No regrets,
if possible.

No Zen

I once wrote
that I wanted
to be a Zen devil,
so I guess
with my bologna sandwich,
and my cigarettes,
and my daily mug of beer,
and my formal practice
of No Zen,
which is sitting
on a chair, smoking,
thinking and drinking
a cup of coffee,
I am.

How To Be An Artist

You know
something about
what art is,
so you do it
every day
for the rest 
of your life,
and the other part
is to get it out
there,
and if you are
a success,
OK,
and if you aren't
a success,
OK.

Cap

One - 
On a straw,
the drink
was potent,
because his ammo
sought a number.
Two - 
Thirteen steps
to the bathroom
is the relation
of his cousin,
the leper.
Three - 
Marge Tofu saw
his eyes
as they sparkled,
and she offered
another night.
Four - 
So, they jumped
into a waiting bus,
where the driver
bounced.

Prejudice

So, we all know
about racial prejudice,
but, how about
beauty prejudice,
or bad hair
prejudice,
or facial hair
prejudice,
or bald head
prejudice,
or sloppy clothes
prejudice,
or nice clothes
prejudice,
or bad breath
prejudice,
or acne
prejudice,
or bad teeth
prejudice,
or too tall
prejudice,
or too short
prejudice,
or too fat
prejudice,
or too skinny
prejudice,
or how about
the prejudice
against poetry?

I searched in Google for
pictures of my name Chris.
Every photograph of the
men named Chris, was a
portrait of a man's face
named Chris. Since Chris
is also a woman's name,
I wondered why there 
were no pictures of women
named Chris. So, I searched
for "Chris female" and
got photographs of women
with their arms around
men, some naked women,
model type women, mostly
full  body photographs,
but no portrait shots.
So, I searched again for
"what is Google sexism?"
and got pictures of 
women alone, like three
of them, with pieces of
paper taped to their mouths
with words about women
on some, and words about men
on others, which were pictures
of three men. I looked
a little further and saw
a pornographic photograph.

The Dumb-Shit Sutra

Hearing a thought of
"Everyday life is no other
than Nirvana" and being
jerked inside of your 
head where you see a
vision of your face
before your parents were
born and then being
jerked so that you see
the world in front of 
you and it looks so 
beautiful that you jump
out of your chair with
a great feeling of
exhilaration and then
you sense door after
door in your mind opening
up, unlocking countless
rooms, and this happens
after your first attempt
at meditation without
any teacher having
taught you how and
without any drugs being
involved, is enlightenment 
and also the beginning
of schizophrenia. No shit.
This happened to me.
              II
Heating up a can of wax
beans is also enlighten-
ment.
              III
Sitting in a chair when
it is exactly eight
o'clock and the thought
pops into your head
of "Laundry" is also
enlightenment.
              IV
I think all composers of
music compose in the 
same way, except for
differences in their
procedures, like Mozart
composing on a billiard table,
or John Cage throwing dice,
or Beethoven writing
in a notebook, or me
not knowing a thing
about how it sounds.
              V
Improvisers compose,
perform and are an
audience all at the 
same time. They all
know what they are 
doing. There are only
different degrees
of knowledge.
              VI
Another kind of
enlightenment that I
experienced was when
I wrote down the
word "Another" and had
an intentional thought
of writing a poem, and
then had an unintentional
thought of recording
music, and then
it occurred to me to roll
cigarettes, because that
was the right thing to
do at that time, for me.
              VII
My mother said that she 
thought there was no
such thing as enlightenment.
John Cage wrote:
enlightenment equals 
     no enlightenment.
Buddha said that there
was no such thing as
enlightenment and then
he said...Ahh, but there is
such a thing as enlightenment.
I say everything is 
     enlightenment.
Samu Sunim taught that
the first thought was
the enlightened thought
and the second thought
was the Buddha thought,
so, obviously, every thought
is enlightened.
              VIII
Haju Sunim had an experience
that her teacher said
was her enlightenment.
She looked at the moon
and couldn't tell if she
was the moon or if the
moon was her.
              IX
A friend practiced
meditation for the
first time, and I
noticed that he looked
a little more crumpled
and depressed. I thought
that was due to his
enlightenment. Of  course,
he was already enlightened,
because he is a nice
guy, which is possibly
better than enlight-
enment.
              X
A Zen master saw a
radiant, loving light
and came out of his
meditation, crying, and
so decided to teach Zen.
An illiterate mental 
patient who I know, who
thought he was the
reincarnation of Cain,
told me he saw a bright,
white light. My brother
had a near-death
experience and saw
 a bright white light.
I have never seen a
bright, white light
except for electric lights,
and the computer, etc.
              IX
I once had an experience
where I was sitting on
a chair on a patio, and
everything disappeared
completely, including me,
and it was not like you
might think, like that I
saw a void or anything,
because I wasn't there to
see anything. The emptiness
didn't exist. It was like
there wasn't anything.
I don't know how I knew
anything about it, except 
briefly after it happened
I was back sitting on
a chair on the patio, and
my forty year old headache
was gone, and I jumped up
and started dancing. My
sister came out and
joined me and my headache
came back. I knew
that time existed
before the disappearance
and that time existed
after the experience,
but I perceived afterward
that there was no time
or space during
the disappearance.
              XII
Bob Dylan said "Don't think
twice, it's alright" and
I always wondered what
that meant. So just now
I had a thought to
have a bologna sandwich
and I didn't have another
thought. So then I had
another thought of
"Oh, I get it!, it's alright!".
              XIII
A friend was walking
in a park with a lady
who practiced yoga. They
were picking flowers
and my friend woke up.
The lady said, "That must
be satori". He told me
it was like a big room.
              XIIII
One way to think of in, is
inside the body/mind. One way
to think of out is outside
the body/mind. They are both
out. One way to think of in
is down toward the center
of the earth. Another way
to think of out, is up towards
outer space. They are both
out. One way to think of in,
is inside of your house.
One way to think of out, is
outside of your house. They
are both out. One way to
think of in, is inside of
that universe. There 
probably is no outside of
the universe. One way to
think of out is out there
in the universe. We are
all inside of the universe.
The universe is everyday,
ordinary life.
     I suggest giving
freely to anyone, if it
will help them.
              END