Page 168
By Jack Joseph Smith
Old
It is Zen
There was
never anything
To be careful
about
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
This brief page presents age or aftermath as a state in which there was never anything to guard against in the first place.
Its brevity makes it feel almost like a bitter axiom. The line "It is Zen" turns caution into an emptied posture: there was never anything substantial there to protect, so carefulness itself falls away.
'Old' is a five-line axiom that empties caution itself: 'It is Zen / There was / never anything / To be careful / about.' Naming the posture 'Zen' turns late-life or aftermath into the recognition that the things once guarded against had no substance to begin with, so the guarding falls away.