Zen Poetry

[Charles David]

The author has clearly experienced an awakening.

Still,

Charles

[Kingmonkey]

Hello all together
I thought that I'll share a poem for once


I really love this one, if you truely understand it in all its depth, you'll get all you need to know....

HEART OF THE BUDDHA

by Hsu Yun


No need to chase back and forth like the waves.

The same water which ebbs is the same water that flows.

No point turning back to get water

When it's flowing around you in all directions

The heart of the Buddha and the people of the world...

Where is there any difference?

[Adam Kryder]

Dear Kingmonkey,

thank you for sharing this poem.
It indeed reminds me of many important aspects of cultivation,
that monk or laymen each have great opportunity to cultivate,
and that the treasure of humanity lies in our everyday, we need not "escape'.

If anyone is interested in finding the original works the characters for Hsu Yun Da Shi (xuyun dashi) are 虚云 大师 in simplified and 虛雲 大師 in traditional
characters.

I am interested and inspired to learn more about this great master!

Best Wishes,

Adam

[Kingmonkey]

Adam
you're wellcome

Some of the teachings of Xu Yun can be found here
and a collection of his poems here

Kindly Pat

[Charles David]

Han Shan

I hope you will enjoy this one by Han Shan:


My mind is like the autumn moon
clear and bright in a pool of jade
nothing can compare
what more can I say



taken from

Red Pine, translator. The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain. Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, 2000.


Still,

[Adam Kryder]

原文－Yuan Wen

Thanks Uncle,

Here is the original:

"吾心似秋月，
碧潭清皎潔。
無物堪比倫，
教我如何說。"


Say, seeing we are both in China, why dont we plan a trip to Cold Mountain?

Best Wishes,

Nephew
愚弟

[Piers]

I have only just discovered this thread and I'm glad I have. I've loved Zen poetry for a long time but never quite thought about them in the way you put it, Racheli - I like that idea of editing fragments of reality together.

Here's a fragment, a poem by a poet I love more than almost any other, Ryokan. I've only ever read him in translation but he shines through even in prosaic translations.


The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window.


-- It occurs to me at this moment that one thing I love about Zen poems is that they very often work on a spiritual level but simultaneously on a very human level - in fact they show that those levels aren't opposed. The infinite within the mud. The infinite even in a moment like when you get back to your house (or hut) and find it's been burgled... This poem works on many levels.

Thanks Adam for starting this thread.

piers

[Darran]

Here's a little poem I wrote many years ago which came to my mind while perusing this interesting thread.

A child arose
and made the stained walls
look like ghosts.


I was very interested in imagist poetry at the time.

[Dougie]

Thanks Darran - i really liked that! Very evocative

[Adam Kryder]

No Lens

Dear All,

Here is a poem for discussion...

"Retreat at Haein Temple"

The splendor of the world is just an empty dream-
gathering and scattering, life and death:
bubbles in the water.
My only desire is to wander in Anyang*.

*Another word for Amitabha's Pure Land, where one is at ease and well-nourished.

Daegak Euchon

I think this brings up many interesting points, about cultivation.


Looking forward to any responses, ideas, discussion, etc...


Best Wishes

Adam

[Charles David]

Champagne for my Real Friends...

Thanks for this poem, Adam. Anything that helps me turn my mind towards Sukhavati is welcome indeed.

When the poet writes, "My only desire is to wander in Anyang" I think about my own. It reminds me of an article by your Siguma Emiko, "The One Wish."

I had written that my one wish is to enjoy my life, but I wonder if I shouldn't rephrase it to match this poet's: "my one wish is to go to the Western Paradise."

Poetically speaking, I love the imagery of "gathering and scattering." I cannot help but think of flower petals. And, of course, the bubbles in water make me think of champagne.


Effervescently Yours,


Charles

[Charles David]

Jim Harrison, Cabbage

Cabbage


If only I had the genius of a cabbage
or even an onion to grow myself
in their laminae from the holy core
that bespeaks the final shape. Nothing
is outside of us in this overinterpreted world.
Bruises are the mouths of our perceptions.
The gods who have died are able to come
to life again. It's their secret that they wish
to share if anyone knows that they exist.
Belief is a mood that weighs nothing on anyone's
scale but nevertheless exists. The moose
down the road wears the black cloak of a god
and the dead bird lifts from a bed of moss
in a shape totally unknown to us.
It's after midnight in Montana.
I test the thickness of the universe, its resilience
to carry us further than any of us wish to go.
We shed our shapes slowly like moving water,
which ends up as it will so utterly far from home.



from: Harrison, Jim. Saving Daylight Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, 2006.

[Piers]

Marvellous! Thank you.

'this overinterpreted world' - yes. To be able to see it afresh, to see the mountain again in all its glory!

[Charles David]

A Question for Wahnam Students

Hi Piers, Thanks for your observation and insight.

Some questions for intrepid students:

Judging from the above poem by Jim Harrison, do you think that the poet has experienced satori, or an awakening?

What about the poem by Daegak Uchon?

Inquisitively Yours,


Charles

[Piers]

I'm not sure!

Regarding the Daegak Uchon poem, having one's only desire to be in the Pure Land isn't in itself a sign of an awakening (in my opinion, that is). I would have thought that after experiencing an awakening one would be both aware of the transitory and illusory nature of this world, and also of its beauty and magic.

One of the key things I love about Zen poetry is its ability to celebrate and evoke some particular thing in this world - and also point beyond it. Like observing the sound of an insect, or the splash of a frog - the 'isness' of that thing, but also a meaning beyond that particular moment. Infinity in a grain of sand, if you like.

Someone who simply yearns not to be in this life would seem to me to be someone who has not had an awakening. What do other people think about that?

Being comfortable and awake and joyful in the current moment seems to me to be more of a sign of awakening than yearning to be in the Pure Land - because the ultimate is here now, if only we were awakened to it. Right?

As for Jim Harrison, the fact that he says 'nothing is outside of us' gives me a clue that he might have experienced an awakening. The realisation that we are part of God, that in a way we are God and nothing is outside us...

Anyway, those are my musings this blue frosty twilight here in England (in the midst of a marvellously wintry winter).

piers