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

Look here!

Dec 18th, 2021 1m 38s

An elegy for the many friends this year who have transcended the heaven-and-hell of the here-and-now to realize nirvana.

Trillionaires

Dec 11th, 2021 2m 7s

When common sense and decency fail, writers sometimes resort to satire in order to point to a higher morality.

The tantric troubadour

Dec 4th, 2021 1m 29s

Photo: Shippoji Temple, Nose, Osaka Prefecture.

A haunted hemisphere

Nov 27th, 2021 1m 40s

Photo: Guardian spirit (nio) of a Buddhist temple, one of a pair, a manifestation of the bodhisattva Vajrapani.

Any which way

Nov 20th, 2021 1m 25s

cf. “The Cloud of Unknowing,” an anonymous work of Medieval Christian mysticism.

The no-Way highway

Nov 13th, 2021 1m 45s

Photo: Myoshuji Temple, Kameoka, Kyoto

So says the silence

Nov 6th, 2021 1m 33s

A dialogue twixt two voices: night and light.

The lessons learned in lockdown

Oct 30th, 2021 2m 7s

“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

Oct 23rd, 2021 1m 37s

Photo: Toji Temple, Kyoto

The spirit endures

Oct 16th, 2021 2m 11s

“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)

Oct 9th, 2021 1m 45s

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 large

Masks

Oct 2nd, 2021 2m 2s

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

Sep 25th, 2021 2m 15s

“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

Sep 18th, 2021 2m 12s

Lots of Shakespeare echoes—Macbeth and Lear. Hic et ubique: “Here and everywhere” (Hamlet 1.5).

To forego temptation

Sep 11th, 2021 1m 47s

“The solution is obvious.”

Be watchful of time

Sep 4th, 2021 2m 6s

A meditation on meditation.

Apsaras floating through the air

Aug 28th, 2021 2m 7s

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

Aug 21st, 2021 1m 32s

Photo: Izumo-Daijingu Shrine, Kameoka.

Higher symmetry

Aug 14th, 2021 1m 58s

“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

Gaia annihilation

Aug 7th, 2021 2m

“‘Tis thus when the rich beg alms from the poor”

The dawn of darkness

Jul 31st, 2021 1m 31s

Photo: Heian Shrine, Kyoto.

Divulging spectral light

Jul 24th, 2021 2m 4s

Photo: lotus in bloom at Toji Temple, Kyoto.

As Krishna said

Jul 17th, 2021 1m 8s

“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.