Bamboo and Plum Blossom

Bamboo and Plum Blossom

Bamboo and Plum Blossom

Bamboo and Plum Blossom
Bamboo and Plum Blossom

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Lao Tzu



I have three treasures. Guard and keep them:
The first is deep love,
The second is frugality,
And the third is not to dare to be ahead of the world.
Because of deep love, one is courageous.
Because of frugality, one is generous.
Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one
becomes the leader of the world.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Han Shan (circe 630)



Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain.
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Who can leap the world's ties
And sit with me among the white clouds.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Chi K'Ang



Taoist Song
.
I will cast out Wisdom and reject Learning.
My thoughts shall wander in the Great Void
Always repenting of wrongs done
Will never bring my heart to rest.
I cast my hook in a single stream;
But my joy is as though I possessed a Kingdom.
I loose my hair and go singing;
To the four frontiers men join in my refrain.
This is the purport of my song:
"My thoughts shall wander in the Great Void."

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Empress Jito



THE EMPRESS JITŌ
JITŌ TENNO

THE spring has gone, the summer's come,
And I can just descry
The peak of Ama-no-kagu,
Where angels of the sky
Spread their white robes to dry.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Tu Fu



A Long Climb
.
In a sharp gale from the wide sky apes are whimpering,
Birds are flying homeward over the clear lake and white sand,
Leaves are dropping down like the spray of a waterfall,
While I watch the long river always rolling on.
I have come three thousand mile away. Sad now with atumn
And with my hundred years of woe, I climb this height alone.
Ill fortune has laid a bitter frost on my temples,
Heart-ache and weariness are a thick dust in my wine.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Han Shan (circe 630)



My heart is like the autumn moon
perfectly bright in the deep green pool
nothing can compare with it
you tell me how it can be explained

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Dogen Zenji (1200-1253)



That the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things
is called delusion;
That the ten thousand things advance and confirm the self
is called enlightenment.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Yung, a student of Hui-neng, sixth patriarch



No tranquilization, No disturbance,
No sitting, No meditation ...
This is the Tathagata's Dhyana.
The five Skandhas are not realities;
The six object of sense are by nature empty.
It is neither quiet nor illuminating;
It is neither real nor empty;
It does not abide in the Middle Way;
It is not-doing,
It is no-effect-producing;
Yet, functioning with the utmost freedom:
the Buddha-nature is all inclusive.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Third Zen Patriarch



If you ignore its profundity,
you can never practice stillness.
Like the Great Void, it is Perfect and lacks nothing,
nor has any excess.
If you discriminate,
you will miss its suchness.
Cling not to external causes,
nor stay in the Void.
Differentiation ceases if you can be impartial.
Stillness comes when all disturbances are stopped,
clinging to stillness is also a mistake.
If you cling to opposites,
how will you know the One?

Monday, June 21, 2010

Ikkyu



A Fisherman

Studying texts and stiff meditation can make you lose your Original Mind.
A solitary tune by a fisherman, though, can be an invaluable treasure.
Dusk rain on the river, the moon peeking in and out of the clouds;
Elegant beyond words, he chants his songs night after night.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Sun Bu-er



The secret of the receptive
Must be sought in stillness;
Within stillness there remains
The potential for action.
If you force empty sitting,
Holding dead images in mind,
The tiger runs, the dragon flees --
How can the elixir be given?

Friday, June 18, 2010

Saigyo



However looked at,
it's a world
to be loathed --
but as long as you live here
I'm drawn to it!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Flower Adornment Sutra



In ten directions everywhere, throughout the sea of lands,
Every hair-tip encompasses oceans of past, present and future.
So, too, there is a sea of Buddhas, a sea of Buddha lands;
Pervading them all, I cultivate for seas of endless time.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Ryokan (1758-1851)



Buddha preached in the twelve divisions,
each division full of purest truth.
East wind -- rain comes in the night,
making all the forest fresh and new.
No sutra that does not save the living,
no branch in the forest not visited by spring.
Learn to understand the meaning in them,
don't try to decide which is "valid," which is not.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Tao Te Ching



Meet it, and you do not see its beginning.
Follow it, and you do not see its end.
Stay with the ancient Way
in order to master what is present.
Knowing the primeval beginning is the essence of the Way.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Shunryu Susuki



When you do something,
you should burn yourself completely,
like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Hsu Yun




"Drawn some sixty years ago by karma
I turned life upside down
And climbed straight on to lofty summits.
Between my eyes a hanging sword,
The Triple World is pure.
Empty-handed, I hold a hoe, clearing a galaxy.

As the 'Ocean of the Knowing-mind' dries up,
Pearls shine forth by themselves;
Space smashed to dust, a moon hangs independent.
I threw my net through Heaven,
Caught the dragon and the phoenix;
Alone I walk through the cosmos,
Connecting the past and its people."

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Feng-krn (Big Stick)



Actually there isn't a thing
much less any dust to wipe away
who can master this
doesn't need to sit there stiff

Friday, June 11, 2010

Han Shan (circe 630)



Gone, and a million things leave no trace
Loosed, and it flows through the galaxies
A fountain of light, into the very mind--
Not a thing, and yet it appears before me:
Now I know the pearl of the Buddha-nature
Know its use: a boundless perfect sphere.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Ryokan (1758-1851)



The Three Thousand Worlds
that step forward
with the light snow,
and the light snow that falls
in those Three Thousand Worlds.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Retired Emperor Yosei (868-949)



Like the Minano,
That starts its fall at the peak
Of Mount Tsukuba,
My love has swollen on its course
And now fills a deep, still channel

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Seng-ts'an (600)





Two come about because of One,
but don't cling to the One either!
So long as the mind does not stir,
the ten thousand things stay blameless;
no blame, no phenomena,
no stirring, no mind.

The viewer disappears along with the scene,
the scene follows the viewer into oblivion,
for scene becomes scene only through the viewer,
viewer becomes viewer because of the scene.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Dogen Zenji (1200-1253)



An explosive shout cracks the great empty sky.
Immediately clear self-understanding.
Swallow up buddhas and ancestors of the past.
Without following others, realize complete penetration.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Laymen Seiken (11th century)



There I was, hunched over office desk,
Mind an unruffled pool.
A thunderbolt! My middle eye
Shot wide, revealing - my ordinary self.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Santoka Taneda (1882-1940)



Chanting the sutras,
I receive the rice;
The shrikes sing.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Huineng, Sixth Zen Patriarch



Enlightenment is basically not a tree,
And the clear mirror is not a stand.
Fundamentally there is not a single thing -
Where can dust collect.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Taizan Maezumi Roshi



In studying ourselves
We find the harmony
That is our total existence

We do not make harmony
We do not achieve it
Or gain it

It is there - all the time

Here we are - in the midst
Of this perfect way
And our practice is...

Simply to realize it
And then
To actualize it
In our everyday life...

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Shen Xiu



The body is the tree of enlightenment,
The mind like a clear mirror stand;
Time and gain wipe it diligently,
Don't let it gather dust.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Liu Vung



Feng hsi wu
.
Waiting expectantly high in the tower in a slim breeze
I see to the reaches of space -- only spring sorrow
Growing, dark, dark, to the edge of heaven
The sunset on the mist colors the grass
Words are useless -- who would understand why
I linger by the rail?

I should have one mad fling, get drunk --
"When there's wine, sing" --
But forced joy has no flavor
My belt grows loose -- never mind
I'm pale and worn -- she's worth it!