Flower Shower

Ilustración CamiloVásquez

Subhuti Buddha's disciple. He was able to understand the potency of emptiness, the viewpoint that nothing exists except in its relationship of subjectivity and objectivity.

One day Subhuti, in a mood of sublime emptiness, was sitting under a tree. Flowers began to fall about him.

"We are praising you for your discourse on emptiness," the gods whispered to him.

"But I have not spoken of emptiness," said Subhuti.

"You have not spoken of emptiness, we have not heard emptiness," responded the gods. "This is true emptiness." And blossoms showered upon Subhuto as rain

Hunting Knife

As I stabbed the air, I suddenly thougth of the fat woman, the ex-United airlines stewardess. I could see her pale, bloated flesh hovering in the air around me, formless, like mist.Everything was there inside that mist. The rafts, the sky, the sea, the helicopters, the pilots. I tried slashing them in two, but the perspective was off, and it all stayed just out of the reach of my blade. Was it all an illussion? or was I the illussion? maybe it didn´t matter.come tomorrow, I wouldnt be here anymore.

"Sometimes I have this dream" the young man in the wheelchair said. His voice had a strange echo to it, as if itwere rising up from the bottom of a cavernous hole. "theres a shrap knife stabbed in the soft part of my head, where the memmories lie. It´s stuck deep down inside. It doensnt hurt or weigth me down - its just stuck there. And I´m standing off to one side, looking at this like its happening to someone else. I want someone to pull the knife out, but no one knows it´s stuck inside my head. I think about yanking it out myself, but I can´t reach my hands inside my head. It´s the strangest thing. I can stab myself, but I cant reach the knife to pull it out. And then everything starts to disappear. I start to fade away too. Only the knife stays there - to the very end. Like the bone of some prehistoric animal on the beach. That´s the kind of dream I have," he said.

 

Hakuri Murakami