abandon

.

.

The rain has stopped,

the clouds have drifted away,

and the weather is clear again.

If your heart is pure,

then all things in your world are pure.

Abandon this fleeting world,

abandon yourself,

then the moon and the flowers

will guide you along the way.

.

~ Ryokan

photo by  Hideyuki Katagiri

thanks to http://dhammanovice.tumblr.com/

.

quietly

.

.

I sit quietly, listening to the falling leaves--

A lonely hut, a life of renunciation ...

.

and

.

this hut of sticks,

flimsy as the world itself.

.

~ Ryokan

.

My hermitage

.

.

My hermitage lies in a forest all around me,

Everything is thick and green

no one finds this place,

Only those who have lost their way.

.

No news of the affairs of men

Only the occasional song of a woodcutter.

.

A thousand peaks, ten thousand mountain streams

yet no signs of anyone.

.

~ Ryokan

art by Cezanne

.

transparent

.

.

When all thoughts 

Are exhausted

I slip into the woods

And gather

A pile of shepherd's purse.

.

Like the little stream

Making its way

Through the mossy crevices

I, too, quietly

Turn clear and transparent.

.

~ Ryokan

photo by Jack Spencer

.

at night

.

at night,

deep in the mountains,

I breathe...

everything is still,

all thoughts emptied

into the night.

my robe has become

a garment of frost.

suddenly, above the

highest peak,

the full moon appears.

.

~ Ryokan

.

The flower invites the butterfly

.

.

The flower invites the butterfly with no-mind;

The butterfly visits the flower with no-mind.

The flower opens, the butterfly comes;

The butterfly comes, the flower opens.

I don’t know others,

Others don’t know me.

By not-knowing 

we follow nature’s course

.

~ Ryokan

.