PODCAST · arts
Lines from Kyoto
by Preston Keido Houser
One villanelle a week on Zen Buddhist and Taoist themes.
Episodes
-
Fushimi Inari Shrine
This is my final “Lines from Kyoto” podcast—one poem a week for a year, 52 in total. Volumes of my villanelles available via Amazon.com. Thanks for listening. Bows and blessings, Preston Keido Houser
-
Trillionaires
When common sense and decency fail, writers sometimes resort to satire in order to point to a higher morality.
-
The tantric troubadour
Photo: Shippoji Temple, Nose, Osaka Prefecture.
-
A haunted hemisphere
Photo: Guardian spirit (nio) of a Buddhist temple, one of a pair, a manifestation of the bodhisattva Vajrapani.
-
Any which way
cf. “The Cloud of Unknowing,” an anonymous work of Medieval Christian mysticism.
-
The no-Way highway
Photo: Myoshuji Temple, Kameoka, Kyoto
-
So says the silence
A dialogue twixt two voices: night and light.
-
The lessons learned in lockdown
“Lest human voices wake us, and we drown”—stolen from T. S. Eliot, the last line of the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Photo: Make Shrine, Sonobe, Kyoto.
-
Where the heartbeat resides
Photo: Toji Temple, Kyoto
-
The spirit endures
“He’ll [Kent] shape his old course in a country new”—King Lear, 1.1.190. Photo: “Suminoe no Niwa,” Fukusumi, Kyoto Prefecture.
-
This sacred garden (Okunoin, Koyasan)
Mt. Koya, located in Wakayama Prefecture, is headquarters of the Shingon Buddhist sect. Founded in 819 by the monk Kukai (aka Kobo Daishi), Koyasan was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. Okunoin is a large cemetery (the largest in Japan) atop Mt. Koya. The mausoleum of Kukai is...
-
Masks
Keep your community beautiful. Wear your mask! Photo: shakuhachi-playing jizo at Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple, Kyoto. #mask #shakuhachi #jizo #kyoto #zen #buddhism #corona #covid-19
-
Resonating sensorium
“Sages don’t reveal the Way because they keep it secret, but because it can’t be revealed. Thus their words are like footsteps that leave no tracks”—Ch’eng Chu. Sutra: originally a “string or thread.” Photo: the pagoda at Toji Temple, Kyoto.
-
Thus! The state of the world
Lots of Shakespeare echoes—Macbeth and Lear. Hic et ubique: “Here and everywhere” (Hamlet 1.5).
-
To forego temptation
“The solution is obvious.”
-
Be watchful of time
A meditation on meditation.
-
Apsaras floating through the air
According to Hindu mythology, apsaras are female flying cloud and water spirits. “When now I think you can behold such sights”—Macbeth (3.4.113), referring to the ghost of Banquo. “…false compare”—cf. William Shakespeare, sonnet 130.
-
Future fire in the trees
Photo: Izumo-Daijingu Shrine, Kameoka.
-
Higher symmetry
“There‘a a special providence in the fall of a sparrow”—Hamlet (5.2.220). Shakespeare is referring to Matthew, chapter 10:29. dharani: a Buddhist chant based on sound rather than scripture. “So great a day as this is cheaply bought”—Macbeth (5.8.37).
-
Gaia annihilation
“‘Tis thus when the rich beg alms from the poor”
-
The dawn of darkness
Photo: Heian Shrine, Kyoto.
-
Divulging spectral light
Photo: lotus in bloom at Toji Temple, Kyoto.
-
As Krishna said
“The Blessed Lord said: All the great warriors-Drona, Bhisma, Jayadratha, Karna-have already been killed by me. Simply fight, and you will vanquish your enemies.”—Bhagavad Gita 11.34.
-
Sonic sculpture
en hommage a John Keats (1795-1821) Shanti — “peace which passeth all understanding.”
-
Simple rules
Photo: Kennin-ji, Kyoto‘s first zen Temple.
-
Hope enhances the hunger
Avarice ignorance anger—the “three poisons” that condemn sentient beings to cycles of rebirth. Photo: a stupa on the grounds of Sanjusangendo, Kyoto.
-
Undoing the damage
#29. “For the world is a sacred object. Nothing is to be done to it. To do anything to it is to damage it. To seize it is to lose it.” (Tao Te Ching, English version by Ursula Le Guin, 1998). #laotzu #taoteching #wu-wei
-
The liberation of Mind
Photo: Ninna-ji Temple, Kyoto.
-
After you, sole survivor
In Japanese mythology, all souls must cross the Sanzu River in order to reach the afterlife.
-
The resulting reality
“There is a Chinese proverb that if the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way”—Alan Watts. (Photo: Kyoto Imperial Palace)
-
“Thanatocracy”
“The organizing principle of any society…is for war. The authority of the state over its people resides in its war powers.” (JFK. Dir. Oliver Stone, 1991) Thanatos, the Greek spirit (daimon) of death. “Thanatocracy”: a society constructed on the capitalization of death.
-
“Get out of the way!”
#40 “The Tao moves the other way / the Tao works through weakness / the things of this world come from something / something comes from nothing.” (Taoteching, trans: Red Pine, 2009)
-
The enterprise of lies
An indictment of propaganda and profit at the expense of truth.
-
A river of aimless flow
Photo: the rock garden (karesansui) at Kenninji Temple, Kyoto.
-
The only knowable known
en hommage a Lew Welch (1926-71?). Poet Lew Welch (along with Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder) attended Reed College in Oregon. In 1971, he walked into the foothills of the California Sierra Nevada, never to be seen again. His collected poems is entitled “Ring of Bone,” where “ring is what a bell...
-
The lifted curse
2020 was the year of COVID-19. In 2021, vaccinations notwithstanding, the virus continues cripple the planet. Contrary to popular sentiment, we are not “all in this together”; the inevitable avarice and financial manipulations persist. Indeed, the accompanying evils and the prioritizing of profit...
-
A “thankless child”
“Sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child”—so says King Lear at the start of his madness (1.4.198). Photo: Anthony Hopkins and Florence Pugh as King Lear and Cordelia (2018).
-
The science of seeing sight
The Buddha known as Amitabha or Amida, is the principle figure in Pure Land Buddhism and is considered a source of “boundless light.” Of course, the Pure Land (like the kingdom of heaven) is located within us and each individual is an example of infinite light. Hamlet claims that “conscience…
more -
Missing the mark
“Hark!” Cretins, trolls, goblins, ogres—corporate components necessary to sustain rapacious growth, accessories after the fact. The Greek word for sin is “hamartano” which means to miss the mark or to miss the point. Photo taken at a construction site in, of all places, Hiroshima.
-
Catching catfish
The impossible is limited to existence, predictions, and “natural law,” whereas in art everything is possible. In zen, Mind, with its unlimited capacity for conception, contains all solutions to alleviate, as well as create, suffering. Hence, the perceived creation anxiety of artist, media, and…
more -
The bell is still
“The bell is still yet the sound resonates in silence.” Food, land, music, information—to engage with these elements requires a passage through delusions, an experience best managed with cautious respect. Kannon, or Avalokiteshvara, is the bodhisattva of mercy who hears the cries of all sentient...
-
“I call myself Self”
Hylozoism* pervades the resurrection game / Suppressing the persistent glare of despair / Atman* claims there’s no title to claim / “I call myself Self and no other name.” *Hylozoism: the belief that all matter is alive; *Atman: Soul or Spirit, synonymous with breath.
-
Two elegiac poems
One year ago my mother died. Writing, as is commonly known, is a way to explore, comprehend, manage, and accept grief. In the first poem I use the word remains as both noun and verb in order to clarify and transcend the ambiguity of death. The image is an enso circle that symbolizes universal...
-
The emptying of practice
Zen practitioners eventually come to question the purpose of their practice and most conclude that zazen is pointless which does not seem to curtail their time on the zafu; paradoxically, purposeless or empty practice tends to deepen samadhi. Harmic, charmic, disarmic—as for the silliness of the...
-
A bloated economy
Protest is an active component in the artist-activist-religious paradigm. I deliberately avoid naming specific names, places, events as I consider they distract from the deeper patterns of political TPO (time-place-occasion). Readers can, I presume, supply relevant identification information that...
-
The purity of Void
The mind-body dualism has pestered western thought for centuries, whereas eastern philosophers consider mind/body as a singular, indivisible organism. “Retiring to the forest” refers to the third stage of Hindu life, vanaprastha, “one who gives up worldly life, a forest dweller.” “Tears of rage”…
more -
Empty heavens
en hommage a George Harrison (1943-2001). George Harrison has remained a constant source of inspiration. “Within You Without You,” “The Inner Light,” “My Sweet Lord”—songs that continue to touch the heart. I have lifted a couple lines from Harrison’s masterpiece “All Things Must Pass” (which is…
more -
The pathless path
These days there is a lot of talk in spiritual circles about “mindfulness.” While fundamentally sound as a component of compassion, mindfulness tends to be more about behavior modification rather than enlightenment. By contrast, the Taoist notion of “mindlessness” (wu-wei) suggests that cognition...
-
A circle of light
2021 is the year of the ox. A well known sequence of images that track meditational development, the Ten Ox Herding Pictures date from at least the twelve century, if not earlier. Given that consciousness cannot be the object of conscious concentration, the aka “Ten Bulls,” (along with the “Six...
-
Reincarnation
In spite of the suffering, or perhaps because of it, existence is sacred. Nevertheless, reincarnation should be avoided; liberation from the cycle of samsara is preferable. In this poem I use the word reincarnation to refer to the desire to return to a pre-pandemic “normalcy” which is not only...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Lines from Kyoto have?
Lines from Kyoto currently has 52 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Lines from Kyoto about?
One villanelle a week on Zen Buddhist and Taoist themes.
How often does Lines from Kyoto release new episodes?
Lines from Kyoto has 52 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Lines from Kyoto?
You can listen to Lines from Kyoto on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Lines from Kyoto?
Lines from Kyoto is created and hosted by Preston Keido Houser.
URL copied to clipboard!