Chan (Zen) Buddhist Poetry, Sayings, Quotes, Verses, Koans

Chan (Zen) Buddhism
Poetry, Sayings, Quotes, Verses, Quips, Koans, Poems

Selected Quotations

Does your room really have a view,
Or even a window to look through?
All I want is for you to look inside of you.
Don't be afraid to walk through the door.
Believe it or not, you've opened it.

Who speaks the sound of an echo?
Who paints the image in a mirror?
Where are the spectacles in a dream?
Nowhere at all -- that's the nature of mind!

A yellow flower
(Light and spirit)
Sings by itself
For nobody.

A golden spirit
(Light and emptiness)
Sings without a word
By itself.

               Mountain fruit drop in the rain
               and grass insects sing under my oil lamp.
               White hair, after all, can never change
               as yellow gold cannot be created.
               If you want to know how to get rid
               of age, its sickness, study nonbeing.

One thing, all things:
move among and intermingle,
without distinction.
To live in this realization
is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.
To live in this faith is the road to non-duality,
Because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.

A serving of snow in a silver bowl,
Or herons concealed in the glare of the moon
Apart, they seem similar, together, they're different.
Meaning cannot rest in words,
It adapts itself to that which arises.
Tremble and you're lost in a trap,
Miss and there's always regrets.

           Crape myrtle, brilliant red, bursting forth;
               Hiding the garden.
               Some days, only the Garden, entire, serene;
               Yet, hiding from sight, shy, single plants.
               Seeing Both, seldom, but as One:
               Sweat poured from my startled brow,
               Dripping on the dry earth,
               And all became Sunshine
               And shadows of surprise unraveling.

Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficulty and ease bring about each other.
Long and short delimit each other.
High and low rest on each other.
Sound and voice harmonize each other.
Front and back follow each other.

Therefore the sage abides in the condition of unattached action.
And carries out the wordless teaching.
Here, the myriad things are made, yet not separated.

Past mind can't be grasped,
Present mind can't be grasped,
Future mind can't be grasped.
With which mind will you drink this tea?

Dust and sand in his eyes, dirt in his ears,
He doesn't consent to stay in the myriad peaks.
Falling flowers, flowing streams, very vast.
Suddenly raising my eyebrows - where has he gone?

        For such as, reflecting within themselves,
        Testify to the truth of Self-nature,
        To the truth that Self-nature is no-nature,
        They have really gone beyond the ken of sophistry.
        For them opens the gate of the oneness of cause and effect,
        And straight runs the path of non-duality and non-trinity.
        Abiding with the not-particular which is in particulars,
        Whether going or returning, they remain for ever unmoved;
        Taking hold of the not-thought which lies in thoughts,
        In every act of theirs they hear the voice of the truth.

"I you want to follow the doctrine of the One,
Do not rage against the World of the Senses.
Only by accepting the World of the Senses
Can you share in the True Perception."
- Seng-ts'an

One is all; all are one.
When you realize this,
what reason for holiness or wisdom?
The mind of absolute trust
is beyond all thought, all striving,
is perfectly at peace, for in it
there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow.

- Sent-Ts'an, The Mind of Absolute Trust
Translated by Stephen Mitchell,
The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry

The deepest words
of the wise man teach us
the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows
or the sound of the water when it is flowing.

- Antonio Machado (1875-1939)
The Enlightened Heart, Edited by Stephen Mitchell, p. 129

"Zen poetry is based on the simple idea that self-contemplation is the key
to understanding the universe. The subject and form of Zen poems must
embody the teachings of the Buddha and demonstrate an intellectual skill
beyond that demonstrated in an orthodox poetic subject.

While forms such as Buddhist poetry demand the poet writes solely
about Buddhist subjects, the poem may have any subject, so long as
it can be suffused with the spirit of Zen. The basic formula of a Zen
poem follows seven principles: asymmetry, simplicity, agedness,
naturalness, latency, unconventionality and quietness."

                   Hearing a crow with no mouth
                   Cry in the deep
                   Darkness of the night,
                   I feel a longing for
                   My father before he was born.

- A Zen Harvest: Japanese Folk Zen Sayings, p. 147
Compiled and translated by Soiku Shigematsu

In studying ourselves,
we find the harmony
that is our total existence.
We do not make harmony.
We do not achieve it or gain it.
It is there all the time.
Here we are, in the midst of this perfect way,
and our practice is simply to realize it and then
to actualize it
in our everyday life.

                Great is the robe of liberation,
                the robe of no form, the field of happiness!
                I wear the Tathagata's teaching
                to awaken countless beings.

- Zen Master Dogen, 1200 - 1253
Enlightenment Unfolds, Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi, p. 95

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

Even plants and trees,
Which have no heart,
Wither with the passing days;
Beholding this,
Can anyone help but feel chagrin?

Do not stray from "Walking is Ch'an, sitting is Ch'an!"
Essentially at ease whether talking or remaining silent, moving or staying still.
It is serene even when greeted with sharp weapons,
And is not worried about poisons.

It cannot be grasped, nor let go of,
But, if you do neither,
It goes its own way.
If you remain silent, it will speak.
Speak and it is silent.

We all sat in silence. This guy walks onto the stage and up to the microphone.
He adjusts his glasses. This is him, D. T. Suzuki, we've seen pictures of him before,
but he looks smaller. He reaches out and taps the mike. A hollow ping sounds
though the hall. He says: "Zen Buddhism, Very hard to understand. Thank you."
Then he walked off the stage.
- A story told by Jonathan Greenlee about a a visit by D. T. Suzuki to UCLA.

But whatever you do,
Do not hold on to the open mind;
For in doing so,
You will close it.
Abandon control;
The more you force it,
The more you remove yourself from it.
If it cannot come naturally,
Be open-minded about it and accept it;
Then the mind will open on it's own,
Without you obstructing it.
- By Anders Honore
Perceiving Mind

              For thirty years I have been in search of the swordsman;
                Many a time have I watched the leaves decay
                           and the branches shoot!
                Ever since I saw for once the peaches in bloom,
                Not a shadow of doubt do I cherish.

                            - Ling-Y�n and the Peach Blossoms
                                       D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, 1953, 2nd Series, p. 145,

Awakening,
         I hear the truth--
          gray rain on clay.

                                                           -   Michael P. Garofalo, Above the Fog

The Buddha Mind contains the universe.
In this universe there is only one pure substance,
One absolute and indivisible Truth.
The notion of duality does not exist.
The small mind contains only illusions of separateness, of division.
It imagines myriad objects and defines truth in terms of relative opposites.
Big is defined by small, good by evil, pure by defiled,
Hidden by revealed, full by empty.
What is opposition?
It is the arena of hostility, of conflict and turmoil.
Where duality is transcended peace reigns.
This is the Dharma�s ultimate truth.

-   Maxims of Master Han Shan Te'Ch'ing, # 76, 1600
    Journey to Dreamland
    Translated by Grandmaster Jy Din Shakya

How long had Ryoanji been there? You must have asked --
but there is no remembrance, just the rocks
and the gravel and the wall
and the very great silence,
the rootedness of deep meditation,
the weight of the rocks and the trees of this earth,
as if their roots grew right down through your heart...
- Jan Haag, Ryoanji Zen Garden

Long ago there was an immortal man
Who lived on the slope of Shooting Mountain.
Riding clouds and commanding flying dragons,
He did his breathing and supped on precious flowers.
He could be heard, but not seen.
Sighing sorrows and full emotions,
Self-tortured, he had no companion;
Grief and heartbreak piled upon him
"Study the familiar to penetrate the sublime"
But time is short and what's to be done?

My heart accepts its karma. In the end
The loss, defeat, and failure time may send
Can clear the way within to Buddhahood,
Which from the start foresaw and understood
That all things as they are, with no rejection,
Before the mind can judge them bad or good,
Are even now the Land of Pure Perfection.

The round pearl has no hollows,
The great raw gem isn't polished.
What is esteemed by people of the Way is having no edges.
Removing the road of agrement, senses and matter are empty.
The free body, resting on nothing, stand out unique and alive.

Do not go after the past,
Nor lose yourself in the future.
For the past no longer exists,
And the future is not yet here.
By looking deeply at things just as they are,
In this moment, here and now,
The seeker lives calmly and freely.
You should be attentive today,
For waiting until tomorrow is too late.
Death can come and take us by surprise--
How can we gainsay it?
The one who knows
How to live attentively
Night and day
Is the one who knows
The best way to be independent.
- Bhaddekaratta Sutra
In the Pocket Buddha Reader, edited by Anne Bancroft

Few people believe their
Inherent mind is Buddha.
Most will not take this seriously,
And therefore are cramped.
They are wrapped up in illusions, cravings,
Resentments, and other afflictions,
All because they love the cave of ignorance.
- Fenyang

To be able to be unhurried when hurried;
To be able not to slack off when relaxed;
To be able not to be frightened
And at a loss loss for what to do,
When frightened at at a loss;
This is the learning that returns us
To our natural state and transforms our lives.
- Liu Wenmin

Poetry Notebook III of Mike Garofalo
Zen Poetry: Selected Quotations V
Available on the Net since January, 2000.