Blue Dog Mu

George Rodrigue painting, Blue Dog at the Revel (thx, Jim and Jacque), hanging in the living room (see Reading). I sit in a chair across the room in front of this painting and read. And think. A lot.  

This from George Rodrigue:

"People say the dog keeps talking to them with the eyes, always saying something different. People who have seen a Blue Dog painting always remember it. They are really about life, about mankind searching for answers. The dog never changes position. He just stares at you. And you’re looking at him, looking for some answers, ‘Why are we here?,’ and he’s just looking back at you, wondering the same. The dog doesn’t know."

And this, from a teisho by Susan Murphy Roshi on the koan Mu (see Mu):

"So your job is not to resolve some questions about dogs. Dogs, like cats, are a settled matter. They don't have Buddha Nature, they are Buddha Nature–overflowing with it–and luckily we don't assume that we know what that is. It is experienced, but remains always alive and beyond attempted capture by the known."

As the Blue Dog has been trying to tell us. 

[NOTE: Reflections in the painting are from the side window, and I can make out the little jade plant sitting on the window sill].

Reading

Domestic still life. Amy had just come in after shoveling the snow (see First Snow of 2012) off the sidewalk in front of the house, hence the snowpants. I guess this wore her out, because she decided to "stretch out" in the living room chair and do some reading. Fluffy grey figure in the right foreground is a dog chew toy that Nikki (see Nikki) is systematically destroying. Painting, Blue Dog at the Revel, is by George Rodrigue.  Baskets are made of split rattan. Don't know why she's holding her legs up in the air. [NOTE: Love the colors in this image].