April 17, 2008...9:23 pm
Zen (Ch’an) Poems of Great Zen Masters
Flowers in our Eyes
By Guangzhou
“How wonderful! The Budhas throughout the ten directions
are originally just the flowers in our eyes.
And if we want to know about these flowers in our eyes
they are originally the Buddhas throughout the ten directions.
If we want to know the Buddhas of the ten directions,
they are not flowers in our eyes.
If we want to know the flowers in our eyes,
they are not the Buddhas of the ten directions.
If you can understand this,
the Buddhas of the ten directions are to blame.
If you don’t understand,
those with only hear-say knowledge do a little dance,
and those who make up their own enlightenment put on make up.”
Emptiness
By Ryusai
Emptiness is a name for nothingness,
A name for ungraspibility,
A name for mountains, rivers, the whole earth.
It is also called the real form.
In the green of the pines,
The twist of the brambles,
There is no going and coming;
In the red of the flowers
And the white of the snow,
There is no birth and no death.
The Mysterious
By Seng Ts’an - The 3rd Patriarch
One Reality only -
How deep and far-reaching!
The ten thousand things -
How confusingly multifarious!
The true and the conventional are indeed intermingling,
But essentially of the same substance they are.
The wise and the unenlightened are indeed distinguishable,
But in the Way they are united as one.
Desirest thou to find its limits?
How broadly expanding! It is limitless!
How vaguely it vanishes away! Its ends are never reached!
It originates in beginningless time, it terminates in endless time.
Translated by D.T. Suzuki (Manual of Zen Buddhism)
The Buddha’s essential functioning
By Hongzhi Zhengjue [T'ien-t'ung Hung-chih ]
Notes: A poem by Tendo Wanshi Zenji, written approx. 1140, translated by Taizan Maezumi, Roshi and Neal Donner. One hundred years later it was followed by a similarly structured and worded poem by Eihei Dogen.
The Buddha’s essential functioning,
the patriarch’s functioning essence,
Knows without relating to things
and illuminates without reflecting upon objects.
Knowing without relating to things,
its knowing is subtle of itself.
Illuminating without reflecting upon objects,
its illumination is mysterious of itself.
Its knowing, subtle of itself,
is the thought with no discrimination.
Its illumination, mysterious of itself,
is the sign without the slightest mark.
The thought with no discrimination,
its knowing is completed without other.
The sign without the slightest mark,
its illumination is revealed without choice.
The water is pure and clear to the bottom;
a fish swims slowly.
The sky is vast and finds no boundary;
a bird flies far away.
Source: The Ten Directions, Vol 2, No 2, June 1981. pp. 20
Guidepost of Silent Illumination
By Hongzhi Zhengjue
Silent and serene, forgetting words, bright clarity appears before you.
When you reflect it you become vast, where you embody it you are spiritually uplifted.
Spiritually solitary and shining, inner illumination restores wonder,
Dew in the moonlight, a river of stars, snow-covered pines, clouds enveloping the peaks.
In darkness it is most bright, while hidden all the more manifest.
The crane dreams in the wintery mists. The autumn waters flow far in the distance.
Endless kalpas are totally empty, all things are completely the same.
When wonder exists in serenity, all achievement is forgotten in illumination.
What is this wonder? Alertly seeing through confusion
Is the way of silent illumination and the origin of subtle radiance.
Vision penetrating into subtle radiance is weaving gold on a jade loom.
Upright and inclined yield to each other; light and dark are interdependent.
Not depending on sense faculty and object, at the right time they interact.
Drink the medicine of good views. Beat the poison-smeared drum.
When they interact, killing and giving life are up to you.
Through the gate the self emerges and the branches bear fruit.
Only silence is the supreme speech, only illumination the universal response.
Responding without falling into achievement, speaking without involving listeners.
The ten thousand forms majestically glisten and expound the dharma.
All objects certify it, every one in dialogue.
Dialoguing and certifying, they respond appropriately to each other;
But if illumination neglects serenity then aggresiveness appears.
Certifying and dialoguing, they respond to to oeach other appropriately;
But if serenity neglects illumination, murkiness leads to wasted dharma.
Whe silent illumination is fulfilled, the lotus blossoms, the dreamer awakens,
A hundred streams flow into the ocean, a thousand ranges face the highest peak.
Like geese preferring milk, like bees gathering nectar,
When silent illumination reaches the ultimate, I offer my teaching.
The teaching of silent illumination penetrates from the highest down to the foundation.
The body being shunyata, the arms in mudra,
From beginning to end the changing appearances and then thousand differences share one pattern.
Mr. Ho offered jade to the Emperor; [Minister] Xiangru pointed to its flaws.
Facing changes has its principles, the great function is without striving.
The ruler stays in the kingdom, the general goes beyond the frontiers.
Our school’s affair hits the mark straight and true.
Transmit it to all directions without desiring to gain credit.
The Buddha’s essential functioning
By Eihei Dogen
Notes: A poem by Eihei Dogen Zenji, written approx. 1242, translated by Taizan Maezumi, Roshi and Neal Donner. It complements an earlier poem by Hongzhi Zhengjue [T’ien-t’ung Hung-chih ] (J.Tendo Wanshi). [Click here to read Hongzhi Zhengjue's poem].
The Buddha’s essential functioning,
the patriarchs’ functioning essence,
manifest without deliberation
and accomplishes without hindrance.
Manifesting without deliberation,
its manifestation is intimate of itself.
Accomplishing without hindrance,
its accomplishment is realized of itself.
Its manifestation, intimate of itself,
has never been defiled.
Its accomplishment, realised of itself,
is neither absolute nor relative.
The intimacy that is never defiled
drops away without dependence.
The realisation that is neither absolute nor relative penetrates without intent.
Clear water soaks into the earth; the fish swims like a fish.
The sky is vast and penetrates the heavens; the bird flies like a bird.
Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage
By Shitou Xiqian (700-790)
I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value.
After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.
When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it’s been lived in - covered by weeds.
The person in the hut lives here calmly,
Not stuck to inside, outside, or in between.
Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.
Realms worldly people love, he doesn’t love.
Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.
In ten square feet, an old man illumines forms and their nature.
A Great Vehicle bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
The middling or lowly can’t help wondering;
Will this hut perish or not?
Perishable or not, the original master is present,
not dwelling south or north, east or west.
Firmly based on steadiness, it can’t be surpassed.
A shining window below the green pines –
Jade palaces or vermilion towers can’t compare with it.
Just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest.
Thus, this mountain monk doesn’t understand at all.
Living here he no longer works to get free.
Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?
Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.
The vast inconceivable source can’t be faced or turned away from.
Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction,
Bind grasses to build a hut, and don’t give up.
Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.
Open your hands and walk, innocent.
Thousands of words, myriad interpretations,
Are only to free you from obstructions.
If you want to know the undying person in the hut,
Don’t separate from this skin bag here and now.
source
http://civet-cat.skandinaviskzencenter.org/civet-cat/poetry-stories.htm
Quote
“Your treasure house is within;
It contains all you will ever need.”
–Hui Neng
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