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To shake off the
Dust of human ambition
I sit on moss in
Zen robes of stillness,
While through the window,
In the setting sun
Of late autumn,
Falling leaves whirl
And drop to the stone dais.

~ Tesshu Tokusai (?–1366)

@rookie54 said
To shake off the
Dust of human ambition
I sit on moss in
Zen robes of stillness,
While through the window,
In the setting sun
Of late autumn,
Falling leaves whirl
And drop to the stone dais.

~ Tesshu Tokusai (?–1366)

The moon, emerging,
Floats where clouds are not;
Wind rises,
Strikes the purity of night,
Stars compete
In trembling flickers,
The Milky Way is empty,
Clear, and bright.
Old trees’ sparse shadows
Intersperse.
Scared birds cut off their
Noises lingering.
This autumn I am rapt
In what’s already awry,
While crickets campaign
Again at night.

~ Liu Ch’ang

As to the roaming of sages,
They move in utter emptiness,
Let their minds meander in the great nothingness;
They run beyond convention
And go through where there is no gateway.
They listen to the soundless
And look at the formless,
They are not constrained by society
And not bound to its customs.

~ Lao-tze

You have obstacles only because you have not realized the emptiness of the eons.
Genuine Wayfarers are never like this; they just dissolve their history according to conditions, dressing according to circumstances, acting when they need to act, and sitting when they need to sit, without any idea of seeking the fruits of buddhahood.

~ Lin Chi (d.~867)

If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 90

What a freedom I felt when this passage was pointed out to me! Suddenly I saw that I could do something about my anger, I could fix me, instead of trying to fix them. I believe that there are no exceptions to the axiom. When I am angry, my anger is always self-centered. I must keep reminding myself that I am human, that I am doing the best I can, even when that best is sometimes poor. So I ask God to remove my anger and truly set me free.

From the book Daily Reflections.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Down to the stream
to watch the jade flow
or back to the cliff
to sit on a boulder.
Mind like a lone cloud
clinging to nothing;
what do I need in the faraway world?

~ Cold Mountain

-Removed-

@rookie54 said
Down to the stream
to watch the jade flow
or back to the cliff
to sit on a boulder.
Mind like a lone cloud
clinging to nothing;
what do I need in the faraway world?

~ Cold Mountain

In everyone it towers like
A mile high wall,
Flashing a great precious light
In everyone’s presence.
One thought ten thousand years,
Ten thousand years one thought,
Eating when hungry,
Sleeping when tired,
Who worries about the alternation
Of light and dark,
The change of the seasons?

~ Daio (1235-1309)

He waits as at dusk, bamboo walking stick in hand,
At the headwaters of Tiger Creek,
Leading us on as we listen to mountain echoes,
Following the water’s way.

Patches of wildflowers bloom.
A solitary bird calls from the valley floor.
We sit evening zazen in the empty forest:
Quiet pine winds bring the scent of autumn.

~ Wang Wei (710-761)

@rookie54 said
He waits as at dusk, bamboo walking stick in hand,
At the headwaters of Tiger Creek,
Leading us on as we listen to mountain echoes,
Following the water’s way.

Patches of wildflowers bloom.
A solitary bird calls from the valley floor.
We sit evening zazen in the empty forest:
Quiet pine winds bring the scent of autumn.

~ Wang Wei (710-761)

Autumn begins unnoticed
Nights slowly lengthen,
And little by little,
Clear winds turn colder and colder,
Summer’s blaze giving way.
My thatch hut grows still.
At the bottom stair, in bunchgrass,
Wet dew shimmers.

~ Meng hao-jan (689-740)

mandibles are clacking
in the tidepools of the Noumenon
their clacking is muffled
the water is wide