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This poem and others are available in my books, Nothing Works: Meditations on Aikido, Buddhism, the Tao, Zen, and other inconsequential things....and, Nothing Special, and Nothing Matters..., available thru Amazon.com, in print and Kindle editions and Barnes & Noble websites.....Also available as an e-book via Smashwords.com. Try this link: www.nothing-works.com for the full array of options.
I bowed
As I entered the dojo An act symbolizing
The divide between
The physical world
And the spiritual world
Our dojo has a scroll
Describing the dojo
As a sacred space
Where training in the art
Was to be given the respect
It deserved -- and fear, too
A good fear, giving caution
And respect to our partners
And to the techniques practiced
And the weapons used
And to the training hall
That housed all our spirits
A small, red-gold leaf
Rested in the tokonoma A symbol of the season
And of the transience
Of the moment and our lives
A good reminder, if one were needed
Even the three notes
Struck to begin class
Echoed and disappeared
Entering back into silence
A quiet we all embraced
Even as we attacked each other
The space where
Sea and sky meet
Where heaven and earth connect
That intangible yet obvious place
This is the place where
I try to be, try to move from
Slowing my breathing
Unfocusing my eyes
When he strikes
His space becomes my space
And, we share the same horizon
For a moment...
When we talk --
No, we actually argue, sometimes
About the existence of nothing
I get so confused
Are we talking about nothing
Or, are we talking about nothing?
I get so lost, feeling the winds
Of some far off place
Touching me, touching me
With gentle reminders
Of my limitations, my limits
Of understanding and capacity
I sit in zazen Contemplating my navel
And, the nature of bullets
Wondering what would Buddha do?
What would he do when faced
With a Charlie Hebdo?
Certainly, Je Suis Charlie
Would fit into his world-view
But, is that it? Acceptance?
Nothing more? Passivity?
I much prefer the Taoist maxim Wu-Wei -- not doing...
Not a passive acceptance, no
But, an active following
Of doing-not-doing
Following -- no, being, a path
That leads to proper outcomes
Bullets, bombs, and curses
I duck and hide, and crawl away
But, those damn curses
Follow me everywhere!
But, it is the bullets and bombs
That hurt and kill
So, as my shield, I write satire
And create cartoons
Not bullet proof, perhaps
But, hopefully, longer lasting
In a dojo
There is no escape
No place to hide
You leave your civvies
In the locker room
And don special clothes
A gi - everyone the same
Except perhaps for some
Colored belts or a mix
Of hakama here and there
The uniformity takes away
All your usual camouflage
You are left exposed
There to be hammered into
Something better, something new
Sometimes the experience
Is not pleasant, not easy
But that's why you are there
A true Way is never easy
Or pleasant -- it just is
One important detail after another
Forging, sculpting, taking
Away all the useless chaff
To reveal who and what
You truly are
What is the color of truth?
The color of beauty?
What is the color of grace?
Are my eyes capable of seeing
Seeing such, such things?
Or, do I need god-sight?
Yet, there are times, times
When surprisingly, my earthly eyes
See all the splendor there is
Because it is there, all there
All around me, and inside me
These times I cry, I cry
I raise my head and tears stream down
And I see all the colors,
All the splendid colors there are
Life involves suffering
The spiritual path involves suffering
Does it therefore follow that
Life, itself, is automatically
A spiritual path?
Need we do nothing more
Than suffer to attain enlightenment?
The whole world itself appears
To be in its own agony
Why isn't the world then, enlightened?
Perhaps suffering is only the beginning
A wake-up call that something needs doing
That things need to change
Change starts with the individual
Changing the I-Me-Mine paradigm
Our own ignorance of our
Deepest cravings and desires
Becoming aware and following
The eightfold path out of suffering
Following the Middle Way
Providing a liberation
That leads to joy
02-08-2015 05:27 PM 
