fish likes hamburgers

A Siem Reap street juggler balanced a flaming stick on his nose.

Tourists owed and awed.

A traveler spread thirty watercolor pens on a table.

“Here.”

“Can I use them?” said Lukas.

“Yes you may. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Color your dreams.”

Lukas drew two blue dragons and some red slashes.

“The top one is the dragon elephant. This one on the bottom can fly. Between them is a dead fish. They are fighting over it.”

“Why are they fighting?”

“They are hungry dragons.”

Lukas drew another fish outside the battle.

“This fish likes hamburgers.”

 

river

River said please don't push me.
You can't push me. You can try. Everyone fails.

You can't step in the same River twice.

I am from the source.
Consider my source.
High above you in the white clouds obscuring granite peaks. Climb high. Birds sing.
Humans carry their short life on their back.
Women wear love's labor, feeling a child's warmth behind them.
Heartbeats mingle.
Dreaming on their long walk, through jungles, forests, along a river. On River.
Below the surface of appearances.
Crescent yellow moon
Reflects hello dream.
Dance on my surface.
I am a mirror.
Beauty is my mother. 
I am wide deep. I flow forever.
No beginning, no end.
Are your needs being met Mountain asked River.

Hokusai

"At 75 I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, trees, birds, fish and insects.

"When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mysteries of life itself.

"At 100 I shall be a marvelous artist. At 110, everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before."

zen poem

I asked the boy beneath the pines
He said ” the Master’s gone alone
Herb-picking somewhere on the mount
cloud-hidden, whereabouts unknown”

- Chia Tao

Zen quotes

Bamboo

Resilent.

Strong.

Flexible.