THE MASTER

The master was walking around a pond when he remembered the words of a master from his youth: "When you accept you know nothing and that the little bit you think you know is only making you more ignorant, then you have finally embarked on the path that leads to knowledge."

The master was walking down the street lost in thought when a woman's voice interrupted his ruminations. "O Venerable One, how are you?" She was the daughter of one of his students from many years ago.  "I am fine, young lady. How is your mother?" "She is fine. She says that you were her favorite teacher." "She was certainly one of my favorite students." The mother had a bohemian nature. She wrote poetry and played the guitar. A free spirit with a love of Portuguese and born into wealth, she would travel to the most exotic locales: Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Macau, Goa.  "I was remembering my Pumpkin," she confessed one day when they were eating in the academy's cafeteria. "Pumpkin?" replied the master, slightly confused. "He was my boyfriend." "And why did you call him Pumpkin?" "I know that it is a clic...

The master was deep in thought pondering that opposites comprise reality and lead to enlightenment: I am, but I'm not. I was, but I wasn't. I will be, but I won't be. By understanding, I don't understand. When I open something, something closes. I am here, but I'm not here. I tremble at the thought of death, yet I quiver living life. There is not there. The master rose and walked down the corridor to the bathroom. As he urinated, he noticed that his stream was a dark yellow.  

The master greeted an old friend. He had been married for many years. "How are you, brother?" "Nothing changes, O Venerable One." "I learned many years ago that change is the one constant. Most sages agree that we live in a constant state of change." "Not me, O Venerable One." "How so, my brother?" "My wife and I have a relationship that never changes. We fight and then we reconcile. We fight and then we reconcile. As is our custom, we are fighting once again. Why can't we live a peaceful life like the other couples we know?" "Because both of you are at your happiest when you are reconciling. You are lucky, my brother. Not many people experience true happiness."

The monk lay in his bed and looked out the window. He had a partial view of the eaves against a gray sky. As he stared heavenward, he noticed a drop forming at the edge of the roof and then falling to the ground. "I wonder if another will follow?" he asked himself. And soon enough another did followed by another and another. "It must have rained last night," he said to himself, content that knowledge was so easily attained.

The master opened his laptop. Many of his fellow towns people thought he was opposed to modernity. They found it unfathomable that someone would live without an automobile. "How do you get back and forth to work with no car?" "I don't work," he would reply. He did work, but his pupils came to him. The master was blessed with few materialistic desires. He hadn't been converted to this belief. He had learned it watching others work themselves to the bone in order to buy "stuff" as people qualified these purchases. The master was not a rich man, but the money he needed he preferred spending on a good pair of sandals or a good cup of tea. He wasn't against modern conveniences. If someone stopped to give him a ride, he gladly accepted. The master punched in 101 Zen Stories on the keyboard. These writings were a classic collection of Zen insights and observations. The master felt a weight had been lifted from his psyche when he read, ...

Who says that all St. Joe girls want to be nuns? Four graduates from many years ago gathered for pizza with extra salami at Gio's when Yolanda suddenly shocked her companions when she spat, "I want a big dick!" Her former classmates--Rosa, Dalila and Melinda, all in their mid-forties--looked at each other dumbfounded as if they had been struck by lightning. Their hair literally stood on end when Yolanda burst a second time, "I want a big dick!" There was both anger and frustration in her voice. Her three friends took sips from their glasses of wine before Rosa summoned the courage to break the ice by asking, "Will a little dick do?" The quartet tittered nervously. All of them were single mothers with children in high school and college. They had come from privileged backgrounds and were fortunate to have professional ex-spouses who were meeting their obligations to their offspring both financially and emotionally. None of the four ...