Zen Poetry
Selected Quotations
VII
Forgetting all knowledge at one stroke,
I do not need cultivation anymore.
Activity expressing the ancient road,
I don't fall into passivity.
Everywhere trackless,
conduct beyond sound and form:
the adepts in all places
call this the supreme state.
- Kyogen
Rational Zen: The Mind of Dogen Zenji, p. 119
Translated and edited by Thomas Cleary
Though little he recites the Sacred Texts,
But puts the precepts into practice,
Ridding himself of craving, hatred and delusion,
Possessed of right knowledge with mind well-freed,
Cling to nothing here or hereafter,
He has a share in religious life.
- The
Dhammapada: The Pairs
Translated by Sathienpong Wannapok
Above the Fog: Selected Poems by Mike Garofalo
The Prajnaparamita is a great spiritual mantra,
a great wisdom mantra,
a supreme mantra,
an unequalled mantra.
It destroys all
suffering,
because it is the
incorruptible truth.
Hereafter, proclaim the
great Prajnaparamita mantra:
"Gate, gate,
paragate, Parasumgate bodhi, svaha."
All that can be annihilated must be
annihilated...
the Reasoning Power in Man
This is a false Body; an Incrustation over my
immortal
Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off &
annihilated always
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by
Self-examination.
- William Blake, Complete Poetry and Prose, p. 142
Chan Buddhism and
the Prophetic Poems of William Blake
I have nothing left to translate
Into the figures of night
Or the pale geometry
Of the fire-birds.
If I once had a wagon of lights to ride in
The axle is broken
The horses are shot.
- Thomas
Merton
Thomas Merton's Poetry: Emblems of a
Sacred Season by Alan Altany
Zen Poetry: Selected Quotations III
The Buddha started his grand exodus
From fate in mind its details hold all minds
To be examples of it, who discuss
Enslavement, such as haunted virtue finds;
Yet in transmission those fine words he said
Concerning freedom, maxims thus and so,
Came coin at school -- to gather while hope fled,
As wisdom spoken so and thus be woe.
- Proverbial Zen, Sam Hazelhurst
See with your eyes, hear
with your ears.
Nothing is hidden.
- Tenkei
Zen Poetry: Selected Quotations IV
Ripple in still water,
When there is no pebble tossed,
Nor wind to blow.
Reach out your hand if your cup be empty,
If your cup is full may it be again,
Let it be known there is a fountain,
That was not made by the hands of men.
- Highway 50 Zen, Ripple
A heart subdued,
Yet poignant sadness
Is so deeply felt:
A snipe flies over the marsh.
- Saigyo
Translated by Steven Heine
Motion and Emotion
in Medieval Japanese Buddhism
Zen Poetry: Links, Bibliography and Resources
Where there is beauty, there is ugliness.
When something is right, something else is wrong.
Knowledge and ignorance depend on each other.
It has been like this since the beginning.
How could it be otherwise now?
Wanting to toss out one and hold onto the other
makes for a ridiculous comedy.
You must still deal with everything ever-changing,
even when you say it’s wonderful.
- Ryokan (1758-1831)
Mind set free in the dharma-realm,
I sit at the moon-filled window
Watching the mountains with my ears,
Hearing the stream with open eyes.
Each molecule preaches perfect law,
Each moment chants true sutra:
The most fleeting thought is timeless,
A single hair's enough to stir the sea.
- Shutaku
The Cypress Tree in the Courtyard
How long had Ryoanji been there? You must have asked --
but there is no remembrance, just the rocks
and the gravel and the wall
and the very great silence,
the rootedness of deep meditation,
the weight of the rocks and the trees of this earth,
as if their roots grew right down through your heart...
- Ryoanji Zen Garden. By Jan Haag.
Old battlefield, fresh with spring flowers again
All that is left of the dreams
Of twice
ten thousand warriors slain.
- Basho
Translated by C. H. Page
Satori
Let him come from the bright side,
And I will dispose of him on that side;
Let him come from the dark side,
And I will dispose of him on that side;
Let him come from every possible direction,
And I will dispose of him like a whirlwind;
Let him come from the sky,
And I will dispose of him like a flail.
- Fuke
Masunaga Text
Sitting alone amongst the forest trees,
The sixfold faculties always still and quiet.
It seems as if you've lost a precious jewel,
But have no pain of worry or distress.
In all the World your visage has no peer,
And yet you always sit with your eyes closed.
The thoughts of each of us possess a doubt:
What do you seek by dwelling in this place?
- Nagarjuna, Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom
Dharmamitra Translation
Kalavinka Dharma
I'd like to
Offer something
To help you;
But in the Zen School,
We don't have a single thing!
- Zen Master Ikkyu
If evil flowers bloom in the mind-ground,
Five blossoms flower from the stem.
Together they will create the karma of ignorance;
Now the mind-ground is blown by the winds of karma.
If correct flowers bloom in the mind ground,
Five blossoms flower from the stem.
Together they practice the prajna wisdom;
In the future this will be the enlightement of the Buddha.
- Huineng (638-713)
Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
Translated and edited by Philip Yampolsky (Columbia University
Press, 1967)
Distributed on the Internet by Michael P. Garofalo
I Welcome Your Comments,
Ideas, Contributions, and Suggestions
A Short Biography of Mike Garofalo
Poetry Notebook III of Mike Garofalo
Zen Poetry: Selected Quotations VII
Version 3.3.6.