebble
Humble brown pebble,
pointed me to diamond
then to light of Sun.
Sun gives light at day,
noble ones shine day and night
with light of Dhamma.
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