What does it mean
to be a loser?
Who taught, me, you, us
What a loser is?

“Winners don’t quit
and quitters don’t win”

Do you want to be cool?
Do you want to win?

Do you know the song
by the band echosmith?
“I wish that I could
be like the cool kids
'Cause all the cool kids,
they seem to get it”

I guess I felt jealous
of the popular crowd
they had friends
they were pretty
and all I had was hate
against the world
against the church
against Jesus
and all the rest

hard to tell the story
of a thousand rainy days
the rain didn’t stop teaching
but who could hear its talk?

Was Jesus cool?
a criminal, tortured
an outcast and reject?

Was Bodhidharma?
A teacher with only two students?
A foreigner, outsider, immigrant?

How about all the hermits?
poor, “unsuccessful”
“purposeless”?
Whose ruler do you use?
How do you measure?

How do you

fried egg on a friday
it’s a simple thing
break the shell
don’t be afraid
it won’t break all the way
disintegrate
make a mess
it’ll open
and won’t be rotten
(most days)

poetry too and zen
may be like this
like buddha said
of playing strings
not too taut
not too lax
too little impact
to break the shell
but not too much

don’t undercook
don’t burn it
pay it mind
learn its how
in the end
it’s just an egg
good for a bite or two

are these words
good for a sight
a light read
a moment or two?

the theme is just a suggestion
write a poem if you’re game
play a string that moves you
and maybe others
oh emptiness in the mind and stomach
here’s an egg, a poem
can you join in cooking, eating, reading, writing
welcome to this friday fried egg feast

To make a rhyme
a word, a phrase
sometimes comes to mind
like a key to a maze

But are rhymes
proof of quality,
like number of carats,
like carrots to a donkey?

where do we go
with carrots and sticks?

simple food and jazz licks
why offer carrots
to try to find
what’s there all along,
bribing yourself
to do useless work?

In a court
you are the complainer
the complained about
the judge, the jury
the rope tying you up.
Why so much ritual?
Why so much pretense?
Grabbing and grasping
and losing you money
Why not just wake up?

The theme is just a suggestion

Haven't you seen the saying of master Yantou that whenever you have an object of esteem, it becomes a nest? You people who have spent your whole lives in monasteries investigating this matter without attainment are not worth talking about. A lot of those with white hair and yellow teeth still sit in a nest, unable to get out all their lives, totally unaware of their error. Those who get a taste for the sayings of people of old make extraordinary sayings and wonderful statements into a nest. Those who get a taste for the terminology and interpretation of scriptural teachings make scriptural teachings into a nest. Those who get a taste for the cases of people of old make the ancients' dialogues, substitute sayings, alternative sayings, words of praise and words of censure into nests. Those who get a taste for the nature of mind make 'the triple world is only thought, myriad things are only perceptions' into a nest. Those who get a taste for a state of quiescent silence without words or

Treasury of the Eye of True Teaching #670

[...]

Buddha said, "If you want to use similes for expression, there is ultimately no simile to which this can be likened." This talk of vastness is already limiting it. How much the more so wanting to enter this vast realm with a limited mind. Even if you manage to enter, it is like dipping water from the ocean with a gourd. Even if the gourd is filled, how much can it contain? However, before the water in the gourd goes into the gourd, it is identical to the measureless water. Because your perspective is just so, you imagine this is plenitude; so this infinite realm also fills you according to the measure of your capacity. It is not that there is only so much water in the immense ocean. Therefore the Buddha has said that the immense ocean does not refuse small streams; **from insects to titans, those who drink the water all get filled. **This water represents the mind, while the insects and titans represent differences of great and small. T

on the sidebar it read "their teaching" as in of the lineage, but I would think more grammatically correct would be its teachings, the teachings of the lineage. The lineage being an "it", a thing. A tradition too would be an it.

Not a big deal or nothing, but being a bit pedantic, felt I could try to suggest it.

(I thought of sending this through modmail, butI haven't found modmail yet in lemmy? Is it just absent?)