Zen Poems Thread

[Jishin]

Zen Poems Thread

The old pond;
A frog jumps in —
The sound of the water.

Basho

[Myozan Kodo]

Before enlightenment,
The Buddha Hung-Jen
Had dreadful pains of hunger
When he did not eat.
After enlightenment,
The Buddha Hung-Jen
Had dreadful pains of hunger
When he did not eat.

[Jamie]

So many thoughtful poems
Gassho everyone, thank you.

Watermelons and Zen students
grow very much the same way.
Long periods of sitting
till they ripen and grow
all juicy inside, but
when you knock them on the head
to see if they're ready-
sounds like nothing's going on.

Peter Levitt.

[Guest]

The Opening of the Trunk

Moment of inner freedom
when the mind is opened and the
infinite universe revealed
& the soul is left to wander
dazed & confus'd searching
here & there for teachers & friends.

-Jim Morrison

(Jundo inspired me to use this poet's poem, , due to a recent thread I posted, lol )

Gassho
Bobby

[Myosha]

Empty-handed, I hold a hoe.
Walking on foot, I ride a buffalo.
Passing over a bridge, I see
The bridge flow, but not the water.

Bodhisattva Shan-hui (善慧), better known as Fu Ta-shih (傅大士) (497-?)

[Myosha]

Sun sets, bell sounds, the mist.
Headwind on the road, the going hard.
Evening Sun at Cold Mountain.
Horses tread men's shadows.

Ching An

[Myosha]

PRECONCEPTIONS
by Milarepa


Just as fog is dispelled by the strength of the sun
and is dispelled no other way,
preconception is cleared by the strength of realization.
Experience them as baseless dreams.
Experience them as ephemeral bubbles.
Experience them as insubstantial rainbows.
Experience them as indivisible space


Gassho,
Myosha

[Saijun]

Talking about food won’t fill your stomach.
Talk about clothing won’t keep out cold.
To be full, eat rice.
To stay warm, wear clothes.
Those who don’t understand
complain it’s hard to get help from Buddha.
Look inside your heart. That’s where Buddha is.
Don’t look for him outside.
--Han Shan

[Jishin]

Talking about food will fill your stomach.
Talk about clothing will keep out cold.
To be empty, eat rice.
To stay cold, wear clothes.
Those who understand complain it’s hard to get help from Buddha.
Look outside your heart. That’s where Buddha is.
Don’t look for him inside.

--Jishin

Gassho, Jishin

[Ongen]

Gassho,

Vincent


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Myosha]

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake


Gassho,
Myosha

[senryu]

One Art
BY ELIZABETH BISHOP
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

----
Gassho
Senryu

[Nindo]

Somehow the thread about faith reminded me of this poem.
Translation by me; unconventional grammar is intentional.
Look at the dates and then please excuse the gendered language.

Gassho,
Nindo


----
An Sich

Sei dennoch unverzagt! Gib dennoch unverloren!
Weich keinem Glücke nicht, steh höher als der Neid,
vergnüge dich an dir und acht es für kein Leid,
hat sich gleich wider dich Glück, Ort und Zeit verschworen.
　
Was dich betrübt und labt, halt alles für erkoren;
nimm dein Verhängnis an. Laß alles unbereut.
Tu, was getan muß sein, und eh man dir's gebeut.
Was du noch hoffen kannst, das wird noch stets geboren.
　
Was klagt, was lobt man noch? Sein Unglück und sein Glücke
ist ihm ein jeder selbst. Schau alle Sachen an:
dies alles ist in dir. Laß deinen eitlen Wahn,
　
und eh du fürder gehst, so geh in dich zurücke.
Wer sein selbst Meister ist und sich beherrschen kann,
dem ist die weite Welt und alles untertan.
　
　
To Self
　
For all that, don't be despondent! Nevertheless, count not for lost!
Yield to no fortune; stand higher than envy,
delight in yourself and regard it no affliction
even if fortune, place and time have conspired against you.
　
What grieves and nourishes you, consider it your choice;
accept your fate. Leave everything unregretted.
Do what must be done and ere it’s demanded of you.
What you can still hope for, will yet ever be born.
　
What good is it to still lament or praise? His misfortune and his luck
is, to each man, he himself. Look at all things:
this all is in you. Let go of your vain delusion,
　
and before you go on further, go back into yourself.
Whoever is his own master and can restrain himself,
he has conquered the wide world and everything.

- Paul Fleming, 1609-1640

[Guest]

Joy in the morning,
Sleep in the evening,
What else?

-Ekon

[Myosha]

Buddhas and ancestors cut to pieces;
The sword is ever kept sharpened.
Where the wheel turns,
The void gnashes its teeth.

Death poem of Shûhõ Myõchõ (1282-1337)