Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
Just bought this complete translation of the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. Last year the publishers released a beautiful two-volume boxed hardcover edition of which I really regret not purchasing.
Just bought this complete translation of the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. Last year the publishers released a beautiful two-volume boxed hardcover edition of which I really regret not purchasing.
Go where
The wind blows
Far into the interior
Of the mind
Of your haiku
Then beyond
Its borders
Through towns
Pass common folks
Over seas
And in love
With your
Companion
Only to return
To reality
That is the Edo.
life
is the interpretation
of time
and space
the longer the life
the more accurate
the interpretation
is supposed to be
but some die
without fully
interpreting
the meaning
time
is lost upon them
and equally
space
disappears
like into some kind
of mental black hole
called “their” mind
of which
the mind actually
isn’t a self as
conventionally
believed
but a grand illusion
a fantastic
misinterpretation
of life
and therefore
of what
one should do
“now” and
with “whom”
or with “what”
every moment
is simultaneously
a small death
and rebirth
Sometimes – more often than not – Right Speech means silence in a matter, not in ignorance or in ignoring something (not wanting to know or wishing its nonexistence) but refraining from speaking in the understanding that to talk about it will not help the situation, and that speaking out may even make the situation worse.
It saddens me that people feel they need to hurt others in order for their pain and dissatisfaction to be heard. Whatever the problem may be there should never be any reason why one should take life even if the human condition is seemingly unbearable. Solutions can only be solved as a collective for we share a reality. We are dependent beings in a common environment at a certain time. So your problem is essentially my problem and we should live with this understanding and find solutions together. You, terrorists, are wrong if you believe you are alone in this world. You, America, too are wrong if you think they alone are the problem. So when we “talk with guns” and not words we are not really talking but shouting in pain, shouting in anger. And no one is listening in such an atmosphere.
Prayers go out to those who lost someone.
Like everything else,
You build a Buddha
From the ground up.
clockwise ascent
more progression
sideways, slow
doesn’t describe you
procession of souls
cabinet
as life
views far
beyond mountains, seas
sees before again
gentle decline
setting
your anticipation
a rebirth
before next ride
“Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.”
Carol Burnett
Sounds like good advice for Right Speech.
“We have been all the way to the Moon and back,
but we have trouble crossing the street
to meet the new neighbour.”
Dalai Lama
Old pond
A frog leaps in -
Sound of the water
Furu ike ya
Kawazu tobi komu
Mizu no oto
Perhaps the most well known haiku.
Often said to embody all that is Zen in it, the old world and now are linked by the sound of the water.
I wrote a poem which goes like this:
There is no old pond.
There is no frog that leaps in.
No sound, no water.
This is a pale imitation of the style of the old masters like Mumonkan or Hakuin. Our fixation with the old pond, the frog and the sound will ultimately undo us. To reach enlightenment it is necessary to forget – so to speak – these things which belong to the mind’s illusion.
There is a koan – Case #3 in the Mumonkan – that is similar:
“The Zen master Gutei used to raise one finger as a gesture of Zen. Once a visitor asked Gutei boy attendant what does his master teach. The Boy raised his finger. Master Gutei hearing this cut off the boys finger. In pain, the boy ran crying. The boy called by his master turned, only to see the master riase his finger. At that moment the boy was enlightened.”
I doubt Gutei really cut his finger off and so the boy was also crying in mock. But doubtless was his enlightenment.
The point is Gutei’s teaching has nothing to do with the finger or the gesture. So the boy’s raising of the finger has no meaning, no power. It is as ordinary as Gutei’s gesture. But Gutei’s gesture has all the ability to bring about enlightenment, as does Basho’s poem, but no the boy’s finger.
Why should this be so? If you can say then you have glimpsed something.
One further note: the visitor to Gutei no doubt was pushing the boy. He had seen something in him. He knew he needed one more nudge to be pushed over the edge. In other words this was no ordinary visitor but someone with insight. Zen koans and their dialogues are not accidental. They are carefully orchestrated for the benefit of the student, to bring about enlightenement in him or her.
