WW: Scottish breakfast

(Four scrambled eggs, two bannocks, and a grilled tomato.

The breakfast that built an empire.)

Street Level Zen: Renunciation

"You never know what you have until it's gone.

"I wanted to know what I had, so I got rid of everything."

Steven Wright,
undercover Zen master


(Photo courtesy of Mikael Gripsvik and Wikimedia Commons.)

WW: Standing guard

Sufi Tale

A traveller paused in a forest clearing beside a stream, where a dervish sat meditating.

Sipping from his waterskin, he saw the dervish rouse and scoop a wasp from the stream's surface. But as the holy man transferred the insect to the bank it stung him; flinching, he shook it back into the water.

Taking a breath, the dervish reached for the wasp again; again it stung him before he could get it to the bank.

The traveller watched this scenario repeat itself several times. At last, seeing the holy man reach into the stream another time, he could contain himself no longer.

"Baba!" he exclaimed. "Don't do that! It will only sting you again!"

The dervish raised an eyebrow.

"It's the wasp's nature to sting me," he said. "And it's my nature to save it."


(Painting by unknown Indian artist, circa 1630, courtesy of the British Museum and Wikimedia Commons.)

WW: Spring afternoon

WW: Advancing front

(Click here to see it full-screen.)

Anatta

Yesterday upon the stair

I met a man who wasn’t there

He wasn’t there again today

I wish, I wish he’d go away

When I came home last night at 3

The man was waiting there for me

But when I looked around the hall

I couldn’t see him there at all!

Go away, go away
Don’t you come back any more!

Go away, go away
And please don’t slam the door

Last night I saw upon the stair

A little man who wasn’t there

He wasn’t there again today

Oh, how I wish he’d go away

Hughes Mearns

Antigonish (1899)