The Gateless Gate

It is Friday morning and I am preparing for work.

There is blue sky and sun today, a wonderful window in what has been mostly a cold and rainy November.

I was doing some surfing this morning and came upon the following link to a Buddhist text by Ekai, called Mu-mon, translated by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps circa 1934:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/glg/index.htm

It is a translation of and commentary on 49 Zen Buddhist koans, originally published in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.

I read this book in my 20's while traveling and playing music in California and many years later met and studied with its author Paul Reps.

Both reading the book and meeting the author were life-changing experiences for me.

As I set off for the office I will be thinking about the young traveler meeting his teacher in the late 1970's and what a miracle in everyday guise that was.