Voyage of Discovery
What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.
~ Thomas Merton
Sun, Moon, Truth
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth.
~ Buddha
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon, within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.
A gentle wind fans the calm night;
A bright moon shines on the high tower.
A voice whispers, but no one answers when I call:
A shadow stirs, but no one comes when I beckon.
The kitchen man brings in a dish of lentils:
Wine is there, but I do not fill my cup.
Contentment with poverty is fortune’s best gift:
Riches and Honour are the handmaids of Disaster.
Though gold and gems by the world are sought and prized,
To me they seem no more than weeds or chaff.
This dharma as it has been directly entrusted
by buddha ancestors.
Now that you have realized it
you must guard it mindfully.
Snow heaped in a silver bowl,
a heron fading into the bright moon.
Similar but unequal.
Place them side by side
and you will see which is which.
The meaning is not in words.
Inquiring students seek further.
Moving forward creates pitfalls.
Avoidance leads to a standstill.
Faced with a great wall of fire,
turning your back on it and touching it are both wrong.
Expressing it in colorful words
only stains it.
Midnight is bright,
dawn brings no dew.
Things are truth itself
to be used for removing delusion.
This is not created
and yet not inexpressible.
As form and image face each other
in a bright mirror,
you are not it
but it is you.
It is like a baby
perfectly possessing five freedoms:
Not coming, not going,
not rising, not staying…
And goo goo wa wa –
words that are not words.
In the end nothing is grasped
because speech is not precise.
In the double-split hexagrams
the particular and the general integrate.
When the lines are closed they become three,
and its final change makes five.
A blade of zhi grass has five flavors,
A vajra has five points.
Within the general, something marvelous lies.
Drumming and singing go together.
Penetrating the source, penetrating the paths.
Here is a short path, here is a long path.
If you miss it, that’s a good sign.
Don’t neglect it.
What is natural and inconceivable
belongs neither to delusion nor enlightenment.
Causes and conditions right at this moment
shine completely in silence.
So minute that it penetrates any space.
So enormous that it exceeds all bounds.
The slightest difference
puts it out of tune.
Because the basic teachings of sudden and gradual
have been set up,
the Zen school has become divided.
These ways have become standard.
Even though you master such teachings
the truth keeps on escaping.
You may sit still but waver inside –
a tied up horse, or a cowering rat.
The Ancient Teacher pitied us
and transmitted the dharma.
Because of our delusions
we say black is white.
When delusions disappear
understanding reveals itself.
If you wish to conform to the old ways,
take a lesson from the past.
People trying to attain the buddha way
by gazing for ten eons at a tree
are like a tiger with tattered ears
or a hobbled horse.
A greedy mind sees
rare treasures.
A surprised mind sees
raccoons and white bulls.
Legendary bowman Yi with his skill
shoots the mark a hundred paces away.
When arrowheads meet head-on,
is it only a matter of skill?
Right when a wooden man sings
a stone woman gets up and dances.
It’s not within the reach of knowledge
nor does it admit ideas.
Retainers serve their lord;
children obey their father.
Without obedience there is no respect;
without service there is no civic virtue.
Conceal your practice, work inside.
Be ignorant, look foolish.
Just keep on doing it.
This is called host with host.
Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water.
Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.
COMPOSED OR SUGGESTED DURING A TOUR
IN THE SUMMER OF 1833
XLIII. THE MONUMENT COMMONLY CALLED LONG MEG
AND HER DAUGHTERS, NEAR THE RIVER EDEN
A WEIGHT of awe, not easy to be borne,
Fell suddenly upon my Spirit–cast
From the dread bosom of the unknown past,
When first I saw that family forlorn.
Speak Thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn
The power of years–pre-eminent, and placed
Apart, to overlook the circle vast–
Speak, Giant-mother! tell it to the Morn
While she dispels the cumbrous shades of Night;
Let the Moon hear, emerging from a cloud;
At whose behest uprose on British ground
That Sisterhood, in hieroglyphic round
Forth-shadowing, some have deemed, the infinite
The inviolable God, that tames the proud!