Good evening!
“Showing no sign
of soon dying –
cicadas’ sound.”
Showing no sign
of soon dying –
squirrels’ stealing.
I found that squirrels have taken away all the peaches on my peach tree, perhaps more than 100. They might have famine due to the heat wave, caused by global warming. Or maybe they learned to monopolize from humans.
We used to share, with the squirrels gradually consuming them. This year it is a sudden, strange phenomenon. They had rather learn the Buddha’s way:
Better than conquering thousands upon thousands
in the battlefield is conquering oneself.
That is the true conqueror.
And also Ryokan’s lamentation after he had given the quilts he was sleeping in to his unexpected (unwelcome?) guest:
Alas, the moon in the window was not taken away.
7/26/11
