How to surf on asphalt (poem)

instruction makes no sense

what is there to say?

    when hanging hang

    when breathing breathe

    when surfing surf

the tao is the way

not getting in my own way

    wide the way

    slide the way

    ride the way

away

i'd rather ride a mat

when i sit i've sat

no waves

no sharks

no surf

just pound the cushioned turf

i'm scraped smooth on sand

because when sand sands it's sand

so to reveal the man

who mans the helm a mantle

who lights the light a candle

burned out

a way

away

How to let go a little

Better to watch the Watcher than do the doing.

It's fun to be human, to run and jump like a reindeer in leaps and bounds, but not everyone is cut out for parkour. It's a dangerous sport.

If only there were a way to fly cross legged, winning our ability to levitate back, not relying on vimanas or space pods and animal mounts like godlings.

If we take a seat and let go, something happens. We're not steering. What arises arises, while we stay calm and breathe, just breathe. We come to the mat to see. The guide, teacher, sayadaw will explain and give instructions about how to utilize what comes up. First, we sit so that it can come up.

I can ride anything.

But all that sitting, before things get moving in the mind and memory, might seem a drag. What if there were a magic carpet made of flexible wood and nonslip sandpaper to stand on? Where might it take us?

Standing on water on floating fiberglass sounds like a dream. What if a wave comes or what if a growing shark thinks I'm chum? The others yell, "My beach!" and want to fight like they're a blond gang of sand thugs on the water and I've got no battery. Ask MIT scholar Trump.

What does it mean to "surf"

All nouns seem to be verbs abstracted and conceptualized. We walk (verb) on a walk (noun). The walk is the thing, and walking is the action we do on that thing. We smoke (verb) some smoke (noun). We surf (verb) the surf (noun, the waves crashing on the sand).

Surfing means "riding it out." Riding what out? The surf. We surf the surf, ride the waves, skim the surface, and coast the tumult, gliding over the flood coming at us.

That is a good description of "meditating." What is meditation (jhana)? It is meditating (verb), the doing of meditation (absorbing in the meditative absorptions, being so involved and single-minded (attentive) that everything else is ignored temporarily.

Sit. Stand on water. Or ride the asphalt, a smooth surface that doesn't jam up the trucks (skateboard wheels).

Pick a wide roadway with a mild decline, in a park, parking lot, or on a quiet street and let it all hang loose. Hang out and ride out. What does it mean to "hang"? It means stay loose while remaining upright. The best way to sit for meditation is not stiff as a rod, but to hang like a shirt on a hanger, loose and draping in a relaxed way. The shirt is not on the ground, so it keeps its shape.

It's held up by the idea of a rod above it that holds it up effortlessly. The shirt hangs itself up then completely lets go, drops the wrinkles, kinks, and creases.

Ten digit relax as does the eleventh protrusion, just letting all eleven be, just hanging there. The proboscis is a good focal point, right at the tip. That's where breath is breathing. (What is breathe other than the breathing? We think it's what's being breathed, the breath. It can be all three. It's all breath. What's breath without breathing? It's meaningless.

• A Verb for Nirvana? (accesstoinsight.org) nibbuti
• Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Doggone, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly