Category Archives: Bamboo Leaves

ASHRAM MELODY

The best way of enough is all gone,for that there is no argument upon. While there is still something in the dishthere is, in Mind, propensity to wish. Wishing is a film that spreads itself like jamand turns the dullest … Continue reading

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MALINEE

Malinee’s father took her to China.There was a reception in their honour.A monkey was brought inand put on the table. It was alive. Its body filled the cage;the head stuck out of the top. Everyone watched.The monkey’s headwas carefully shaved.The … Continue reading

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EMERGENCY EXIT

I must be present nowbefore I can have a past;I must be present nowto create a future then. If I still my present mindand exchange present thoughtsfor nothing at all,I have escaped past and futureand achieved a timeless peacewith no … Continue reading

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FULL MOON DAY IN MARCH

One candle is a light unto itself.One hundred candlesilluminate a room.In a room,one candle isa light unto itself. Uposatha Day at Wat Krathum,seven old ladies and one old mantaking eight precepts for a dayto keep the fires of Hell at … Continue reading

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AS A THING IS VIEWED, SO IT APPEARS

The Emerald Buddhais not made of emeraldbut a kind of greenand mutton coloured jadestone. Nor is it a Buddha,though seated on a gilded throneabove our heads;though presented every yearwith new robes by the King himself;though credited with magical powersof healing … Continue reading

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POEMS

Poems are diamonds,everywhereembedded in living rock. You see themyou dig them outyou polish them. (Sometimes you don’t see them.) Polish them too much,they break into fragments,blow away,a handful of dust. (Each mote of which is a diamond.) .

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NEW RECRUITS REPORT TO THE GUARDROOM

On Tuesday after a silenceof three months,suddenly,where the junglethrows evening shadows over the bougainvilleas,all the cicadas shouted out at once;stretching and releasing their tymbalslike the shimmering and vibratingof a thousand silver cymbals. No notices were posted on the trees.No announcements … Continue reading

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LIVING WATERS

All drink from the same pond,Pride is out of place(there is no owner).Humility is out of place(it is inverted Pride). Enough that drinkers drink freelyand do not erect fences facing. Set out to fence in a small pond,you end up … Continue reading

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PIMSAI IN CAELO

“I worry about Siam.I worry about Muang Thai.Siam was ours,Muang Thai we shared.” “I worry, too.I shut my eyesto open the eyes of othersto what my people brought;a certain agnosticism of thought,a carefully defined democracy,new cars, logging and pollution.” “We … Continue reading

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THE TREE OF MAN

The flowers of the Strangling Figare fertilised by wasps.Its fruit is delightfulto green pigeons, hornbills, macaques,barbets, gibbons and langursand ends up in their guts.From there the seedfinds its way to a moist spoton the canopy of a suitable tree.It germinates … Continue reading

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