Everyone is so afraid of death,  
but the real sufis just laugh:
nothing tyrannizes their hearts.
What strikes the oyster shell doesn't damage the pearl.

Rumi 

 

 

 

the moon a sign

this way, sir, to enter

a traveler's inn

 

Matsuo Basho 

Full Sturgeon Moon setting this morning

 

 

 

 

  As for me, I delight in the everyday Way,

Among mist-wrapped vines and rocky caves. 

Here in the wilderness I am completely free, 

With my friends, the white clouds, idling forever.

There are roads, but they do not reach the world;

Since I am mindless, who can rouse my thoughts?

On a bed of stone I sit, alone in the night, 

While the round moon climbs up Cold Mountain.

 

Hanshan

from

Zen Poems 

 

 

 

 

 

..Stillness: One of the doors

into the temple. 

 

Mary Oliver 

 

At dawn I come to the convent old,

While the rising sun tips its tall trees with gold-

Chang Jian

Rising sun filtered through smoke from the earth on fire

 

I smile like a flower not only with my lips

but with my whole being...

Rumi

 

...Cranes in the wilderness, lonely clouds - their

destination is uncertain:

Where in the world am I to address my deepest

thoughts?...

Betsugen Enshi

from

Zen Poems

July's Buck Moon setting over Albuquerque 

 

 

The mountain I live on

nobody knows

inside the clouds 

it's always deserted

Cold Mountain

from 

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

Unkindness from the wise

is better than the kindness of the ignorant

The Prophet said, "Enmity from wisdom

is better than love which comes from a fool."

Rumi

 

...When the treadmill of life and death stop

each rebirth gets more confusing

until we discover the jewel of our mind

we're like blind mules following our feet...

Cold Mountain

from 

The Collected songs of Cold Mountain

 

 

For an image of life and death

consider ice and water

water freezes into ice

ice melts back into water

what dies must live again

what lives is bound to die

ice and water don't harm each other

both life and death are fine

Cold Mountain

from 

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

Today's morning mountain walk. Life and death.

Why am I so troubled 

life is a one-day mushroom

what good is another decade

with friends and family gone

thinking of this makes me sad

and sadness I can't bear

what then do I do

entrust myself to the hills for good

Cold Mountain

from

 The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

Scenes from my garden

 

 

the people I see in the world

walk dazed in the dust of the road

they don't know where they are

or how to find the ford

their bloom lasts how many days

their loved ones aren't close long

even if I had a ton of gold

I'd rather be poor in the woods

Cold Mountain

from

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

People search for cloud roads

but cloud roads can't be found

the peaks are high and sheer

the streams are wide and dark

ridges rise in front and back

clouds stretch from east to west

I'll tell you where the cloud roads are

cloud roads are in space

Cold Mountain

from

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

    

 

 

I have heard on Mount Tientai

somewhere are trees of jade

although I say I'll look

a stone bridge blocks the way

this is why I'm distressed

my good days are almost gone

today when I looked in at mirror

all I saw were wisps of white

Cold Mountain

from

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

Another day, another sunrise in the mountains...

Heading for the hills. Dawn light.

 

When the pain of love increases your joy,

roses and lilies fill the garden of your soul.

Rumi

 

Only Now

We thought we would recall the single place

we had set out for and forget the rest

but it is the going we remember

it is the way that comes along with us

and with no one else now and the place

we set out for was not there even then

it had already been forgotten there

yet we remember the river we crossed

the stone bridge and old trees where it left us

and the small bluebird above us with its

hidden nest to which it was bringing back

what it had found where did we go from there

nothing we saw then ever had a name

and the river flowed on behind us

W.S. Merwin

from

Garden Time