Jisetsu

The Buddha on the Dung Heap

or, A Tale of Two Buddhas

The young Buddha, June 2023

The young Buddha sat in the shadow of the Triplets for a few years. He was nearly two feet tall, a composite cast statue of the Buddha, a present from M to replace the old Buddha garden statue we previously had for about 20 years, whose head had separated from his body. This old Buddha, which I believe I purchased at Target around 2003 and was made from some kind of dense rubber-like material, sat for many years first on the deck, then at the front door of our home in Nashville, and for a few years on the deck in Midlothian before finally succumbing to the rigors of a life spent outdoors. One afternoon as I was cleaning the deck and picked up the old Buddha to move him, his head came off in my hand. The body of that Buddha was long gone but in a bodyless afterlife, for a few years his old head sat vigil in a mossy crook of the Triplets’ roots on the other side of the three trees, back to back with this Buddha, as it were.
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July 4, 2025

buddha, buddhism
My Hat

James River, Midlothian, Virginia, March 16, 2022 ~ click images to enlarge

This is my hat. If you know me personally, you probably recognize it: this has been my winter hat for about 35 years now. I bought it from a boutique in Asheville, North Carolina around 1987, give or take a year. My wife has one too, which we bought in the same store at the same time. Hers is white, mine is black. They are both made of wool, although her hat is softer than mine.

It is incredibly warm, and it fits my (big) head very comfortably, which is why I have never wanted, or worn, a different winter hat.
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July 1, 2024

Gurdjieff, hat, life, pakol, time, writing
The Bamboo Thicket

click images to enlarge

It’s a rainy October Saturday. This week under the pandemic has been insufferably dystopian, with all kinds of preposterous news. After slowly making my way through Saturday morning I manage to drag myself out of the post-workweek daze for a walk under the trees, despite the rain.
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June 30, 2024

adventure, bamboo, hiking, nature, outdoors, Richmond, train, travel
The Working Model

Walter’s Working Model
of the human being, the universe, and everything
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June 29, 2024

consciousness, education, philosophy, psychology, spirit, spirituality
The Japanese Garden

(click images to enlarge)

I came to the Japanese Garden because I thought it would be serene here. I’m having a bad day, and spending some quiet time alone in the peaceful environment of manicured footpaths and miniature bridges, gentle streams, colorful fish and artfully arranged rocks will help me to feel better. I’ll sit quietly in the bosom of nature like a Buddha. Everything will be ok.
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June 28, 2024

flowers, Garden, gardening, Japanese, nature, Richmond, serenity, travel, Virginia
A Snow Day on Tolkien’s Birthday

J.R.R.Tolkien

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

It has been about 46 years since I first read those initial ten words. Tolkien was still a figure of the “literary underground” in 1976 – none of my friends or classmates knew of him – and I was only ten years old.

Tolkien’s name is now a household word, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings now appear near the top of every all-time bestsellers list of books in English, and Peter Jackson’s film franchise based on the books is one of the highest-grossing in history.

The books are still the same today as they were when I first read them, but I am not.
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June 27, 2024

fantasy, fire, hobbit, innocence, J.R.R. Tolkien, lord-of-the-rings, Middle Earth, The Hobbit, Tolkien
How to Make a Difficult Decision

The Internal Decision Method

Have you ever had to make a tough decision?

This is a technique I have used to make difficult and important decisions for about 15 years now. This article belongs in the Sage Advice category, which I have not yet set up here …

I won’t guarantee that this technique will work for everyone, however I have used it successfully many times when making important decisions about plans and changes regarding my career, education, and other aspects of both my professional and my personal life.

This is not a technique for making decisions that must be acted on immediately, under duress. This is a method for making momentous decisions that will impact your life and the lives of those around you significantly, for which you have a cushion of time – days, weeks, or months – to come to a decision.
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June 26, 2024

advice, decision-making, decisions, life
The Acorn Harvest

Our house stands in the midst of a small grove of mature oak trees. A family of white oaks and a family of willow oaks intermingle: more than a dozen of these giants share the little suburban forest on our property with many smaller post oak, holly, cedar, sweetgum, tupelo, maple, crepe myrtle, dogwood, and pine trees. Squirrels and songbirds, rabbits and deer frolic about under them. I’ve also seen a raccoon, chipmunks, and signs of moles underground. Owls and crows are regular visitors and there is a giant hawk’s nest in one of the white oaks in the front yard – she can be heard screaming there from time to time, terrorizing the smaller birds.
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June 25, 2024

acorns, nature, oak-tree, trees, wildlife
100 Years of Jack Vance

Jack Vance playing banjo and kazoo, San Francisco, 1979 ~ photo by Hayford Peirce

Today is the birthday of the American writer Jack Vance (1916 – 2013). If Jack were still with us he’d be 100 years old today: it’s his Centennial! Jack’s books have given me countless hours of amusement, wonder, and escape over the last four decades, since I first found The Dying Earth on a paperback rack at a local drug store in Camillus, New York. I paid $1.75 for the slender volume of loosely connected stories, took it home, and was miraculously transported to the strange far-future fantasy inhabited by Turjan of Miir and Pandelume, the lovely but unfortunate T’sais, Guyal of Sfere – and of course, Chun the Unavoidable. The next week I returned to the drug store and found The Eyes of the Overworld, and trudged with Cugel and Firx across a strange and outlandish world, often laughing at Cugel’s intrepid antics or cringing at his relentless scheming. I was hooked. Jack’s stories were an unfailing source of delight and as I got older his characters became a part of my interior world, with whom I could find respite at times from the stress and pressures of my daily life.
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June 24, 2024

authors, book-review, books, fantasy, fiction, Jack Vance, science fiction, The Dying Earth
Walter’s Caesar Salad

Saturday night Caesar

This article is about the noble Caesar Salad, and how to make it my way. If you like romaine, garlic, and lemon, read on.

Caesar Salad has been around nearly a hundred years now. It was invented by an Italian chef named Caesar Cardini although if and when he did so is has been the subject of argument among his family and those who worked in his restaurants. Many have said it dates back to the 1920s.

I don’t remember exactly when I first started making it at home, but it was sometime in the 1990s. It was around that time that I came across my grandfather’s recipe for “Walt’s Caesar Salad” in the Bitner family cookbook.
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June 23, 2024

Caesar Salad, dinner, family, food, recipe, recipes, salad

The Internal Decision Method