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For no reason it rains,
Whispers of reality.
How lovely it sings,
Drop by drop.
Sitting and lying I listen
With emptied mind.
I don’t need ears,
I don’t need rain.

~ Chin’gak (1178-1234)

Pure and fresh, the flowers with dew
Clear and bright, the singing of the birds;
Clouds are calm, waters are blue.
Who has written the True Word of no letters?
Lofty are the mountains, green are the trees,
Deep are the valleys, lucid are the streams;
The wind is soft, the moon is serene.
Calmly I read the True Word of no letters.

~ Zenkei Shibayama

I came late to the dharma,
But each day, deepen my retreat.
Waiting for a mountain monk,
I sweep my simple hut.
Then down from cloudy peaks
You come through knee-deep weeds.
We kneel on tatami, munching pine nuts.
We burn incense and study the Way.
Light the lamp at twilight;
A simple chime begins the night.
In every solitude, deep joy:
This life abides.
How can you think of returning?
A lifetime is empty like the Void.

~ Wang Wei

Dreaming, Chuang Tzu became a butterfly;
Waking, the butterfly became a man.
Who knows which is real?
Who know where endless changes end?
The waters of the deepest sea
Return to the smallest stream.
The melon-grower outside the city gate
Was once the King of the Hill.
Even rank and riches eventually disappear.
You know, and still you toil.

~ Li T’ai-po (701-?)

Chew the glossy, tender leaves
You’ll know the sweet and the sour.
Snow lies thick in the hottest summer,
Spring lingers in the coldest winter.
You wish to lean, then lean;
You wish to lie down, then lie down.
Seeing this, Shih-te roars with laughter,
And Han-shan opens his mouth wide.

~ T’aego (1301-1382)

There’s no self and no person,
How then kinfolk and stranger!
I beg you, cease going
From lecture to lecture;
It’s better to seek truth directly.
The nature of Diamond Wisdom
Excludes even a speck of dust.
From “Thus we have heard,”
To “This I believe,”
All’s but an array
Of unreal names.

~ Layman P’ang

You're bound to become a buddha if you practice
If water drips long enough even rocks wear through
It's not true thick skulls can't be pierced
People just imagine their minds are hard.

~ Shih-wu (1272-1352)

Mystic understanding of truth
Is not perception or cognition.
That is why it is said that you
Arrive at the original source
By stopping the mind,
So it is called the enlightened
State of being as is,
Ultimate freedom.

~ Nan-ch'uan (748-834)

The longer I live, the more deeply
I learn that love --
whether we call it friendship,
or family
or romance-
is the work of mirroring
and magnifying each other's light.
~James Baldwin

The mountain is silent,
The water without form.
A clear breeze has no price,
The bright moon no lover.
Here, after a fashion,
I will grow old in peace.

~ Song Hon (1535-1598)

You guard a spiritual thing;
It isn't something you could make,
And it isn't something you can describe.
In this ground of ours,
There is no Buddha, no nirvana,
And no path to practice,
No doctrine to actualize.
The way is not within existence
Or nonexistence,
What method would one then practice?
This abundant light,
Wherever you are, in every situation,
Is itself the great way.

~ Tan-hsia (739-824)

Happy in the morning
I open my cottage door;
A clear breeze blowing
Comes straight in.
The first sun
Lights the leafy trees;
The shadows it casts
Are crystal clear.
Serene,
In accord with my heart,
Everything merges
In one harmony.
Gain and loss
Are not my concern;
This way is enough
To the end of my days.

~ Wen-siang (1210-1280)

I've always loved friends of the Way,
Always held them dear.
Meeting a stranger with silent springs;
Greeting a guest talking zen;
Talking about mysteries on a moonlit night;
Searching for truth until dawn
The tracks of our inventions disappear
And we see who we really are.

Cold Mountain

Students of today get nowhere because they base their understanding upon the acknowledgment of names.
They inscribe the words of stone dead old guys in a great big notebook, wrap it up in four or five squares of cloth, and won't let anyone look at it.

"This is the Mysterious Principle," they aver, and safeguard it with care.
That's all wrong. Blind idiots! What kind of juice are you looking for in such dried-up bones?

~ Lin-chi (d.866)

Practicing Zen is zazen.
For zazen, a quiet place is suitable.
Lay out a thick mat.
Do not let in drafts or smoke, rain, or dew.
Protect and maintain the place
Where you settle your body.
There are examples from the past
Of sitting on a diamond seat
And sitting on a flat stone covered
With at thick layer of grass.
Day or night the place
Of sitting should not be dark;
It should be kept warm in winter and cool in summer.

~ Dogen (1200-1253)