Visit to Katagiri

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By Diane di Prima


A pleasure.

We talk of here & there

gossip about the folks in San Francisco laugh a lot. I try

to tell him (to tell someone)

what my life is like:

the hungry people, the trying

  to sit zazen in motels;

the need in America like a sponge

  sucking up

whatever prana & courage

"Pray to the Bodhisattvas" sez

Katagiri Roshi.

I tell him

that sometimes, traveling, I am

too restless to sit still, wiggle &

  itch. "Sit

only ten minutes, five minutes

at a time" he sez-first time

it has occurred to me that this

wd be OK.

As I talk, it becomes OK

there becomes some continuity

in my life; I even understand

(or remember) why I'm on the road.

As we talk a continuity, a

transfer of energy takes place.

It is darshan, a blessing,

transmission of some basic joy

some way of seeing.

LIKE A TANGIBLE GIFT IN THE HAND

  In the heart.

It stays with me.

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