A day
so happy. Fog lifted
early, I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over
honeysuckle flowers. There was no thing
on earth I wanted to possess. I knew no one
worth my envying him. Whatever evil I had
suffered, I forgot. To think that once I was
the same man did not embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain. When
straightening up, I saw the
blue sea and
sails.
If you find yourself half naked
and barefoot in the frosty grass, hearing,
again, the earth’s great, sonorous moan that says
you are the air of the now and gone, that says
all you love will turn to dust,
and will meet you there, do not
raise your fist. Do not raise
your small voice against it. And do not
take cover. Instead, curl your toes
into the grass, watch the cloud
ascending from your lips. Walk
through the garden’s dormant splendor.
Say only, thank you.
Thank you.
When the wind
comes to sparse bamboo,
the bamboo doesn’t keep the sound
after the wind has passed. When geese cross
a cold pond, the pond doesn’t retain their reflection
after the geese have gone. Similarly, the minds of
enlightened people become manifest when
events occur and then become
empty when the events
are over.
The renowned poet
Bo Juyi asked the Bird’s Nest Monk,
“What is the Way?” The Bird’s Nest Monk said,
“Don’t do any evils, do all forms of good.” Bo Juyi said,
“Even a three year old could say this.” The Bird’s
Nest Monk said, “Though a three year old
might be able to say it, an eighty year
old might not be able to
carry it out.”
gary elliott, tassajara zen center
When you practice zen
you become one with zen. There is no you
and no zazen. When you bow, there is no Buddha and
no you. One complete bowing takes place,
that is all. This is nirvana.