Bhikkhu Cintita

New Essay Added

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Gupta

I’ve added a new essay to this site.

Sex, Sin and Buddhism (see all)

A supplement to Sex, Sin and Zen by Brad Warner

Brad Warner writes near the beginning of his recent book, Sex Sin and Zen: “I only really know Zen, myself, so that’s all I’m going to be addressing here,” which appears to be accurate, but then, “… we Zen Buddhists tend to be so arrogant that we just call what we believe ‘Buddhism’ without specifying the sect. I’ll be doing a little of that, too. Deal with it.” What follows is my attempt to deal with it. …

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  1. David Scates Avatar
    David Scates

    Mirror of the Sun

    Getting dressed to go to church this morning,

    I glanced out the bathroom window at the dumpster

    that sits at the edge of the parking lot in the back of my building

    and saw some blinding flash at the bottom of it.

    I leaned into the window well, and stared.

    Nothing.

    Just a blinding shimmering flashing

    at the foot of the dumpster.

    It was wierd, nothing to see

    but the huge flashing light.

    And a twenty yard dumpster

    right behind it.

    I tried to imagine what it might be,

    as I knotted my tie, and shined my shoes.

    Nothing.

    Except, of course, my churning imagination.

    On my way to the car, I walked over to the dumpster

    and saw a six foot by four foot mirror leaning against it,

    with the shimmering image of the sun

    becoming clearer and clearer as I approached it.

    I stopped for just a minute and admired it,

    but I was almost late for church.

    So I turned around and headed for the car

    thinking about Nyogen,

    and the great city of Los Angeles.

    –For Nyogen Senzaki, 11/16/2010

    .

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  2. David Scates Avatar
    David Scates

    Mirror Images

    Even as a kid, I was obsessed with mirrors.

    I used to swipe my grandmother’s hand mirror

    and go stand in front of the dining room sideboard

    with the mirror mounted on the back

    and peer around the hand mirror into the big one,

    trying to line up the endlessly receding images

    so I could see down the middle of them.

    Later, I thought maybe if I could bore a hole through the smaller one,

    and look through the middle of that mirror,

    that I might be able to see what was at the end of the curving reflections.

    But I never did.

    Today I thought about it again

    for the first time in years.

    And realized I wouldn’t see anything but smaller and smaller hand mirrors

    until they were too tiny to discern.

    But that if I could see what was finally there,

    it would only be my eye,

    looking back at the mirror in my hand.

    To Janwillem van de Wetering, 11/12/2010

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