Saturday, April 21, 2012

"Why I Started Doing Zen"


After my great spontaneous kensho,
I waited ten years before doing any practice.
Maybe this was a mistake, maybe not.

During those years, about a dozen times
my mind suddenly cleared
in the midst of some trivial activity.

All thinking stopped --
everything was open, boundless,
like a deep bell ringing in empty space.

No sense of body or mind left at all,
just infinity, timeless and pure.
Yet all phenomena were right there,
vibrant with energy, resonating, bright.

One day, when I was feeling a dark anguish
because a person quite close to me had died,
by chance I struck a spoon on the edge of a wine glass,
and the ringing woke me up again.

I turned to stone and the stone shattered.
I turned to ice, and the ice melted.
I was on a windy mountaintop,
bowing to the ten directions.
I was a pine tree shooting energy into the blue sky.
I was the sea crashing on itself.
The "thought" -divided Universe dissolved
like a sugar cube in hot tea.

Dazzling in all directions,
nothing to be found but sheer wonder:
profound Body-stillness beneath all movement,
simple Mind-truth beyond all appearances!

Shortly after this I started doing Zen.

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