Showing posts with label Zen Poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zen Poetry. Show all posts
Friday, June 12, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
Sunday, May 24, 2015
The Moon in the Water... How can One pluck it Out ?
www.facebook.com/ZenShortPoetry
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Sunday, May 10, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
The Clouds are not the Sky
Finding this sentence was good to remind me what I tend to forget over and over and again. Clouded by thoughts, I stubbornly insist on thinking that I am my thoughts. Why would one insist on being thoughts when one is reality? Why would one insist on being a cage when one is the bird? Why would one insist on being a bird when one is the wide open sky ?
Friday, March 27, 2015
Despair / Enlightenment.
I am not a fan of Echkart Tolle. My girlfriend gave me his book and asked me to read it. That is the only reason why I am reading it. Regardless of my general dislike of his writings, the sentence above stroke a good cord inside of me. It seems to be true that despair itself is the seed of enlightenment. Two faces of the same moon.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
The Moons reflected in all Waters are one.
This verse belongs to the Song of
Enlightenment written by Yoka Genkaku. It is considered a fundamental text in
Zen studies. One of the basic themes in the poem is the relationship between
Buddha-nature and Self-nature. An also, I risk to say, between phenomenon and
numinous. This is when Aristotle and Plato hold hands. Aristotle mostly
inspired the scientific way of thinking while Plato gave some theoretical ground
for religious philosophy to rely upon.
However, Yoka Genkaku
in the song of Enlightenment does not concern itself with separation and
categories as western philosophy usually does. The preferred approach of zen is
to find communion among all beings, animate and inanimate, through our
commonalities.
The ultimate
meaning of the concept of “Emptiness” in Buddhism is that all beings are empty
of identity, because we are all together one sole being. Before the 20th
century, this was mostly a philosophical subject. With advent of Quantum physics
Emptiness became a scientific certainty. Religion and science found a common
ground. Belief and faith can be replaced by appreciation as it always being the
attempt of zen practice. When a zen practitioner bows to the Buddha statue, the
intent is actually to bow to the Buddha nature present in all individual selves.
Phenomena do not
occur independent from each other. Individuality is just a conceptual tool to
study and deal with the all-embracing, interconnected and interdependent
reality. The reflection in the water, all the myriad beings, is just perceived
as individuals due to the limitations of our human perception. Separation is an
illusion. As every piece of knowledge, that realization brings us freedom but
also bring us responsibility. It can set us free from loneliness and isolation.
However, it also brings the inescapable necessity of seeing your neighbor as yourself.
Therefore, you better love your neighbor as yourself as Jesus said.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Friday, November 28, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
Saturday, October 25, 2014
You're Alone
Photo credits: Dvids
The
verses above seem to be pregnant with a beautiful double meaning. It may be
impossible to figure out what Han San really said in the original Chinese. However,
this translation done by J.P.Seaton
in his book Cold
Mountain Poems give the reader much to think and, mainly, to feel.
What
does the “within” refer to in this case? Is the verse saying that everything
within Earth is alone? Or is the verse saying one is alone and have all within
oneself? Since it is written in poetic language, plus, being a pre-zen Buddhist
poem, I would not be surprised if the verse had both meanings at the same time.
We are
all alone. Nobody can live other’s journey. However, we are all together in journeying
individually. At the same time, all the individual journeys compose the only
one journey that exists, the journey of the whole Universe. And, as parts of
the Universe, each one of us, all beings, is the entire Universe.
By the
way he is the full translation:
Green water in the stream in the pass,
white water rising the clear-welling spring…
Han Shan’s moon’s a flower, white as well…
So the darkest secret, the spirit by itself illumines
gaze into the emptiness, to the ends of Earth…
You’re alone, with all within…
(Poem XXXIII, pg. 49)
Friday, October 10, 2014
By this Understanding You will awake to the Truth
What I great moment when two sages who lived so far apart in distance, time and cultural background bring up the same revelation. This week i broke a couple of my own rules to make and post these cards. My initial intention when i started posting this series of quotes was to post only sentences by Zen figures. However, William Blake quote is so phenomenal, that it would not fit just as note in the commentaries of Huang Po’s quote. Therefore, here it is: Huang Po and William Blake sharing the lime light.
If the Doors of Perception were cleansed Everything would appear to Man as It is...Infinite
What
I great moment when two sages who lived so far apart in distance, time and cultural
background bring up the same revelation. This week i broke a couple of my own
rules to make and post these cards. My initial intention when i started posting
this series of quotes was to post only sentences by Zen figures. However,
William Blake quote is so phenomenal, that it would not fit just as note in the
commentaries of Huang Po’s quote. Therefore, here it is: Huang Po and William
Blake sharing the lime light.
Friday, October 3, 2014
The World is its own Magic
Hopes and goals motivate me to move ahead in life. However,
I am aware that hopes and goals can also drive one into a vicious cycle of dissatisfaction,
if being hopeful and determination become ends in themselves. That would cost
me a very high price; the price of not enjoying the good of living the life
that I live right now, exchanging the life that I have for a life that may
never realize. May I find a way of turning even my daily commute into a
sightseeing trip.
One of
the blessings of my art is to translate and highlight to me the magic present
in every moment, the miracle of simplicity and the miracle of ordinariness. May
I become a better artist and love the process.
Afraid
of becoming overwordly, I’ll end this comments transcribing two quotes of very well-known
poets whom the sentence on the card above reminded me.
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
- Marcel Proust
O 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
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