It is like a sword that wounds, but cannot wound itself;
Like an eye that sees, but cannot see itself.
The cries of the monkeys echo through the dense forest;
In the clear water, the wild geese are mirrored deep.
Mountains and rivers, the whole earth,
All manifest forth the essence of being.
The wind drops, but the flowers still fall;
A bird sings, and a mountain holds yet more mystery.
All water contains the moon,
Not a mountain but the clouds girdle it.
Entering the forest, he does not disturb a blade of grass;
Entering the water, he does not cause a ripple.
One word determines the whole world;
One sword pacifies heaven and earth.
The tree manifests the bodily power of the wind;
The wave exhibits the spiritual nature of the moon.
Perceiving the sun in the midst of the rain;
Ladling out clear water from the depths of the fire.
The water a cow drinks turns to milk;
The water a snake drinks turns to poison.
Many words injure virtue;
Wordlessness is essentially effective.
Heat does not wait for the sun, to be hot,
Nor wind the moon to be cool.
Seeing, they see not;
Hearing, they hear not.
The water before, and the water after,
Now and forever flowing, follow each other.
Above, not a piece of tile to cover the head;
Beneath, not an inch of earth to put one’s foot on.
The mouth desires to speak, but the words disappear;
The heart desires to associate itself, but the thoughts fade away.
If you wish to know the road up the mountain;
You must ask the man who goes back and forth on it.
It cannot be attained by mind;
It is not to be sought after through mindlessness.
The geese do not wish to leave their reflection behind;
The water has no mind to retain their image.
Falling mist flies together with the wild ducks;
The waters of autumn are of one color with the sky.
The old tree leans over the waves, its cold image swaying;
Mist hovers above the grass, the evening sun fading.
Above the bare boughs of a thousand hills, a vast, distant sky;
Over the path of the river, a radiant moon.
Even the woodpecker
Will not harm this hermitage
Among the summer trees.
Less than five foot square,
My thatched cottage;
It is a nuisance
To have to build even this,
But the rain…
In the midst of the plain
Sings the skylark,
Free of all things.
The frog
Rises up by the same force
With which it jumps in.
Those who know, speak not. Those who speak, know not.
Keishi said to Soshi, “I have a great tree called ‘The pride
of
When people were being called up by the authorities, the hunchback stood swaggering among them. When the order came for public works, the hunchback, since he was a hopeless cripple, was not set to work. When the government distributed grain to the sick, he received three sho, and ten bundles of firewood. If then a hunchback, by reason of his bodily malfunction, is able to nourish himself and live to the end of his days, how much more profitable is it to be a moral hunchback!
Spring departing,
Birds weeping,
Tears in the eyes of the fish.
The lofty green pine tree is a hundred feet tall;
The lowly orchid, only a few inches of green.
Both live between the same heaven and earth;
Each has its share of length and shortness.
That which is long cannot retract;
Nor that which is short increase its stature.
A man who lives out this truth,
Will never know sorrow from riches or poverty.
Eight thousand years, and the Camellia has reached its spring;
The flower of a Rose of Sharon lasts only a day.
What is there between these two?
There is the bamboo, that grows on by itself.
The bamboo is old after three years,
Yet it is green in every season.
Though it cannot compare with the Camellia,
It far surpasses the Rose of Sharon.
Soshi reduces all things to one;
I believe that in unity there is diversity;
Though by their own nature they live in equal happiness,
A phoenix is slightly superior to a snake.
Is it not delightful to have a friend come from afar?
Arise with poetry;
Stand with propriety;
Grow with music.
He who offends against Heaven has none to whom he can pray.
Water not disturbed by waves settles down of itself. A mirror not covered with dust is clear and bright. The mind should be like this. When what beclouds it passes away, its brightness appears. Happiness must not be sought for; when what disturbs passes away, happiness comes of itself.
Men know how to read printed books; they do not know how to read the unprinted ones. They can play on a stringed harp, but not on a stringless one. Applying themselves to the superficial instead of the profound, how should they understand poetry or music?
If your heart is without stormy waves, everywhere are blue mountains and green trees. If our real nature is creative like nature itself, wherever we may be, we see that all things are free like sporting fishes and circling kites.