Poems of Dogen

[Dogensoto]

Just to add, Dogen's own teacher in China taught the power of the present moment, even as the only moment, yet this did not mean that there is no future result from practice.

For each moment the ultimate is immanent in things insofar as they demonstrate or reflect ultimate truth, but such truth is the truth of impermanence (Hee-Jin Kim)

Hee-Jin Kim adds that there is eternal truth and any ephemeral circumstance can demonstrate it to us, but we cannot grasp it as a concept. It can grasp us, but we can never grasp it in any final way.

It all makes me feel a bit dizzy. Sometimes I think that we must have a good sense of humour, especially to be able to genuinely laugh at ourselves.

[Miss Hepburn]

Coming, going, the waterbirds
don't leave a trace
don't follow a path

[sky]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Coming, going, the waterbirds
don't leave a trace
don't follow a path

Love it, short and sweet yet so deep....

[Joe Mc]

Hopefully I can post this here without interrupting the theme of the thread. If not, I can post it in the 'Zen Anybody' thread.
Well I 'stumbled' on this one, to borrow Dogensoto's phrase, this morning. It is a stunning teaching and it is so strikingly beautiful.
/\ So profound. Hope you listen.

Nothing Special (ZEN: Right Practice) by Shunryu Suzuki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRjIo_baQAk&t=306s

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[Dogensoto]

Originally Posted by sky

Love it, short and sweet yet so deep....

Yes, invokes the heart of Dogen's essay/sermon "Uji" or Being/Time. Being is time, time is Being. Time does not just fly by!

[Miss Hepburn]

In spring wind
peach blossoms
begin to come apart.
Doubts do not grow
branches and leaves.

Dogen

[sky]

Originally Posted by Dogensoto

Yes, invokes the heart of Dogen's essay/sermon "Uji" or Being/Time. Being is time, time is Being. Time does not just fly by!

Yes there's different ways of looking at it... To me it's referring to freedom from a fixed mind with all it's attachments....

[Dogensoto]

Originally Posted by sky

Yes there's different ways of looking at it.

That is the beauty of Reality.

Another Dogen poem written, according to Steven Heine, as expositions of Mahayana teaching.

Petals of the peach blossom
Unfolding in the spring breeze,
Sweeping aside all doubts
Amid the distractions of
Leaves and branches.


Stephen Heine adds a footnote that draws attention to a story of a zen master gaining enlightenment through observing the spring peach blossoms in bloom. Dogen, reading about this, writes that he himself gained enlightenment upon seeing them fall. Various ways of "seeing"

Dogen also wrote that "weeds grow even though we dislike them, flowers fall even though we love them". Grace can transform weeds or flowers, falling or growing. I think our minds so often try to create a "perfect" state of being in which we can find rest.

Thomas Merton:-

The spiritual life is something that people worry about when they are so busy with something else they think they ought to be spiritual. Spiritual life is guilt. Up here in the woods is seen the New Testament: that is to say, the wind comes through the trees and you breathe it.

(from "Day of a Stranger")

[Dogensoto]

Just to add.......thank you Sky for your post 4 on this thread. I actually logged on back then to simply say that my joining this forum again had been a mistake and I was leaving. But that your post was made has kept me here.

As I may have mentioned, I do have some mental health issues. Nothing really serious but various moods can descend from nowhere.

Anyway, thanks. Some nice poems being posted.

[Joe Mc]

Glad you are here Dogensoto and created this thread, I find it very inspiring.

I won’t even stop
at the valley’s brook
for fear that
my shadow
may flow into the world.

– Dogen

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