poem written about twenty years ago. it evokes meeting my teacher zen master ryotan tokuda a few years before. over a period of time i wrote many poems to him. i can't think of another human who left the impact on me that he did. that's what the poems tried to convey in some obscure way; the depth of what he had shaken and stirred in me.
reading them again after some time it struck me that they sounded more like love poems. he received the poems without saying a word, silently. silence was the greatest thing we had between us and
that's what he thought more than anything thought me: silence as religion.
one day i told him about what i had observed. he then made the flowing comment: " but the relationship between teacher and student is one of love."
heart to heart, mind to mind, the greatest transmission is the flame of love.
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its destiny you said
encounter of destinies
should one time we meet
it is an overnight stay
in a rundown hermitage
stars spread out over the sky
they greet the hidden flame
you carry in the heart
that unspoken mystery of the sea
you see my hour go blind
you see shades come over me
for i need to step aside
to let your echo pass
in the rising mountain
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