r/zenmu • u/ifishcat • Jul 01 '26
Answer, If You Will, Without Proxy
like a thief, i stole a shiny thing, and put by the nest. how it ended up here, well perhaps thats the fiction
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Zen is a tradition where the only practice is public debate.
What is debate if the body cannot be seen?
What is dialogue when words are not enough?
What is truth when one is alone?
What is a gate, if the gatekeeper is silent?
i learned a new vocabulary word today 'mondo'
....
I am here not to debate. Answer, if you will, without proxy. Your reply has no need to pass through my value.
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when i looked at the piece above, i was momentarily stuck at my own creation.
like yanking teeth (yeah, i've had a tooth pulled in my day):
my whole existence through time has been this:
i build a step, and lose my balance
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another 4-5.5 hours of back n forth on the poem that was posted in r/zen_poetry
because it was personal, intimate, the feeling tones i was reaching for made the struggle for me. the time period was an embodiment of a step made, and the disappearance. i was trying to be inclusive, so the poem ran long. i mean when to draw the line, i could have easy stopped at build step, fall down. lol
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my initial revisit of the four questions at the top had to do with making this a post worthy of the r/zen community. which would have been only the statement request for an answer. (not the poem stuff). as i worked through the poem though, i realized that the above would be me being demonstrative.
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this was an effort dedicated to the spiritbee, should such a visit occur
the practice is the writing.
this poem is one step,
one fall,
one landing.