Daily Zen

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:09:07 GMT

Even if you do cultivate myriad practices,
if you don’t know the mind,
you cannot realize enlightenment.
How can there be any way
to fulfill the way of the Buddha
if you don’t realize enlightenment?

- Daikaku (1235-1309)

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:10:14 GMT

Though it has no bridge,
The cloud climbs up to heaven;
It does not seek the aid
Of Gautama’s sutras.

- Ikkuu

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:41:12 GMT

Only this
Nothing more
No need to dust
No need to sit

- Feng Kan (7th c)

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:07:08 GMT

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

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:12:20 GMT

Where gather mists and clouds,
A happy world.
Thick swirls of incense smoke
Wreathe Heaven’s Gate.
The bell of Prajna chimes
Through vacant days.
Amida’s sutras are one
On quiet nights
Brooks sigh and sing
Like harps when rain has stopped.
Birds chirp sweet melodies
As sunshine dims.
The Way lies not far off-
Why toil for it?
Bodhi bears fruit
Right here inside the heart.

- Huynh Sanh Thong

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:47:30 GMT

After sunset the whole world is cool,
And after a rain, mountains and rivers are clear.
The prevailing wind comes from the west,
The sounds of autumn are congealed
In the sounds of grasses and trees.
I feel the rapidity of passing years,
And lament the fading away of material things.
Who would feel distressed
Seeing how the seasons affect man’s emotions?v Let me ask the philosopher of the Gateway
To the Void.
What method is there to practice,
Which will cause me to abandon the
Desires for gain and not cause
Vexations to arise?

- Po-Chu-i (772-846)

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:07:18 GMT

Where he lives is indeed most
Elegantly secluded,
And the people who live there
Have all attained tranquility.
Dense groves of bamboo line
Both side of the road,
The clear brook flows by the hut.
How free and relaxed is the monk,
Having abandoned all the worry
And anxiety of the world,
The four meditations unite him
With Suchness so that he regards
Everything as illusory.

- Meng Hao-jan (689-765)

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:46:10 GMT

Monk Ch’ung-fan! Monk Ch’ung-fan!
You left in autumn to go to Mt. Fu-fu,
Now it is spring and you have not yet returned.
You must be fascinated by the bustling scene of
Falling flowers and singing birds,
You must be enjoying the solitude, surrounded
By brooks and mountains just outside your door
And window.
Surrounded by hills, who cares anything about
The affairs of the world?
As the city dwellers gaze into the distance,
They see nothing but peaks covered with clouds.

- Wang Wei (701-761)

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:07:34 GMT

Dew bestowed upon the grasses of the autumn fields,
Gradually soaks in the reflection of the moon.
Zen monks are captivated by the autumn moon
And springtime blossoms;
But when satori comes,
There’s no need for spring or fall.

- Gocho Kankai (1749-1835)

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:43:57 GMT

The wind tousles the flying springs,
That makes the cool sound.
From the peak of the mountain
The moon rises and the bamboo
Window is reflected brightly
In my old age I especially feel that
Living in the deep mountains
Is desirable.
If I die at the foot of this mountain rock,
Even my bones must be pure.

- Jakushitsu (1290-1367)

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:40:17 GMT

The wind is still, but blossoms fall,
Birds sing in the quiet of the mountain.
This is Kannon’s wondrous wisdom:
Ah!

- Ryokan (1758-1831)

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:44:55 GMT

Light

Dwell!
You are the Light itself.
Rely on yourself,
Do not rely on others.
The Dharma is the Light,
Rely on the Dharma.
Do not rely on anything
Other than Dharma.

- Pali verse

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:20:29 GMT

In spring, hundreds of flowers,
In summer, refreshing breeze.
In autumn, harvest moon,
In winter, snowflakes accompany you.
If useless things do not hang in your mind,
Every season is a good season.

- Mumon (1183-1260)

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:00:51 GMT

Joshu (778-897) asked his teacher, Nansen (748-834),
“What is the Tao?”
Nansen replied, “Ordinary mind is the Tao.”
Joshu asked, “Shall I try to seek it?”
“If you try for it, you will become apart from it,” Nansen replied.
“How can I know the Tao unless I try for it?” persisted Joshu.
“The Tao is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion, not knowing is ignorance. When you have truly reached the Tao, undoubtedly you will find it as vast as the boundless space. How can it be discussed on the level of right and wrong?” With these words, it is said that Joshu came to a sudden realization.

- Case 19 from Gateless Gate

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:44:12 GMT

Searching for praise and honor
Keeps mankind restlessly moving,
But in the warm sun and peaceful wind,
Things renew themselves naturally.
Needing no human control,
The spring brightness is both pale and deep;
In the mountains of endless rest,
There is a single tranquil person.

- Gesshu Soko (1618-1696)

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:30:02 GMT

Buddha Mind

Buddha mind is born in Buddha mind
Buddha mind grows old in Buddha mind
And, after all, Buddha mind dies in Buddha mind

Because of the karmic nature of language, we have to use dualistic expressions. The truth is: Buddha mind only and nothing else. When we look at our lives from that point of view, something that is unbearable becomes bearable, something that is unforgivable may become forgivable, gratitude increase, arrogance decreases. After all, this universe is nothing but Buddha mind.

- Eido Tai Shimano (b.1932 )

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:28:41 GMT

Students today do not know the truth at all. They are like goats nosing around, taking whatever they find into their mouths. They cannot distinguish the servant from the master, the guest from the host. People like this enter the path with the wrong attitude; they cannot enter into clamorous situations, yet they call themselves genuine renunciants. In fact they are really worldlings.

- Lin Chi (d 867)

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:30:01 GMT

Mist darkens the peaks of
A thousand mountains;
Wind sings, blows the tips
Of the beautiful trees into leaf.
The tip of the pagoda rises
Through the clouds;
Setting sunlight lingers
In the after glow.

- Minagawa Kien (1734-1807)

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:39:41 GMT

Finishing a day of begging,
I return home through the green mountains.
The setting sun is hidden behind the western cliffs
And the moon shines weakly on the stream below.
I stop by a rock and wash my feet.
Lighting some incense, I sit peacefully in zazen.
Again a one-man brotherhood of monks;
Ah…how quickly the stream of time sweeps by.

- Ryokan (1758-1831)

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:32:47 GMT

A single path upwards
The thousand sages
Do not assist me.

- Jiun Sonja (1718-1804)

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:40:19 GMT

There was a monk who asked the Master, “Does a person who has had sudden awakening still need to continue with cultivation?”
The Master said, “If one has true awakening and attains to the fundamental, then at that time that person knows for himself that cultivation and non cultivation are just dualistic opposites. Like now, though the initial inspiration is dependent on conditions, if within a single thought one awakens to one’s own reality, there are still certain habitual tendencies that have accumulated over numberless kalpas which cannot be purified in a single instant. That person should certainly be taught how to gradually remove the karmic tendencies and mental habits: this is cultivation. There is no other method of cultivation that need to be taught to that person.”

- Kuei-shan Ling-yu (771-853)

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:39:07 GMT

When hungry, eat.
When cold, put on clothes
Even children three feet tall,
Are aware of these things.
The teaching beyond doctrine
Is transparently clear;
Why should you have your eyes open
And still act foolishly?
Someone asked me for one of my
Coarse comments,
So I wrote out the above gatha
As a response.

- Isshi Bunchu (1608-1645)

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:01:19 GMT

Let us sit together on a mat of reeds
And watch the mountains
Turn purple in the sunset.

- Rai San’yo

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:28:35 GMT

This teaching says that all sentient beings possess the true mind of emptiness and quiescence, whose nature is without exception fundamentally pure. Bright, unobscured, astute and constantly aware, it constantly abides to the end of time. It is called Buddha-nature; it is also called tathagatagarbha and mind-ground. Because from time without beginning it has been concealed by false thoughts, sentient beings cannot realize it, and thereby experience birth and death. The Supremely Enlightened, feeling pity for them, manifests in the world to proclaim that all dharmas characterized by birth and death are empty, and to reveal the complete identity of this mind with all the Buddhas.

- Tsung-mi (780)

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:21:23 GMT

Talking about food won’t make you full,
Babbling about clothes won’t keep out the cold.
A bowl of rice is what fills the belly;
It takes a suit of clothing to make you warm.
And yet, without stopping to consider this,
You complain the Buddha is hard to find.
Turn your mind within! There he is!
Why look for him abroad?

- Han shan