易

The Past has passed away.

The Future has not arrived.

The Present does not remain.

Nothing is reliable; everything must change.

We are holding on to letters and names in vain, forcing ourselves to believe in them.

Let us stop chasing new knowledge.

Let us leave old views behind.

Let us study the essential and then see through it.

When there is nothing left to see through, then we will know our mistaken views.

Great is the robe of liberation, a formless field of benefaction.

Buddhas have authentically transmitted it.

Ancestors have intimately received it.

Beyond wide, beyond narrow, beyond cloth, beyond threads; maintain it thus, then you are called a keeper of the robe.

― 良寛大愚, Ryōkan Taigu (1758–1831)

“良寛大愚, Ryōkan Taigu & 貞心尼が, Nun Teishin” by 安田 靫彦, Yasuda Yukihiro

A bent ritual stick

                Don’t liken it to a tile or pebble.
                Don’t even compare it to a jewel.
                It is as rare as a black dragon’s horn,
                as vital as a blue elephant’s trunk.
                It supports a dharma talk on an autumn evening,
                keeps me company as I sleep on a spring afternoon.
                Although useless for dusting,
                it purifies the heart of the way.
               
                Past has passed away.
                Future has not arrived.
                Present does not remain.
                Nothing is reliable; everything must change.
                You hold on to letters and names in vain,
                forcing yourself to believe in them.
                Stop chasing new knowledge.
                Leave old views behind.
                Study the essential
                and then see through it.
                When there is nothing left to see through,
                then you will know your mistaken views.
                 
                Great is the robe of liberation,
                a formless field of benefaction.
                Buddhas have authentically transmitted it.
                Ancestors have intimately received it.
                Beyond wide, beyond narrow,
                beyond cloth, beyond threads;
                maintain it thus,
                then you are called a keeper of the robe.
                 
                What was right yesterday
                is wrong today.
                In what is right today,
                how do you know it was not wrong yesterday?
                There is no right or wrong,
                no predicting gain or loss.
                Unable to change their tune,
                those who are foolish glue down bridges of a lute.
                Those who are wise get to the source
                but keep wandering about for long.
                Only when you are neither wise nor foolish
                can you be called one who has attained the way.
                 
                You see the moon by pointing your finger.
                You recognize the finger by the moon.
                The moon and the finger
                are not different, not the same.
                In order to guide a beginner,
                this analogy is temporarily used.
                When you have realized this,
                there is no moon, no finger.
                 
                When Zhaozhou asks, “Yes?” I say, “Yes.”
                When he asks, “No?” I say, “No.”
                When you ask, “Yes?” I say nothing.
                When you ask, “No?” I say nothing.
                When you ask, “How is it so?”
                still I say nothing.
                 
                If someone asks
                about the mind of this monk,
                say it is no more than
                a passage of wind
                in the vast sky.
                 
                In an autumn field,
                hundreds of grasses
                burst into bloom.
                Kneeling down,
                a male deer cries.

― 良寛大愚, Ryōkan Taigu (1758–1831)

a quiet and unconventional 曹洞宗, Sōtō-shū 禅 Zen Buddhist monk