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  1. #1

    Zen Poems Thread

    I thought I would start a thread for Zen/Buddhist poems. Or simply poems that touch you or your practice deeply. Or maybe a poem of your own.
    This has always been one that has stuck with me for many many years:

    Maple leaf
    Falling down
    Showing front
    Showing back
    -Ryokan, Japanese Zen poet

    Gassho
    Bobby
    Last edited by Kaiku; 05-28-2014 at 02:42 AM.

  2. #2
    It is present everywhere.
    There is nothing it does not contain.
    However only those who have
    planted wisdom-seeds will be able
    to continuously see it.”

    - Dogen


    Gassho,
    Myosha
    Last edited by Myosha; 02-04-2014 at 09:34 AM.
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  3. #3
    This is one of my favourites. I copied it down in my to do notebook where I log the day's jobs and some random thoughts. I forgot to copy down the author, but I think it's Ryokan Daigu

    How many times since I came to this place
    Have I seen the leaves green and then gold?
    Wrapped by vines, the old trees have turned dark,
    The bamboo have grown tall even in the valley's shade.
    My staff has rotten from the night rain
    My robe frayed from years of wind and frost.

    In the vast silence of the universe,
    For whom do I meditate
    Each day and night?



    Gassho, Ben
    Gassho
    Ben

  4. #4
    Lovely idea for a thread, Bobby.

    I am currently reading The Selected Poems of Li Po. This is one of his:

    Alone, searching for blue-lotus roofs,
    I set out from city gates. Soon, frost

    clear, Tung-lin temple bells call out,
    Hu Creek's moon bright in pale water.

    Heaven's fragrance everywhere pure
    emptiness, heaven's music endless,

    I sit silent. It's still, the entire Buddha-
    realm in a hair's-breadth, mind-depths

    all bottomless clarity, in which vast
    kalpas begin and end out of nowhere.


    I love that one of Ryokan's too, Ben.


    Gassho
    Kokuu/Andy

  5. #5
    The sound of maple leaves falling
    in this mountain village
    makes it hard to tell
    a rainy day from one that is not.

    - Ryokan

    Gassho
    Genshin (Matt)

  6. #6
    Really have to get a book of Ryokan's poems. Great thread idea Bobby. Here's a few I was putting together on the Three Marks of Existence:

    Anicca:
    Dawn breaks, horizon caressed
    The sun sits high over head
    Sinking low birds start to call
    Silence settles and night falls

    Anatta:
    "I am just a tree."
    To view thus just delusion -
    I am the forest

    Dukkha:
    To not cling to the noon day sun
    To not push from the coming night
    As the trees fall, the forest departs
    To view as such brings peace into life

    Gassho, John


  7. #7
    Some lovely stuff.
    Deep bows
    Myozan

  8. #8
    I love this quote from the Waters and Mountains Sutra by Dogen:

    "Understand the meaning of gives birth to a child. At the moment of giving birth to a child, is the mother separate from the child? Study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child. This is to actualize giving birth in practice-realization. Study and investigate this thoroughly."

    Gassho, Jishin

  9. #9
    Not strictly Zen (he was a Jodo Shinshu priest), but this is one of my favorite Issa poems.

    A new year--
    the same nonsense
    piled on nonsense.

    -Kobayashi Issa

    Gassho,
    Zac
    However much we become enlightened, it is not very much.
    Rupan shunyata shunyataiva rupan

  10. #10
    Wonderful everyone.

    Gassho
    Bobby
    Just Sit

  11. #11
    crossing long fields
    frozen in its saddle
    my shadow creeps by
    - Basho

    favorite bicycle-ride poem


    Gassho,
    Myosha
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  12. #12
    Grains of white rice held by a black bowl
    Soft matter of the brain cradled by the bowl of the skull
    The open sky fills and flows
    Over the bowl of branches held
    Up by leafless trees.

    Anzan Hoshin
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  13. #13
    Ring the bells that still can ring
    Forget your perfect offering
    There is a crack in everything
    That's how the light gets in

    L. Cohen ('92)
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  14. #14
    The moon reflected
    In a mind clear
    As still water:
    Even the waves, breaking,
    Are reflecting its light. - Dogen (on zazen)


    Gassho,
    Myosha
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  15. #15
    in blossoming trees
    suddenly he's hidden...
    my son
    - Issa
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  16. #16
    Treeleaf Unsui Shugen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Redding California USA
    But it is the dark emptiness contained
    in every next moment that seems to me
    the most singularly glorious gift,
    that void which one is free to fill
    with processions of men bearing burning
    cedar knots or with parades of blue horses,
    belled and ribboned and stepping sideways,
    with tumbling white-faced mimes or companies
    of black-robed choristers; to fill simply
    with hammered silver teapots or kiln-dried
    crockery, tangerine and almond custards,
    polonaises, polkas, whittling sticks, wailing
    walls; that space large enough to hold all
    invented blasphemies and pieties, 10,000
    definitions of god and more, never fully
    filled, never.
    - Pattiann Rogers
    from The Greatest Grandeur
    Firekeeper


    Gassho,


    Shugen
    Meido Shugen
    明道 修眼

  17. #17
    Gassho
    Is a small,
    Sitting Buddha.
    求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
    I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

  18. #18
    Do not stand at my grave and weep
    Mary Elizabeth Frye

    Do not stand at my grave and weep,
    I am not there, I do not sleep.
    I am in a thousand winds that blow,
    I am the softly falling snow.
    I am the gentle showers of rain,
    I am the fields of ripening grain.
    I am in the morning hush,
    I am in the graceful rush
    Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
    I am the starshine of the night.
    I am in the flowers that bloom,
    I am in a quiet room.
    I am in the birds that sing,
    I am in each lovely thing.
    Do not stand at my grave and cry;
    I am not there, I did not die.


    Gassho,
    Myosha
    Last edited by Myosha; 03-11-2014 at 08:07 PM.
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  19. #19
    Written on Mount Koya as I was walking through the forest and its eery graveyard :

    endless retreat
    he cannot even complain

    a stone Buddha


    Gassho

    T.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Taigu View Post
    Written on Mount Koya as I was walking through the forest and its eery graveyard :

    endless retreat
    he cannot even complain

    a stone Buddha


    Gassho

    T.
    Beautiful. 😄

  21. #21
    Two poems from many years ago:

    Endless is my vow
    under the azure sky
    boundless autumn

    -Soen Nakagawa Roshi

    reading that for the first time I replied:

    This beginningless vow
    falls with the universe
    late winter snowstorm

    Gassho,
    Arnold

  22. #22
    "He cannot even complain", really great Rev. Taigu.

  23. #23
    A poem by W. H. Auden quoted in a Book of Joko Beck Sensei:

    We would rather be ruined than changed,
    We would rather die in our dread
    Than climb the cross of the moment
    And let our illusions die.

    Gassho
    Senryu
    Please forgive any mistake in my writing. Like in Zen, in English I am only a beginner.

  24. #24
    Quick now, here, now, always -
    A condition of complete simplicity
    (Costing not less than everything)

    T.S. Eliot
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  25. #25
    I came across a collection of Japanese death poems or jisei.

    In the death poem or jisei, the essential idea was that at one's final moment of life, one's reflection on death (one's own usually but also death in general) could be especially lucid and meaningful and therefore also constituted an important observation about life. The poem was considered a gift to one's loved ones, students, and friends. The tradition began with zen monks.

    __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________________

    Inhale, exhale

    Forward, back
    Living, dying:
    Arrows, let flown each to
    each
    Meet midway and slice
    The void in aimless flight
    --
    Thus I return to the
    source.

    -
    Gesshu Soko, died January 10, 1696, at age 79

    __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________________

    The truth embodied in the
    Buddhas
    Of the future, present,
    past;
    The teaching we received
    from the
    Fathers of our faith
    Can be found at the tip of
    my stick.

    -
    Goku Kyonen, died October 8, 1272, at age 56

    The story goes that when Goku felt that his death was close, he gathered his monk disciples around him. Sitting up, he gave the floor a single tap, said the above poem, raised his stick, tapped the floor again, cried, "See! See!" Then, sitting upright, he died.

    __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _____________

    I pondered Buddha's teaching
    a full four and eighty years.
    The gates are all now
    locked about me.
    No one was ever here -
    Who then is he about to die,
    and why lament for nothing?
    Farewell!
    The night is clear,
    the moon shines calmly,
    the wind in the pines
    is like a lyre's song.
    With no I and no other
    who hears the sound?

    -
    Zoso Royo died on the fifth day of the sixth month, 1276, at 84

    __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________________

    Shinsui, died September 9, 1769, at 49:

    During his last moment, Shisui's disciples requested that he write a death poem. He grasped his brush, painted a circle, cast the brush aside, and died. The circle— indicating the void, the essence of everything, enlightenment.

    Attachment 1697
    Just Sit

  26. #26
    Myogen Steven Stucky, who left this visible world in December due to pancreatic cancer, left us this penned hours before his death ...

    DEATH POEM

    This human body truly is the entire cosmos
    Each breath of mine, is equally one of yours, my darling
    This tender abiding in "my" life
    Is the fierce glowing fire of inner earth
    Linking with all pre-phenomena
    Flashing to the distant horizon
    From "right here now" to "just this"
    Now the horizon itself
    Drops away—
    Bodhi!
    Svaha.

    Myogen
    12/27/13


    Nine Bows, J
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  27. #27
    Gassho Myogen
    求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
    I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

  28. #28
    Planning Tomorrow, Living Now

    Clicking keys, dimming light
    Dark blue sky, nearly night
    Feet on floor, subtle peace
    Humming air, glowing screen
    Breathing in, breathing out
    Beating heart, stilling doubt
    Purring cat, panting dog
    Writing down tomorrow's log

    Gassho, John

  29. #29
    As a lamp, a cataract, a star in space,
    an illusion, a dewdrop, a bubble,
    a dream, a cloud, a flash of lightening,
    view all created things like this.

    Diamond Sutra
    (Red Pine translation)
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  30. #30
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  31. #31
    Eishuu
    Guest
    What a lovely thread... really like the Hakuin monkey poem. Here is one of my favourites by Ryokan:


    The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away,
    and the weather is clear again.
    If your heart is pure, then all things in your world
    are pure.
    Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself,
    Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the
    way.


    Gassho
    Lucy

  32. #32
    A bird in a secluded grove sings like a flute.
    Willows sway gracefully with their golden threads.
    The mountain valley grows the quieter as the clouds return.
    A breeze brings along the fragrance of the apricot flowers.
    For a whole day I have sat here encompassed by peace,
    Till my mind is cleansed in and out of all cares and idle thought
    I wish to tell you how I feel, but words fail me.
    If you come to this grove, we can compare notes.

    Ch'an master Fa-yen (法眼Hõgen) (The Golden Age of Zen 238, 321 n.31)
    Just Sit

  33. #33
    “Where there are humans,

    You'll find flies,

    And Buddhas.”

    ― Kobayashi Issa


    Gassho,
    Myosha
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  34. #34
    Eishuu
    Guest
    Wild Geese

    You do not have to be good.
    You do not have to walk on your knees
    for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
    You only have to let the soft animal of your body
    love what it loves.
    Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
    Meanwhile the world goes on.
    Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
    are moving across the landscapes,
    over the prairies and the deep trees,
    the mountains and the rivers.
    Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
    are heading home again.
    Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
    the world offers itself to your imagination,
    calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
    over and over announcing your place
    in the family of things.

    -Mary Oliver

  35. #35
    We meet only to part,
    Coming and going like white clouds,
    Leaving traces so faint
    Hardly a soul notices.

    -----------------------------------------

    I’m so aware
    That it’s all unreal:
    One by one, the things
    Of this world pass on.
    But why do I still grieve?

    -both by Ryokan
    Just Sit

  36. #36
    Thank you, Bobby. Lovely
    求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
    I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

  37. #37
    Eishuu
    Guest
    Like the little stream
    Making its way
    Through the mossy crevices
    I, too, quietly
    Turn clear and transparent

    -Ryokan

  38. #38
    O Snail,
    Climb Mount Fuji
    But slowly, slowly!

    Issa
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  39. #39
    Like tangled hair,
    The circular delusion
    Of beginning and end,
    When straightened out,
    A dream no longer.
    -Dogen (translated by Steven Heine)

    Lots of wisdom in this thread!

    Gassho,
    Heion


  40. #40
    Lovely, Heion. The first line reminds me of this poem by Izumi Shikibu (974-1034):
    Lying alone,
    my black hair tangled,
    uncombed,
    I long for the one
    who touched it first.


    Gassho
    Andy

  41. #41
    Space

    Who am I?
    Sitting alone,
    facing a wall.
    Cyber space in the Milky Way blue.
    Disconnected modem connected to all.
    Nothing but star dust,
    we return to that
    which we never were.

    -Unknown
    Last edited by Kaiku; 04-27-2014 at 04:08 AM.
    Just Sit

  42. #42
    I don't stop moving all daylong
    before sunset I'm done
    back home I wash off my feet and sleep
    too tired to notice the mountain moon's passage
    birds wake me up from a distant grove
    the red sun's disc shines through the pines
    today and tomorrow don't differ
    the years are all the same.

    -Stone house


    Gassho,
    Myosha
    Last edited by Myosha; 05-05-2014 at 07:14 PM. Reason: correct duplicate
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  43. #43
    For the time-being
    Words scatter. . .
    Are they fallen leaves?

    Ruth Ozeki
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  44. #44
    Gassho


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  45. #45
    Snow
    falls on snow-
    silence

    Santoka

  46. #46

    Zen Poems Thread

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

    Basho


  47. #47
    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.

  48. #48
    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.

  49. #49
    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
    Just Sit

  50. #50
    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-?)
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

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