The Way doesn't rise or fall

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19

The Way doesn't rise or fall

those who are blind look for an advantage

sages and wise men escape from this world

where counterfeit truth prevails

rein in your senses don't indulge them

be ever mindful and nothing else

lose your body beneath a patched robe

and say good-bye to a thousand rebirths

 

 

21

A life lasts one hundred years

but which of us gets them all

precarious as a teetering thatched hut

or a leaking boat in a storm

mediocre monks are pathetic

would-be masters are sadder still

the world's empty ways aren't what they were

some days I shut my old gate tight

 

 

22

Green mist red clouds a trail through bamboo

and a hut where quiet lasts

just let go and worries end

stop to think and the mind reappears

an unpolished mirror holds millions of shapes

a bell doesn't ring until it is rung

our original nature is the real buddha

nothing solid or empty nothing old or new

 

 

23

A monk in the wild sits quiet and relaxed 

he survives all year on what karma brings

bamboo and yellow flowers occupy his thoughts

white clouds and streams simplify his life

he doesn't mistake a rock for a tiger on a hill

or the image of a bow for a snake in a bowl

in the woods he knows nothing of the world's affairs

at sunset he watches the crows return

 

 

 

~ Stonehouse

from "The Zen Works of Stonehouse"

Book One: Mountain Poems

translated by Red Pine

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