To live fully
is to be always in no-man’s-land,
to experience each moment as completely new
and fresh. To live is to be willing to die
over and over again.
a day so happy
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.
thank you
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.
no exertion or effort
There is no place
for exertion or effort in buddhism;
it is just a matter of being normal and non-obsessed,
taking care of bodily functions, dressing and eating, lying down
when tired. Fools laugh at me; it is the wise ones who
understand this. An ancient said, “Those who
work on externals are all
ignoramuses.”
the minds of enlightened people
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.