flowers

This magnolia tree was planted at the Vermont Zen Center as a memorial to my brother, John Scott Kahle, many years ago. Actually I planted it at a work sesshin. It was only a couple of feet tall at the time. For awhile it didn't look like it would make it. There is a small plaque underneath with his name on it. It is located at the entrance to the Center, and I walk by it a couple hundred times a year, and remember my brother who died young. It is special to see it so beautiful and thriving at this time of the year. Grateful to be attending the work sesshin up there again this year in a couple of weeks.

Such a solemn world of flowers!
Such a spectacle,
this rich world of the flowers!
You , John, are living brightness
on the earth under the heavens...

From nowhere you came. You go nowhere.
You stay nowhere. You are nowhere attached.
You occupy everything, you occupy nothing.
You are the becoming of indescribable change.
You are love. You are the flower.
Flowers