Water

“When he came to Baso he again said, ‘Who is he that is independent of all things?’ Baso said, ‘When you have drunk all the water in the Yang-tze river, I will tell you.’ At this, Koji underwent his great experience.” (Two Zen Classics 263)

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Luminous

Luminous
Buddhas in the Grass

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I’m in Love with a Woman

When all thoughts
by Ryokan

When all thoughts
Are exhausted
I slip into the woods
And gather
A pile of shepherd’s purse.

Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent.

— from Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan, Translated by John Stevens

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Even the Fire is Cool

Even the Fire is Cool

In the midsummer heat, the gate is closed and we’re wearing monk’s robes,
In addition, there are no pines or bamboos shading the rooms and corridors,
For a peaceful meditation, we need not to go to the mountains and streams;
When thoughts are quieted down, fire itself is cool and refreshing.

Ch’an monk Tu Kou-hao 杜苟鶴
These were Zen master Kaisen’s last words prior to being burned alive in his temple by soldiers.

Original Text

三伏閉門披一衲
兼無蔭松竹房廊
安禪必不須山水
滅却心頭火亦涼

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Poetry & Photography

In a dilapidated three-room hut
I’ve grown old and tired;
This winter cold is the
Worst I’ve ever suffered through.
I sip thin gruel, waiting for the
Freezing night to pass.
Can I last until spring finally arrives?
Unable to beg for rice,
How will I survive the chill?
Even meditation helps no longer;
Nothing left to do but compose poems
In memory of deceased friends.

From Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan, translated by John Stevens. Published by Shambala in Boston, 1996.

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Poetry & Photography

To Lady Mori with Deepest Gratitude and Thanks

The tree was barren of leaves but you brought a new spring.
Long green sprouts, verdant flowers, fresh promise.
Mori, if I ever forget my profound gratitude to you,
Let me burn in hell forever.

From Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu, translated by John Stevens. Published by Shambala in Boston, 1995.

(Mori was a blind minstrel, and Ikkyu’s young mistress)

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Lightening

When we see truly, there is nothing at all.
There is no person; there is no Buddha.
Innumerable things of the universe
 are just bubbles on the sea.
Wise sages are all like flashes of lightning.

–   Yoka Genkaku (665-713 CE), Shodoka

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365: The Scripture of the Golden Eternity – 64

64

I was smelling flowers in the yard, and when I stood up I took a deep breath and the blood all rushed to my brain and I woke up dead on my back in the grass. I had apparently fainted, or died, for about sixty seconds. My neighbor saw me but he thought I had just suddenly thrown myself on the grass to enjoy the sun. During that timeless moment of unconsciousness I saw the golden eternity. I saw heaven. In it nothing had ever happened, the events of a million years ago were just as phantom and ungraspable as the events of now, or the events of the next ten minutes. It was perfect, the golden solitude, the golden emptiness, Something-Or- Other, something surely humble. There was a rapturous ring of silence abiding perfectly. There was no question of being alive or not being alive, of likes and dislikes, of near or far, no question of giving or gratitude, no question of mercy or judgment, or of suffering or its opposite or anything. It was the womb itself, aloneness, alaya vijnana the universal store, the Great Free Treasure, the Great Victory, infinite completion, the joyful mysterious essence of Arrangement. It seemed like one smiling smile, one adorable adoration, one gracious and adorable charity, everlasting safety, refreshing afternoon, roses, infinite brilliant immaterial gold ash, the Golden Age. The “golden” came from the sun in my eyelids, and the “eternity” from my sudden instant realization as I woke up that I had just been where it all came from and where it was all returning, the everlasting So, and so never coming or going; therefore I call it the golden eternity but you can call it anything you want. As I regained consciousness I felt so sorry I had a body and a mind suddenly realizing I didn’t even have a body and a mind and nothing had ever happened and everything is alright forever and forever and forever, O thank you thank you thank you.

The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
By Jack Kerouac

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365: The Scripture of the Golden Eternity

63

The God of the American Plateau Indian was Coyote. He says: “Earth! those beings living on your surface, none of them disappearing, will all be transformed. When I have spoken to them, when they have spoken to me, from that moment on, their words and their bodies which they usually use to move about with, will all change. I will not have heard them.”

The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
By Jack Kerouac

 

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365: The Scripture of the Golden Eternity

62

This world has no marks, signs, or evidence of existence, nor the noises in it, like accident of wind or voices or heehawing animals, yet listen closely the eternal hush of silence goes on and on throughout all this, and has been gong on, and will go on and on. This is because the world is nothing but a dream and is just thought of and the everlasting eternity pays no attention to it. At night under the moon, or in a quiet room, hush now, the secret music of the Unborn goes on and on, beyond conception, awake beyond existence. Properly speaking, awake is not really awake because the golden eternity never went to sleep; you can tell by the constant sound of Silence which cuts through this world like a magic diamond through the trick of your not realizing that your mind caused the world.

The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
By Jack Kerouac

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