Poets From Japan

"He who comes knows only his coming, He who goes knows only his end. To be saved from the chasm, Why cling to the cliff? Clouds floating low Never know where the breezes will blow them."

"Young bride Be alive till they say to you Die! Die!"

"If you say, 'Come back later', He will speedily come to snatch you away. Say rather, 'I shall not be in till I'm ninety-nine'"."

"Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) was an artistic Zen monk of importance, who took "a transcendental view of things that are relative and limited. One eye was turned deeply inward, while the other looked out with concern to catch the fleeting shadows of our earthly life.""

"In 1837, when Sengai Gibon was asked by one of his students if he had anything to say before passing away, he replied, “I don't want to die.""

"Suzuki often cited the work of Japanese Zen monk Sengai Gibon (1750–1837), whose painting Circle, Triangle, and Square he saw as the embodiment of the universe. Suzuki interpreted Sengai’s three fundamental forms as geometries of formlessness and infinity, which underscored his own view of emptiness as the essence of Zen enlightenment. This scroll has fascinated people ever since. Rather than a single level of black or gray, the ink tones keep changing. The forms overlap just a bit, suggesting interconnections between these fundamental shapes."

"’s (b. 1935) Triangle, Circle, Square quotes from Sengai’s famous 18th-century Buddhist painting. His early work of the 1960s, including music, performance, and writing as well as sculptural and conceptual works, was impacted by his exposure to Zen-informed thinking. De Maria developed an interest in task-oriented, game-like projects that resulted in viewer-interactive sculptures."

"My sword leans against the sky. With its polished blade I'll behead The Buddha and all of his saints. Let the lightning strike where it will."

"At times I supported the sky, at times the earth; At times I turned into a dragon, at times to a snake. I wandered at will through the cycles of life and of death. All the fathers of our faith I took into my mouth. I give as I will and I take as I will. I slash the leopard with my teeth; My spirit smashes mountains."

"No single bone in my body is holy - It is but an ash heap of stinking bones. Dig a deep hole and there bury these remains Thus, not a grain of dust will stain The green mountains."

"Shunpo Soki was a Zen priest of the Rinzai sect. A disciple of the Daitokuji priest Yoso Soi (1376-1458), Shunpo became the fortieth abbot of Daitokuji and was famous for his efforts in reconstructing the temple in the aftermath of the devastation of the (1467-77)."

"I raise the mirror of my life Up to my face: sixty years. With a swing I smash the reflection - The world as usual All in its place."

"In a key discussion of the black of the pupil of the eye, in which he cites Plato's Alcibiades, Al-Ghazzali, Meister Eckhart and the Zen priest Taigen Sofu, Viola argues for the pupil as the first and ideal mirror, one in which not only a reflection of the self may be found, but also the act of ‘seeing seeing’, and in the blackness of the pupil, the void upon which perception, in mystical systems of belief, is founded."

"TAIGEN Sofu (or Sufu) Sessai was a priest and a minister of IMAGAWA Yoshimoto. He was born as a son of IHARA Masamori, senior vassal of the Imagawas and is thought to be related to YAMAMOTO Kansuke, strategist of TAKEDA Harunobu (Shingen). He is one of the ministers in clerical robe in Japanese history."

"Full of great changes My three and fifty years have been. I commented on the holy writ - a heavy sin That echoes to the skies. Now I will sail on the lake of lotus blooms And break into the skies within the water."

"Those who practice without keeping the precepts set out by the Buddha all represent the False Dharma. The reason for this [is as follows:] Although practices such as chanting the nembutsu, seated meditation, and reciting the sutras are each practiced differently depending on the abilities of the believer, the precepts against taking life, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and the like are absolute, regardless of the sect. Not to keep them is unacceptable. Therefore these precepts are called “absolutes.”"

"Although [Tetsugen] was already married, he was dissatisfied that in the [True Pure Land] sect, people without talent or merit held high rank in the temple hierarchy. Therefore, he went up to Mount Ōbaku and followed [the instruction] of Muan."

"I look now at the very moment Even the Buddha is dumbfounded. All turns with a swing. I land on the plain of nothingness."

"The truth is never taken From another. One carries it always By oneself. Katsu!"

"The dying master left in the hands of Tetto Giko, his disciple during the years of obscurity at Ungo-an and the head monk of Daitokuji since its inauguration. Tetto, an able and energetic administrator, served as abbot for thirty-one years. He persuaded several well-known nobles and warriors to become personal disciples and temple patrons, stabilizing Daitokuji during a period of political and economic adversity. Tetto was so fervent in the guidance of his monks that he once threatened to cut off his own tongue unless someone attained kensho during a ninety-day training session. Midway through the term Gongai Sochu (1315-1390) came to enlightenment, and Gongai later became Tetto’s principal successor."

"Tetto Giko (1295-1369) [was a] Japanese Rinzai monk of the late Kamakura (1185-1333) and early Ashikaga (1392-1568) periods. Tetto was born in Izumo and became a Buddhist monk at age six. He began his practice of Zen at Kennin-ji, where he took the precepts at age nineteen."

"Words of Tetto Osho (ja: 『徹翁和尚語録』), 2Vols., 応永32 年(1435)"

"All four pillars of enlightenment Crumble at once - See! See! Moonlight wreathing coral branches - What does it mean? Now all grows as dark As the palace of hell in The grasp of Satan / Katsu!"

"For long years a bird in a cage Now, flying along with the clouds of heaven."

"Toyo Eicho ... drew his material from sutras, recorded sayings of Chinese Zen masters, Taoist texts, Confucian texts, and Chinese poetry."

"Zen Buddhist monk (Toyo Eicho, 1428-1504) of the Rinzai sect... was appointed juji of the in 1481 and founded the Shorin-ji temple at Mino, where , where he died."

"If this manuscript was indeed compiled by Daito Kokushi, it would rank as the first capping phrase collection in Japan, predating Toyo Eicho's Kuzoshi by approximately 150 years."

"Toyo Eicho's Kuzoshi... exists only as a single unidentified and fragmented text; it does not appear to be a handbook used by monks appending phrases to koans as a regular assignment in koan practice."

"From the day of my coming hither Full seventy years have passed. Now, setting out on my final path My two legs trample the sky."

"Tsugen Jakurei (1322-1391), whose teaching was most widely inherited in the Soto sect, is famous for his 'pit of burying-alive'. When an itinerant priest came to him in order to receive training, it was said, he tested the newcomer and if he perceived in the latter any impurity of motivation, he then simply threw him down into the pit."

"Jakurei of Yotaku. The zen master's initiatory name was Jakurei; he was styled Tsugen. He was from Kyoto. He was orphaned as a child and was raised by his grandmother. He saw that he was physically unfit for worldly occupations, and climbed Mount Hiei to have his head shaved."

"Tsugen Jakurei (1322-1391) is the best known of the five chief disciples of Gasan. Highly gifted, he read the Buddhist sutras as a young boy and at seventeen decided to be a monk. He took his first steps in the monastic life in his native Kyushu, but soon traveled north to present himself before the doors of Daijo-ji in Kaga, where Meiho Sotetsu received him warmly. Tsugen, a determined searcher of the Way, carried on his practice continually by day and by night and elicited the admiration and wonder not only of his fellow monks but also of the surrounding population. After more than ten years at Daijo-ji, he moved to Soji-ji in 1352, hoping that Gasan's direction would bring his progress along the path of enlightenment to completion. In 1356 he had an experience of the great enlightenment at Soji-ji."

"I came into the world after Buddha. I leave the world before Miroku. Between the Buddha of the beginning and the Buddha of the end I am not born, I do not die."

"There are a few examples of Japanese Zen masters like Suzuki Shosan (1579 - 1655) and Ungo Kiyo (1583 - 1659) who advocated dual practice of Zen and Pure Land, though they regarded it primarily as a means to reach the laity. Shōsan was an independent, one might even say marginal, figure in the Zen tradition; he did not function within the bounds of institutional Zen, and his ideas had little or no influence on other Zen Buddhist masters of the day. In contrast to Suzuki Shosan's position as a relative outsider to the institutional Zen world, Ungo was a prominent figure within the Zen hierarchy and for a time served as abbot at ."

"An early example is the Rinzai Zen master Ungo Kiyo ̄ (1582–1659), who in 1636 assumed the abbacy of Zuiganji, the family mortuary temple of the Date clan (daimyo ̄ of Sendai) and converted the temple into a sangha hall where the precepts were strictly observed and a regular schedule of twice daily meditation (niji no zazen), three daily sutra chanting services (sanji no fugin), and manual labor (fushin samu) was implemented."

"The Zen master wrote that an enso ̄without an accompanying inscription was, to him, “like flat beer.” While most enso ̄images include a calligraphic inscription, many do not, including this wonderful example by Ungo Kiyo (pictured). Since Zen paintings, including enso, ̄are representational teachings, a means of conveying a master's Zen mind and experience, a Zen phrase seems fitting alongside an enso. However, the inscriptions often provide concrete imagery with which to associate the enso, and as one Zen phrase."

"My six and seventy years are through. I was not born, I am not dead. Clouds floating on the high wide skies The moon curves through its million-mile course."

"Lah-chi Tao-lung (Rankei Dōryū) had many dharma heirs: among them were Nampo Jōmyō and Yaku'ō Tokuken 约翁德俭 (1245–1320), both of whom went to Sung-China. Yaku'ō's disciple, Jakushitsu Genkō 寂室元光 (1290–1367), also went to China and became later the founder of ."

"Katsu! / On the death bed - Katsu! Let he who has eyes see! Katsu! Katsu! Katsu! And once again, Katsu! Katsu!"

"[E]ven while the Daitokuji was in ashes, the basis for its recovery and expansion was being laid by the monks Yoso Soi (1376- 1458) and Ikkyu Sojun (1394-1481). Both Yoso and Ikkyu began their Zen training in gozan monasteries. But like growing numbers of monks in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, they quickly became dissatisfied with what they perceived as the formalism, and aestheticism of the official monasteries and so turned to masters of the Daio school like Kaso Sodon (1352-1428) for training in a more rugged Zen."

"I pondered Buddha's teaching A full four and eighty years. The gates are all now locked about me. No one was ever here - Who then is he about to die, And why lament for nothing? Farewell! The night is clear, The moon shines calmly, The wind in the pines Is like a lyre's song. With no I and no other Who hears the sound?"

"When I was in my twenty-seventh year [1252], I converted Hōonji into a temple where the regulations were observed (ritsuin). At twenty-eight, I became a monk without any temple affiliations (tonsei);21 and when, after studying the regulations for priestly behavior for six or seven years I then decided to pursue the practice of meditation, in my thirty-fifth year [1260] while staying at Jufukuji, I listened to Higan Choro lecture on the Explanation of Mahayana and on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment. (I had heard him speak before on the Explanation [at Chorakuji]" in Serada in my twenty-seventh year.) I practiced zazen but within a year gave it up; being sick with beriberi, I could not achieve zen awareness."

"Higan Choro or Zoso Royo (1194-1277), Rinzai monk attached to the in Kamakura, succeeded Eicho (d. 1247) at the Chorakuji in Serada, where Muju had heard him discuss the esoteric Shakuron in 1252. Royo's presence at the Jufukuji in 1260 was evidently a temporary engagement for him to lecture on his specialty. His last moments are recorded in Sand and Pebbles."

"Eicho's disciple Zoso Royo (1193-1276) succeeded him as head of Choraku- ji, which was considered a Tendai temple.88 Eicho's disciples made his name known and secured for him a place in the history of Japanese Zen."

"A drop of water freezes instantly - My seven years and seventy. All changes at a blow Springs of water welling from the fire."

"After Shorei Sokin's death, Rikyu became a devoted follower of Shorei's successor, Kokei Sochin. Kokei was a member of the Asakura family and, although ten years Rikyu's junior, was greatly admired by Rikyu for his abilities. It is said that when Kokei became head abbot of Daitokuji in 1573, Rikyu bestowed upon him the unprecedented sum of one hundred kanmon as a congratulatory gift. An event that well illustrates the trust between Kokei and Rikyu is the tea gathering held by Rikyu on 1 588."

"For over sixty years I often cried Katsu! to not avail. And now, while dying, Once more to cry Katsu! Won't change a thing."

"Shuhu Myocho studied Tendai Buddhism as a youth but came to feel the knowledge of the scriptures was insufficient. He turned instead to Zen with its emphasis on practice. He was a disciple of Koho Kenichi, the teacher of Muso Soseki (1275 – 1351), and after becoming a priest he achieved enlightenment and spent time in Kamakura, where he was briefly abbot of Kencho-ji. He subsequently returned to Kyoto, spending over seven years living with beggars under Gojo Bridge."

"Koho Kenichi (1241-1316) was one of the most renowned Zen prelates of his era, his era, not least because of his Japanese origin. As son of , he began his religious career in the esoteric Buddhist school. In 1256 he was admitted into the Tofukuji by Enni Ben'en. Four years later he met Gottan Funei, who had just moved there from China. As instructed by his teacher Enni Ben'en, Koho followed Gottan Funei to Kamakura. On Ichio Ingo's recommendation he came under the care of Koho Kennichi. He was calm and self-willed and preferred to live in seclusion. For this reason he spent many years in a remote area until his appointment as leading priest of the Jomyoji in 1300 and later of the Manjuji in Kamakura. In 1314 Mugaku Sogen entrusted him with the leadership of the great Kenchoji."

"Here in a thatched hut hidden among mountain peaks with barely room for one I am suddenly invaded by wandering white clouds."