...

The snow piled on this empty mountain
Has frozen the gate shut,
But in the night cold
The garden plum trees burgeon
With returning spring;
The moon down,
Orion stretches across the sky,
People silent and still
Lying awake,
I hear a lone dog howl
Outside the village.

- Sesson Yubal (1290-1346)

Ice invades the stone runnels,
Harshens the spring's sound,
Wind rattles bamboos
Against the window
And the moonlight shivers;
Fire dead, ashes cold,
A chill comes through the door
An old monk rises from his meditation
Incense just gone out.

- Sesson Yubal (1290-1346)

It is precisely the fact
That an ever-changing mind
Thinks it is enlightened
That reveals it has strayed
From the wrong path
To one even more wrong.

- Muso Soseki (1275-1351)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i finally found my mind
it was not where i left it
that silly ole mind of mine when round and round trying to find it
but it didn't so we laughed and laughed and laughed

NEW DAY
God bless everyone
no exceptions

may peace find you and bless you
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All day long,
In the sound of rain dripping
From the eaves,
I sat patiently,
Listening with my eyes;
Now I raise the thin blinds
Onto the western foothills
And the single green
Of a thousand pines.

- Koken Myokai (d. 1390)

Wind stirs the cold woods,
A frosty moon gleams,
Absorbed in talk of elevated things,
Midnight come and gone,
Roast yams on skewers
Lie forgotten in the hearth
Silently we listen to the sound
Of leaves raining on the window.

- Genko

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
automatic moderation is not perfect
not yet
still better than releasing me from my leash
i have removed the attributed name of the author to satisfy the algorithm

Each time the blossoms open
I recall the friend who gave me
The saplings, and the times
We used to stop to drink
Beneath his trees.
But those springs of twenty years ago
Are like a dream, and wine cups
Of those days are tea bowls now.

- Kisei Reigen

@rookie54
“This post is unavailable.”


The tao which can be spoken is not the tao.
Was that unavailable post the tao which cannot be spoken?

@moonbus said
@rookie54
“This post is unavailable.”


The tao which can be spoken is not the tao.
Was that unavailable post the tao which cannot be spoken?

The Sound of Tea Boiling

Its thin song, the wind springing
Up in distant valley pines,
Its roiling boil, evening rain
Falling on a cold river;
A mind befuddled by the
City temples' daily brawl
Hears this pure sound,
And inner calm steeps
In the deepening evening.

- Gakuin Ekatsu

My worn out sandals hang high
From the bare wall,
And dawn's brought
Spring snow that makes
The blossoms open;
Those twenty years of pilgrimage
I made to China?
Better to have slept
Here in this mountain hut.

- Koken Myokai

We are like someone
immersed in water
who complains
of nothing to drink.

- Hsueh-Feng

@rookie54 said
We are like someone
immersed in water
who complains
of nothing to drink.

- Hsueh-Feng

Reveal Hidden Content

question everything
desire nothing


“A sage is a former fool who has become tired of himself. A foolish sage is one who forgets this. Remember, or come full circle.”
― Vera Nazarian

Master Ikkyu advised that before intellectual study of Buddhist texts,
and endless chanting of the sutras,
a student of Zen should learn how to read the love letters sent by the snow.

- Ikkyu