Zenrin kushu is ”a text of Japanese zen, the title of which means ‘Anthology of Passages from the Forests of Zen’. This two-fascicle work was first assembled in the medieval period by the Rinzai monk Tōyō Eichi (1428-1504), but did not see publication until the 1680s. It consists of a collection of quotations from Buddhist scriptures, Zen literature such as recorded sayings of past masters, Confucian, Taoist, and other sources. Altogether, it contains some 5,000 passages, and was probably used as a study aid.”
EXTRACTS…
Nothing whatever is hidden
From of old, all is clear as daylight
There is no place to seek the mind
It is like the footprints of the birds in the sky
Sitting quietly, doing nothing
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself
If you do not get it from yourself
Where will you go for it?
The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection
The water has no mind to receive their image
Mountains and rivers, the whole earth, –
All manifest forth the essence of being
(Awakening by Sharon Cummings ~ http://fineartamerica.com/featured/awakening-zen-landscape-art-sharon-cummings.html )
In the vast inane there is no back and front
The path of the bird annihilates East and West
From of old there were not two paths
“Those who have arrived” all walked the same road
The mouth desires to speak, but the words disappear;
The heart desires to associate itself, but the thoughts fade away.
Shouldering the plank
—till death.
Cry
after cry
after cry of joy —
Not minding
the hair
turning white
To save life it must be destroyed [illusory ego]
When utterly destroyed, one dwells for the first time in peace
Entering the forest he moves not the grass
Entering the water he makes not a ripple
If you meet an enlightened man in the street
Do not greet him with words, nor with silence
Every voice
Buddha’s;
Every form
Buddha’s.
We sleep with both legs outstretched
Free of the true, free of the false
A void sky laughs
and bows.
A recent great success
in transmitting this Dharma
of freedom—
Listen to the pine winds
from ten thousand valleys
on your pillow.
Watch it and take it
right now,
Or it’s gone
for a thousand years.
Three thousand miles away—
another one
who knows.
To a man of satori
nothing happens.
One book of different possible translations of these verses is this one ~ http://terebess.hu/zen/ZenForest.pdf
I beg your pardon Sharon. I have credited the work now. It is a beautiful piece. If this is not sufficient please let me know and I will delete it.
All the best. Ananda
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Please give credit and a link to my copyright protected art titled “Awakening”. Or delete it. It is being used without permission in your blog and represents copyright infringement. Thank you. http://fineartamerica.com/featured/awakening-zen-landscape-art-sharon-cummings.html
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