don't be clever and trivial

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A message posted on Zen Forum International said in part

Jack Dainin is scheduled to be executed by the state of Arkansas on March 16, 2010 at approximately 9:00 pm (Arkansas time, 7:00 pm West Coast time.) It is believed that all appeals possibilities have been exhausted.

Jack Dainin Jones is also said to have taken up a Zen Buddhist seated-meditation practice while incarcerated. And he was quoted in the article above as saying, relative to a living practice:

Don’t be clever and trivial.

Coming from a man on death row, the words have considerable resonance, I think.

I too have been clever and trivial when it comes to practice, when it comes to life. Clever in my solemnities, clever in my philosophies, clever in my failures and successes. Clever and thereby, trivial. If it's any consolation, which it is not, I don't imagine I am alone.

It is a good reminder ... a scowly face or a blissed-out persona simply cannot outsmart this life we live. And it is important to discover in what ways we need -- and indeed long -- to be something more complete than clever and trivial.

Good words -- don't be clever and trivial.
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