I received an email from a very good friend, and blog reader, with the following poem by Zen Master Ryokan typed into it. My friend had received it, hand written, in a card from a man incarsorated in prison with whom he corresponds as a befriender.
I watch people in the world
Throw away their lives lusting after things,
Never able to satisfy their desires,
Falling into deep despair and torturing themselves.
Even if they get what they want,
How long will they be able to enjoy it?
For one heavenly pleasure,
They suffer ten torments of hell.
Binding themselves more firmly to the grindstone.
Such people are like monkeys,
Frantically grasping for the moon in the water
And then falling into a whirlpool.
How endlessly those caught up in the floating world suffer.
Despite myself,I fret over them all night
And cannot staunch my flow of tears.
My friend replied with the following Ryokan poem:
Even if you consume as many books
As the sands of the Ganges
It is not as good as really catching
One verse of Zen.
If you want the secret of Buddhism,
Here it is: “Everything is in the Heart”!
My thoughts are with them both this evening, and with ‘you all’ who patiently read what is left here.
Followers of Buddha’s Way!
Why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places?
Look for delusion and truth in the bottom of your own hearts.
Zen Master Ryokan.
The monks retreat has ended however there is still time and space for contemplation. With this in mind I’m returning to very dear Zen Master Ryokan’s poem’s which I hope you will enjoy as much as I do. The photographs accompanying the text will be of fungi. This is for no other reason than I rarely get a chance, or reason, to publish them! The type of fungi I have grow on trees. About Fungus in Wikipedia.
…the fungi are now considered a separate kingdom, distinct from both plants and animals, from which they appear to have diverged approximately one billion years ago. Many studies have identified several distinct morphological, biochemical, and genetic features in the Fungi, clearly delineating this group from the other kingdoms. For these reasons, the fungi are placed in their own kingdom.
This is Lichen, see comment for it’s place in the fungus kingdom. (edited on 19th December, 2008.)
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
