Showing posts with label Dogen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dogen. Show all posts

Friday, December 23, 2022

every step

 
 
 
 

 
 
Treading along in this dreamlike, illusory realm,
Without looking for the traces I may have left;
A cuckoo's song beckons me to return home,
Hearing this, I tilt my head to see
Who has told me to turn back:
But do not as me where I am going,
As I travel in this limitless world,
Where every step I take is my home.
 
 
 
 
~ Dogen
 from The Zen Poetry of Dogen
 
 
 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

a small boat drifting

 

 


 

 

 In the heart of the night,
 The moonlight framing
A small boat drifting,
Tossed not by the waves
Nor swayed by the breeze. 
 
 
 
 
~ Dogen
from The Zen Poetry of Dogen
 
 

Sunday, August 14, 2022

every step my home






Treading along in this dreamlike, illusory realm,
Without looking for the traces I may have left;
A cuckoo's song beckons me to return home,
Hearing this, I tilt my head to see
Who has told me to turn back;
But do not ask me where I am going,
As I travel in this limitless world,
Where every step I take is my home.


~ Dogen
from the Zen Poetry of Dogen
art by Vladimir Kostetsky


Monday, March 8, 2021

empty as the open sky

 
 
 


 
 
 
Contemplating the clear moon
Reflecting a mind empty as the open sky -
 
Drawn by it's beauty,
I lose myself
In the shadows it casts.
 
 
 
~ Dogen
from The Zen Poetry of Dogen
 
 
 
 
 

Friday, March 5, 2021

unmoored





.

Unmoored
in midnight water,
no waves, no wind,
the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.



~ Dogen



Tuesday, November 10, 2020

impermanence








To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops, 
Shaken from a crane's bill.




~ Dogen
from The Zen Poetry of Dogen





Wednesday, March 4, 2020

leaping beyond





For fifty-four years
Following the way of heaven;
Now leaping beyond,
Shattering every barrier,
Amazing!  To cast off all attachments,
While still alive, plunging into the Yellow Springs.






~ Dogen
from the zen Poetry of Dogen
photo from NASA


Tuesday, December 3, 2019

all of a sudden






All my life perplexed by truth and falsity, right and wrong;
Now amusing myself in the moonlight,
Laughing at the wind,
Listening to the song of birds -
So many years spent idly contemplating
The immense white layer on the mountains;
This winter, all of a sudden,
I see it for the first time as a snow-mountain.



~ Dogen
from The Zen Poetry of Dogen by Steven Heine

Thursday, December 13, 2018

not anyone


Related image



The true person is
Not anyone in particular;
But, like the deep blue color
Of the limitless sky,
It is everyone, everywhere in the world.




Eihei Dogen
with thanks to poetry chaikhana

Saturday, May 6, 2017

sweep aside the dust







A small fish swallowing a big one,
Like a Buddhist priest studying the Confucian classics;
It can penetrate the entanglements of buddhas and demons,
And sweep aside the dust collecting on the Law.




~ Dogen
from the Zen Poetry of Dogen by Steven Heine

 

Sunday, December 11, 2016

in the heart of the night






In the heart of the night,
The moonlight framing
A small boat drifting,
Tossed not by the waves
Nor swayed by the breeze.


~ Dogen
from Zen poetry of Dogen

 

true person







The true person is
Not anyone in particular,
But, like the deep blue color
Of the limitless sky,
It is everyone, everywhere in the world.
 
 
 
~ Dogen
from Zen poetry of Dogen
 

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

treasury of the true dharma-eye





In the heart of the night,
The moonlight framing
A small boat drifting,
Tossed not by the waves
Nor swayed by the breeze.




~ Dogen

This is one of a series of verse composed for delivery to the shogun in Kamakura in 1247
from Zen Poetry of Dogen by Steven Heine



Friday, October 28, 2011

snow-mountain







.


All my life perplexed by truth and falsity, right and wrong;
Now amusing myself in the moonlight,
Laughing at the wind,
Listening to the songs of birds --
So many years spent idly contemplating
The immense white layer on the mountains;
This winter, all of a sudden,
I see it for the first time as a snow-mountain.





~ Dogen
english version by Steven Heine
from The Zen Poetry of Dogen
with thanks to poetry chaikhana
art by Chen Jun