Standing on the deck of a standing ship, a sailor looks for coming waves in the subtle swells of the grey-green horizon. The dark water rises far in the distance, and he waits for the long causes to build--but it's simply the random motion of the sea; it never approaches; it has no effect. So I stood and watched for my future, looking for a reason in the distance that would pick me up like a wave and bring me up onto the shore. It never came: instead, a creeping tide, an undertow, moved me quietly along.

-Jim Lewis,
Sister

When I first went to my father's old college I had rooms on a staircase on which there were also the rooms of a man called Melvyn. Melvyn was a short chubby man with a round face and a high domed forehead and eyebrows that went up to a point in the middle like those of a stage devil. My rooms were above his, so that I had to pass his door when I went up the stairs. He would leave his door open when he was inside his room so that it was as if he wanted to be on show for whoever would look at him. Within this frame he would appear to be posing in various tableaux: the student at his desk; the asthete reclining on his chaise-longue; the visionary at the window; the eccentric flat on his back on the floor with a pillow under his head. I would think - It is as if, yes, he is doing those performances because he is like one of those particles that might not exist unless someone is observing them. Then - Or is it I who make up such patterns into which people have to fit; if I did not, might I not exist?

-Nicholas Mosely,
Hopeful Monsters

T H E
C A S E

Whatever he was asked about Zen, Master Gutei simply stuck up one finger. He had a boy attendant whom a visitor asked, "What kind of teaching does your master give?" The boy held up one finger too. Hearing of this, Gutei cut off the boy's finger with a knife. As the boy ran away, screaming with pain, Gutei called to him. When the boy turned his head, Gutei stuck up one finger. The boy was suddenly enlightened. When Gutei was about to die, he said to the assembled monks, "I received this one-finger Zen from Tenryu. I've used it all my life but have not exhausted it." Having said this, he entered nirvana.

M U M O N ' S
C O M M E N T A R Y

The enlightenment of Gutei and the boy have nothing to do with the tip of a finger. If you realize this, Tenryu, Gutei, the boy, and you yourself are all run thorugh with one skewer.

T H E
V E R S E

Old Tenryu made a fool of Gutei,
Who cut the boy with a sharp blade.
The mountain deity Korei raised his hand, and lo, without effort,
Great Mount Ka with its many ridges was split in two!

-Mumon,
Mumonkan, trans. Yamada

Odi et amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requiris.
      Nescio, sed fieri sentio, et excrucior.

-Catullus LXXXV

This is a dog,
This is a cat,
This is a frog,
This is a rat.
Run, dog, mew, cat,
Jump, frog, gnaw, rat.

Ambrose Bierce,
The Devil's Dictionary

Giving dogs extracted teeth to chew brings good luck.

Pluck a hair from a neighing horse: Good luck.

To muse for long unwearied hours with my attention riveted to some frivolous device on the margin, or in the typography of a book; to become absorbed for the better part of a summer's day, in a quaint shadow falling aslant upon the tapestry, or upon the door; to lose myself for an entire night in watching the steady flame of a lamp, or the embers of a fire; to dream away whole days over the perfume of a flower; to repeat monotonously some common word, until the sound, by dint of frequent repetition, ceased to convey any idea whatever to the mind; to lose all sense of motion or physical existence, by means of absolute bodily quiescence long and obstinately persevered in;--such were a few of the most common and least pernicious vagaries induced by a condition of the mental faculties, not, indeed, altogether unparalleled, but certainly bidding defiance to anything like analysis or explanation.

Edgar Allan Poe,
Berenice

 

The brahmins say creation is without beginning and without end. Three hundred and sixty of our years make one god-year; a Kali-yuga is one thousand and two hundred god-years, a Dvapar-yuga is two thousand and four hundred god-years, a Treta-yuga is three thousand and six hundred god-years, a Krta-yuga is four thousand and eight hundred god-years; one cycle of these four types of yugas makes one Great Interval; seventy-one Great Intervals make one Period - at the end of each Period the universe is destroyed and re-created - and fourteen Periods make one Kalpa, one Great Cycle; the Great Cycles follow each other, the smaller cycles within, wheels within wheels, creation, construction, chaos, desturction. Many universes exist beside each other, each with its own Brahma; this is the wheel, immense, beyond the grasp of conception.

Vikram Chandra,
Red Earth & Pouring Rain

Past, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The Past is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of tomorrow. They are one--the knowledge and the dream.

And if I loved you Wednesday,
  Well, what is that to you?
I do not love you Thursday--
  So much is true.
And why you come complaining
  Is more than I can see.
I loved you Wednesday, yes,
  But what is that to me?

Utnapishtim said, 'There is no permanence. Do we build a house to stand for ever, do we seal a contract to hold for all time? Do brothers divide an inheritance to keep for ever, does the flood-time of rivers endure? It is only the nymph of the dragon-fly who sheds her larva and sees the sun in his glory. From the days of old there is no permanence. The sleeping and the dead, how alike they are, they are like a painted death. What is there between the master and the servant when both have fulfilled their doom? When the Anunnaki, the judges, come together, and Mammetum the motherr of destinies, together they decree the fates of men. Life and death they allot but the day of death they do not disclose.'

-The Epic of Gilgamesh
trans. N. K. Sandars

A dog is not a hammock.

Mimi Benoit

Why waste rope hanging yourself.

Grasp the eye by the monacle.

Cold meat lights no fire.

--Paul Eluard and Benjamin Peret

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

--Nietzsche,
as quoted in Love is Hell by Matt Groening

Date: Monday, November 9, 1992 at 11:43 pm
From: Foreman,Todd David
To:   Lawson,Eric A

huic dea caeruleis unum de crinibus anguem conicit, inque sinum praecordia ad intima subdit, quo furibunda domum monstro permisceat omnem. ille inter vestis et levia pectora lapsus volvitur attactu nullo, fallitque furentem vipeream inspirans animam; fit tortile collo aurum ingens coluber, fit longae taenia vittae innectitque comas et membris lubricus errat. ac dum prima lues udo sublapsa veneno pertemptat sensus atque ossibus implicat ignem necdum animus toto percepit pectora flammam...

The Aeneid, lines 346-356
The possession of Amata

 

Dear Friends:

There has been a radio communcation breach of security between the Department of Justice and the television networks. In the Spring of 1979, the Department of Justice allegedly "bugged" my home and transmitted (audio only) to NBC Television Studios in New York City. I was regularly monitored in my own home by news reporters presenting the "Today" Show. Jane Pauley and Tom Brokaw were the hosts at the time. One day, Tom Brokaw changed from the "Today" Show presentation to the "NBC Nighly News". Bryant Gumbel became the new host on the "Today" Show. It was at this time that I directed Bryant Gumbel to blink his eyes. Bryant Gumbel had so much trouble with his eyes blinking that it was uncontrollable. I'm sure millions of people witnessed this occurance.

On October 31st, 1984, I met Robert Bazell, the Science Editor for NBC Television, New York. Robert Bazell was reporting on the "Baby Fae" heart recipient case at Loma Linda University. After waiting outside the designated press conference room about five minutes, Robert Bazell came walking out. I quickly introduced myself, "Robert Bazell, I am Phillip Jones!" Robert Bazell said, "Phillip Jones, you could cause me to lose my job!" Robert Bazell definitely knew who I was, even though I had never met him before, or had ever sent him any of my letters.

To this day, no California Senator or Congressman has ever responded to any of my letters, even though I have distributed thousand of letters. Numerous Congressmen and Senators from other states have responded.

My story has not been publicized at all, so far. Whose fault is this? Is the news media wrong? Is the Congress to blame? I am not so sure the news media is to blame. No matter which news reporter you decide to watch in the evenings, whether it is Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings or Dan Rather, you are sure to see they blink their eyes intentionally.

One time, down in New Orleans, a local news station did a report on a man who thought he could talk to monkeys at a local zoo. The report turned out to be absurd. It is difficult to believe that the Federal Government has the power to deny the press their freedoms.

I expect all of you to respond. You are welcome to respond in person if you want. I recommend you respond in person, because the breach involves Top Secret Security.

Phillip Jones

James Anubis Van Cleve,
-Schizophrenic Responses to a Mad World

*Eric Lawson        Function: Battle Station      Group: Autobot
 " Vigilance is the foundation on which victories are built. "
    | Stren. | Intel. | Speed | Endur. | Rank | Cour. | Firep. | Skill |
       10        8        2       9        8     10      10        9

     Startlingly versatile, staggeringly strong, the Autobot's last line
    of defense... a mighty insturment of titanic destructive force.
    Extremely modest about his achievements... berates himself for not
    doing more. In robot mode, he can lift 70,000 tons, has
    shoulder-mounted twin high-energy maser cannons and omni-directional
    receiving and transmitting antenna. In city mode, has helipad and
    fully equipped repair bays that can handle four vehicles at once.
    Left rear tower transforms into tank, Slammer, who has
    rocket-propelled mortar cannon. Scamper is sports car with side
    mounted electro-blasters; transforms into robot, uses high-energy
    particle beam pistol. Six-gun is small robot, has ion-pulse rifles
    for arms, twin surface-to-air guided missile launchers on back,
    acetylene pistol. In battle station mode, uses all these weapons
    and twin disruptor rays, laser lances, powerful anti-matter
    projectors.

While he spoke
an old hound, lying near, pricked up his ears
and lifted up his muzzle. This was Argos,
trained as a puppy by Odysseus,
but never taken on a hunt before
his master sailed for Troy. The young men, afterward,
hunted wild goats with him, and hare, and deer,
but he had grown old in his master's absence.
Treated as rubbish now, he lay at last
upon a mass of dung before the gates--
manure of mules and cows, piled there until
fieldhands could spread it on the king's estate.
Abandonded there, and half destroyed with flies,
old Argos lay.
But when he knew he heard
Odysseus' voice nearby, he did his best
to wag his tail, nose down, with flattened ears,
having no strength to move nearer his master.
And the man looked away,
wiping a salt tear from his cheek; but he
hid this from Eumaios. Then he said:

"I marvel that they leave this hound to lie
here on the dung pile;
he would have been a fine dog, from the look of him,
though I can't say as to his power and speed
when he was young. You find the same good build
in house dogs, table dogs landowners keep
all for style."

And you replied, Eumaios:
"A hunter owned him--but the man is dead
in some far place. If this old hound could show
in the form he had when Lord Odysseus left him,
going to Troy, you'd see him swift and strong.
He never shrank from any savage thing
he'd brought to bay in the deep woods; on the scent
no other dog kept up with him. Now misery
has him in leash. His owner died abroad,
and here the women slaves will take no care of him.
You know how servants are: without a master
they have no will to labor, or excel.
For Zeus who views the wide world takes away
half the manhood of a man, that day
he goes into captivity and slavery."

Eumaios crossed the court and went straight forward
into the megaron among the suitors;
but death and darkness in that instant closed
the eyes of Argos, who had seen his master,
Odysseus, after twenty years.

--The Odyssey, Book XVII:375-422 Trans. Robert Fitzgerald