The reason those who search
For the Way are unaware
Of its reality is simply
Because from the first
They accept all their
Discriminations for truth.
Those have been the very source
For birth and death.
How clear, in a dream,
The Three Worlds are.
When you wake,
All is empty,
All the myriad worlds are Mu
Where does this seeing take place?
The entire earth is the eyeball of a
Buddhist monk
Take one more step!
~ Hakuin (1685-1769)
I crossed seas and rivers,
Climbed mountains, and
Forded streams in order
To interview the masters,
To inquire after Truth,
To delve into the secrets of Zen,
And ever since I was enabled to
Recognize the path.
I knew that birth and death are not
The things I have to be concerned with.
For walking is Zen,
Sitting is Zen,
Whether talking or remaining silent,
Whether moving or standing quiet,
The Essence itself is ever at ease;
Even when greeted with swords and spears,
It never loses its quiet way,
And all that befalls cannot perturb
Its serenity.
~ Yoko Daishi
At the north window, icy drafts
Whistle through the cracks.
At the south pond, wild geese
Huddle in snowy reeds;
Above, the mountain moon
Is pinched thin with cold,
Freezing clouds threaten
To plunge from the sky.
Buddhas might descend to this world
By the thousands,
They couldn’t add or subtract one thing.
~ Hakuin
beverly, huh.
you must be
made of money.
your parents
must have grown
on trees.
bet you’re black
tinged with green.
bet you sleep
on bags of it.
bet your barbies
climb it.
bet you never
wanted.
bet you never
had to ask.
bet you golf.
bet you tennis.
bet you got
a summer house.
bet you got
a credit card
for your 5th birthday.
bet you played
with bills for toys.
bet you chew
them up
for dinner.
bet you spit
your black out
like tobacco
that’s why you talk so
bet you listen to green day.
bet you ain’t never heard of al.
bet your daddy wears a robe
around the house.
bet his hands are soft as a frog’s belly.
bet your house is on a hill.
bet the grass is freshly cut.
bet you feel like a princess.
bet the police protect your house.
bet you know their first names.
bet your house has a hundred rooms.
bet a black lady comes to clean them.
~ JAMILA WOODS
If you have developed great capacity and cutting insight,
you can undertake Zen right where you are.
Without getting it from another, you understand it on your own.
The penetrating spiritual light and vast open tranquility have never been interrupted since beginningless time.
The pure, uncontrived, ineffable, complete true mind does not act as a partner to objects of material sense
and is not a companion of myriad things.
When the mind is always as clear and bright as ten suns shining together,
detached from views and beyond feelings, cutting through the ephemeral illusions of birth and death,
this is what is meant by the saying “Mind itself is Buddha.”
You do not have to abandon worldly activities in order to attain effortless unconcern.
You should know that worldly activities and effortless unconcern are not two different things,
but if you keep thinking about rejection and grasping, you make them two.
~ Hui Neng