day after day I let things go

.

33

Day after day I let things go

why worry about tomorrow today

the four afflictions are hard to predict

wealth and honor don't last

lakeside villas are swallowed by vines

streamside trails disappear into weeds

such things are easy for all to see

but no one is willing to look

34

A white-haired monk afflicted with age 

living under thatch year after year

I've exhausted my life on simple passions

my movements all spring from the sacred mind

when birds don't come the mountain is quiet

ten thousand pines keep it dark green

from the kalpa of nothingness it's clear

a miraculous light still shines.

35

What can you say about profit and fame

to a solitary untroubled mountain monk

weeds of delusion don't grow in the mind 

where flowers of wisdom bloom

bamboo shoots and fiddleheads blanket the slopes

dust seldom falls on moss-covered ground

I was over thirty when I first arrived

how many sunsets have turned my windows red

36

I was a Zen monk who didn't know Zen

so I chose the woods for the years I had left

a patched robe over my body

braided bamboo around my waist

mountain shade and stream light explain the Patriarch's meaning

flower smiles and bird songs reveal the hidden key

sometimes I sit on flat- topped rocks

cloudfree afternoons once a month

~ Stonehouse

translated by Red Pine

art by Huang Kung-wang (1269-1354)

Stonehouse was born in 1272 in the town of Changshu, not far from where the Yantze empties into the East China Sea.  He took his name from a cave at the edge of town.  The cave was on Yushan, which was named for Yu Chung-wei, whose nephew founded the Chou dynasty in North China around 1100 BC.  Yushan is also known for its pine trees, its rock formations, and its springs, in particular a spring that flows out of a cave as big as a house.  Locals call the cave Shihwutung, or "Stonehouse Cave."

from the introduction to "The Zen Works of Stonehouse"

by Red Pine (Bill Porter)