Haiku is like a razor blade: small, light, but yet strong and incredibly sharp. Haiku says “Look over there!” and then smacks you from the other side. Haiku is the neutron star of poetry: stunning density combined with astounding brightness. Haiku swims in a sea of metaphor, darting like quick, bright
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Writings of J. Todd Ring: Robertson Davies and Alice Walker: A Review By Someone Who Has Never Read A Single Word They Have Written
Such a delightfully warm and witty man, Robertson Davies seems most definitely to be. He looks so severe, when you first look at his face, but then he speaks, and there is such an effusive warmth, gentleness, sensitivity, good-heartedness, magnanimity, graciousness, playfulness, optimism, compassion, humour and wit, that you realize
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Enlightenment: Raising Consciousness & The Cloud of Unknowing
Ideology is neither salvation nor liberation. As important as a paradigm shift, a shift in world view, or a shift in consciousness and perspective, clearly is, we must understand this. It is not ideas or ideology that will save
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Myth Of Progress – Pricking The Bubble
Again and again, I am reminded of the need for humility, as well as dignity and confidence. I am reminded not only by my own faults and errors, which are numerous enough, but also by many of the people I respect the most. Again, and again, I read an exceptionally
Continue readingScripturient: The Ten Bulls
A series of ten Buddhist drawings make up what are known collectively as the Ten Oxherding Pictures or sometimes just as the Ten Bulls. Each one graphically illustrates a stage along the path to enlightenment or self-realization, but they can also be seen as a metaphor for a wider range
Continue readingcartoon life: Zen Tuxedo Cat.
Sleeping Tuxedo. Drawn in Zen Brush 2 app. Once again, this old boy is 19 years old. Sleep and eat is what he does. And quite vocally express his opinion about where you might be on his couch. This app has some subtle brushes, and even as the colour choices are limited to red […]
cartoon life: Zen cat’s rules for living
Yesterdays repost below prompted the gears turning. A few of my own basic rules went very well with the drawing posted a few days earlier. Filed under: art Tagged: Cat, zen
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The Zen of Proofreading
Sponsored post note: I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because my cybernetic monkey helpers were away at pirate camp. I remember a couple of things about my study of Zen. The first was the importance of “beginner’s mind”. … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The Master
I still think back to those days in Japan, when I studied zazen under the guidance of Rōshi Miaki. I had been looking for something in my life, and when I stumbled upon the group of monks, quietly sitting, I … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: La dolce vita
It wasn’t always so easy. There used to be an anger in him. An emptiness that nothing could fill … nothing material anyway. He fell through time and space, and into a kind of dream. And it seemed as though … Continue reading →
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