Archive for November, 2000

Original Face is the reality of realities:
Stretch your hand to the winging bird.
Vertical nose, horizontal eyes – and then?
What if your mind is empty?
- Tokugaku (15th Century)

If you have not
Linked yourself
To true emptiness,
You will never understand.
- Morihei Ueshiba

The moonlight
High in the sky,
Shining through the eves,
Falls on a mind
Undisturbed by what
Might have been.

- Rikyu

Truth is perfect and complete in itself.
It is not something newly discovered;
It has always existed.
Truth is not far away.
It is nearer than near.
There is no need to attain it,
Since not one of your steps leads away from it.

- Dogen

Deep in the mountains,
on an isolated peak,
I live on my own in a stand of pines.

In a simple hut,
I sit meditating without concerns,
silent and alone, dwelling peacefully, lighthearted.

Once you’ve awakened,
it’s done:
no effort needed.

- Yung-chia (d.713)