of the limitless sky

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

trace the stream back

 

Trace the stream back to its source.

Trace consciousness to the root 

where there is no inside or outside,

 Consciousness is,

 I am over here as the subject, 

you are all out there as objects, 

and I roll along with my life.

 But if I trace my mind back further,

 to a place closer and nearer, 

where I am no longer separating myself from objects,

 the mind turns around. 

With the backward step,

 you see the unity

 and the emptiness of separation.

Walking forward does not cease; 

walking backward does not cease.

 Walking forward does not obstruct walking backward. 

Walking backward does not obstruct walking forward. 

This is called the mountain flow and the flowing mountain.

~ Dogen

excerpts from the Mountain and Waters Sutra

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

unmoored

.

Unmoored

in midnight water,

no waves, no wind,

the empty boat

is flooded with moonlight.

~ Dogen

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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