“In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed and never will exist. It is contrary to the natural order that the majority govern and the minority be governed.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau On the Social Contract translated by Judith R. Masters, edited by Roger D. Masters
The US does not have a history of gates like the old world.. Japan has been a civilization during the time when gates were common. The Chinese character is 門. Mumonkan is the gate of no gate. There is no gate to prevent you, or me, from entering , except the one we put there.
“…There is no government so subject to civil wars and internal agitations as the democratic or popular one, because there is none that tends so strongly and constantly to change its form, nor that demands more vigilance and courage to be maintained in its own form.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau On the Social Contract , translated by Judith R. Masters, edited by Roger D. Masters
At Sensoji, people use their hand to drive the incense smoke to the part of their body that is suffering.
“Among us, the kings of England have established themselves as heads of the church and the czars have done the same thing. But by this title, they have made themselves not so much the masters as the ministers. They have acquired not so much the right to change it as the power to maintain it.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau On the Social Contract, translated by Judith R. Masters, edited by Roger D. Masters
A small restaurant squashed between a family home and a high rise apartment building..Tokyo has a different sense of zoning laws, its an older society and land rights have been through a lot more history. But it does not stop the Japanese love for nature, a little garden is welcome anywhere in Tokyo.
“Men at first ad no other kings than the Gods, nor any other government than theocracy. They reasoned like Caligula, and then they reasoned correctly. A long period of change in sentiments and ideas was necessary before men could bring themselves to accept a fellow man as a master and flatter themselves that this was a good arrangement.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau On the Social Contract, translated by Judith R. Masters, edited by Roger D. Masters
Alameda Creek
While In the bathroom, working to fix it up a little, into my vision came an ant walking across the tile . . .
My thought was I do not want ants in the house, and my reaction was to reach down and squash the ant. with my finger.
Ants are living things also,
If it were a spider I would catch it in my plastic empty Rx bottle and let it loose it outside. But an ant is too small, its too difficult to catch it and anyway, “Its just an ant.”
While walking along Alameda Creek last week I came across a person with two dogs , both off leash, (permissible on this side of the creek) . The dogs had occupied themselves with chasing a ground squirrel which one of them finally caught and killed.
I tried to to suggest to her that we are visitors to the home land of the ground squirrels, how would she like it if the ground squirrels came to her home and for their personal entertainment killed one of her dogs or perhaps a family member. or even herself?
She did not have voice control of her dogs, she stood there and watched as one of the out of control dogs and squirrel get into a fight and the dog, larger by a factor of 10, killed the squirrel .
A hawk being bombarded by a crow.which makes 5 or 6 attack runs, the hawk stands there non-plussed about the whole thing for about a minute, and then flies to a protected tree branch.
The wheel of life turns at its own pace, matter can neither be created or destroyed,
But it does change form.
Shariputra,
form is not different from emptiness,
emptiness is not different from form:
form is emptiness,
emptiness is form.
from the Heart ‘Sutra
“When you wake in the morn and find you’re lonely.
And I am on some far and distant shore.
Just remember it was I who loved you only.
It just happened so don’t worry anymore.“
Patrick Sky Many Times Before （song）
The thoughts I have (the photographs I make) and the people I meet may seem unrelated to you,
The moments I am with them connect me to their lives.
Tomorrow I may not see them or, ever again I might not see them . . .
And never no why.
.If I made it easy for you to understand the relationship between my photographs and my words you still might become just as confused as I am.
EndPapers
“There are no words whatever in the Empty Kalpa. But when Buddha appears in the world, then words come into existence and consequently we are attached to these forms of things . . . Just because we are so attached to words we become limited, and lose our universal nature. The Great Way knows no wise man or foolish man, no saint or sinner. But when words and names exist, everything belongs to the finite. So the old master of Kosei says, “It is not mind, not Buddha, not things.”
The Mumonkan CaseXXXIV Nansen’s No Way Blyth translation
Seeing mycelph reflected in the afternoon light on the glass protecting a Nakayama print.
Summer weather in San Francisco, can be colder and windy in the city . . .
even when people are glad to be a long way from their home,
But at the end of the day a photograph can give me hope that tomorrow will be better, where else could I be if I should not find myself
Avalokiteshvara is the compassion of all Buddhas and hears the sounds of humankind, regardless of age, gender, or social standing.The Heart ‘Sutra was spoken to Shariputra by Avalokiteshvara.
Gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi svaha
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