While pouring my morning coffee
I hope all beings
awaken to joy
within this new day
Buddhism
wandering
A stick of incense stands by my pillow.
When the lantern dims, I pour some oil.
I add more clothes as the night deepens.
If you don’t mind my bare hospitality,
please keep wandering in.
~Ryokan (K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind)
dandelion project
All phenomena of being, since time memorial, are independent of concepts and words. Concepts and words cannot transform them or separate them from their true nature.
~The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (cited: Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys, pg. 81)
twilight bell
The twilight bell
I waited for
is sounding —
if tomorrow is granted me,
I’ll listen for it again.
~Saigyo (B Watson: Poems of a Mountain Home)
nondiscrimination
“My right hand does a lot of things–it creates calligraphy and writes poems. Nearly all my poems have been written with my right hand because I don’t use a typewriter. There was only one time when I wrote a poem on a typewriter. When inspiration came to me, I did not have a pen at hand so I just put an envelope into the typewriter, and at that time my left hand participated. All the rest of my poems were written with my right hand alone, yet my right hand never says to the left hand, ‘You, you are good for nothing! You don’t do calligraphy, you don’t write poems. I do all the work, you never do anything!’
“The body never discriminates in this way. Don’t think that this is because our bodies do not possess any inherent intelligence. While trying to hang a picture on the wall, I held the nail in my left hand and hammered with the right. But instead of hitting the nail I hit a finger on my left hand. That happens from time to time, especially if you are high up on a ladder. Immediately the right hand put down the hammer and reached over to take care of the left hand, very naturally. The feet began to move to look for a bandage. Everything worked together very smoothly. Later the right hand did not say, “Hay left hand, remember how I helped you? Next time I need something you have to come and help me.’ Our innately wise bodies do not act in that way. So the wisdom of nondiscrimination is present in us as a living bodily reality. We have to train our minds to see in this way.
We form one reality. We exist in interbeing with all of life. When we understand this fundamental truth, our acts of giving will be made in the spirit of nondiscrimination. …we can offer a smile or a loving compassionate gaze. We can give the gift of calm, concentrated presence to help someone who is fearful or anxious. We can make an offering of our time and energy and work with the homeless, or with those who are prisoners or who are addicted to different substances, or to work on helping the environment. We have plenty of gifts to offer; we are far wealthier than we may imagine. We can help secure the happiness of many people even if we don’t have a single penny in our pocket.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh, Opening the Heart of the Cosmos
black & white sunday: after and before
See and realize
that this world
is not permanent.
Neither late nor early flowers
will remain.
~Ryokan (K Tanahashi: Sky Above, Great Wind)
An early summer morning in Poudre Canyon…submitted in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge
morning sky
Chat about the snow
on Fuji’s peak–
and summer is no more
~Sanjonishi Sanetaka (S Carter, Haiku before Haiku)
“When I look at the trees in front of me, my mind does not go outside of me into the forest, nor does it open a door to let the trees in. My mind fixes on the trees, but they are not a distant object. My mind and trees are one. The trees are only one of the miraculous manifestations of the mind.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh (The Sun My Heart)
interconnected
When you look at a leaf or a raindrop, meditate on all the conditions, near and distant, that have contributed to the presence of that leaf or raindrop. Know that the world is woven of interconnected threads. This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not. This is born because that is born. This dies, because that dies.
The birth and death of any dharma are connected to the birth and death of all other dharms. The one contains the many and the many contain the one. Without the one, there cannot be the many. Without the many, there cannot be the one.
…the interconnected links consist of many layers and levels…
~Thich Nhat Hanh (Old Path White Clouds)
the mind becomes…
“To be aware is to be aware of something. When the mind settles on the mountain, it becomes the mountain. When it settles on the sea, it becomes the sea. When we say. ‘know,’ both the known and the knower are included.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh (The Sun My Heart)
I hope you enjoy hearing this amazing young man sing…
the world seems…
Is it because my mind
keeps dwelling
on every worldly thing
the the word seems
more hateful to me than ever?
~SaigyO (Poems of a Mountain Home)
SaigyO was born in 1118 in the capital city, Kyoto. When he was twenty-two he suddenly left his post as an elite private guard of Emperor Toba to become a Buddhist priest. I find it interesting how his poem written almost a thousand years ago resonates with me today especially when I think of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr’s (who was born in 1808) translated epigram, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
mind’s dreaming
In a mountain village
when I’m lost in the dark
of the mind’s dreaming
the sound of the wind
blows me to brightness.
~Saigyo (Trans: B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
try
When you are in touch with the suffering in the world, it is so easy for despair to overwhelm you. …Throughout the war in Vietnam young people easily became the victims of despair because the war went on for so long and it seemed it would never end. It is the same with the situation in the Middle East. young Israelis and Palestinians feel the heavy atmosphere of war will never end.
Animals, plants, and minerals also suffer because of the greed of human beings. The earth, the water and air are suffering because we have polluted them. The trees suffer because we destroy the forest for our own profit. Some species have become extinct because of the destruction of the natural environment. Humans also destroy and exploit one another. How can we stop ourselves from collapsing in despair?
The bodhisattva of wonderful sound, Gadgadashvara, can use music, writings and sound to awaken people. If you are a poet, a writer or a composer you can be that bodhisattva. Your artistic creations are not just to help people forget their pain momentarily but to water the seeds of awakened understanding and compassion in others. Among us are so many writers, poets and composers who are using the wonderful ocean of sound to serve the way of understanding and love…(excerpts from Thich Nhat Hanh’s No Death, No Fear)
a meditative journey 
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