Wednesday, December 18, 2013

A ZEN FOREST ~














No ugliness
    in a loved child.








No one buys water
    down by the riverside.







A dead stag
    in the field:
Grass
    wraps it.







Where no Buddha,
    the Buddha works.






 
Hide yourself
    —within the North Star.







Better see his face
    than hear his name.







He dies,
    I die —
Where can we
    meet?







 

Jump out of the world
    of Satori!







Great skill looks
    like clumsiness.







Hide yourself in
    each and every thing!







Sprinkling piss
    on sacred soil.







A three-foot staff
    stirs
        the Yellow River.







The mountain is high:
    the moon, late.








High mountains,
    running water —
I'm waiting for
    the one who knows.







A withered tree
    meets spring no more.







Clouds gone,
    the mountain shows.







Shouldering the plank
    —till death.








 
A dumb man has eaten
    a bitter cucumber.







I've seen through you
    already.












compiled by bob arnold


 _______________________

 translated by Soiku Shigematsu
foreword by Gary Snyder
from A ZEN FOREST
Sayings of the Masters
(Weatherhill 1981)


oxherding illustrations by Gyokusen