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Editor's Note: This is Yamada Roshi's poem celebrating his 77th birthday, and mirroring his whole life of Zen.


Once an old buddha said:
The mind of bright Wisdom
Is nothing but the mountains, rivers, great earth,
The sun, moon and stars.
One night I realized this all of a sudden.
Heaven and earth collapsed
And were reduced to dust.
Clearly I have seen
Not one thing, no man, no buddha,
My karmic sins were all extinguished
As if in a bolt of lightning.
And what is it after all?
Nothing special: just this, just this.
You see how my eyes are:
They don't talk,
And they look void
Of any anxiety.

-Koun-ken Zenshin

Old man of 77 years; the 8th day of the month of R8 in the 59th year of Shona Era (December 8, 1984)


 

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