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Main Index
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A REST ON THE WAY BACK
FROM THE LEAKY ROAD
TO THE NEVER-LEAKING ROAD;
IF IT RAINS, LET IT RAIN;
IF IT BLOWS, LET IT BLOW.
MY SELF OF LONG AGO,
IN NATURE NON-EXISTENT;
NOWHERE TO GO WHEN DEAD,
NOTHING AT ALL.
WHEN ASKED, HE ANSWERED;
NO QUESTION, NO ANSWER;
THEN MASTER DARUMA
MUST HAVE HAD
NOTHING IN HIS MIND.
OUR MIND --
WITHOUT END,
WITHOUT BEGINNING,
THOUGH IT IS BORN, THOUGH IT DIES --
THE ESSENCE OF EMPTINESS!
ALL THE SINS COMMITTED
IN THE THREE WORLDS
WILL FADE AND DISAPPEAR
TOGETHER WITH MYSELF.
RELIGION IS IRRATIONAL -- by the irrational and for the irrational. Reason cannot contain it; reason is so small.
Religion is the vast sky of existence. Reason is a tiny human phenomenon. The reason has to be lost, has to be dropped. Only by going beyond the mind does one start understanding what is. That's the radical change. No philosophy can bring that radical change -- only religion.
Religion is non-philosophic, anti-philosophic, and Zen is the purest form of religion. Zen is the very essence of religion. Hence it is irrational, it is absurd. If you try to understand it logically you will be bewildered. It can only be understood illogically. It has to be approached in deep sympathy and love. YOU CANNOT approach Zen through empirical, scientific, objective concepts. They all have to be dropped.
It is a heart phenomenon. You have to feel it rather than think it. You have to BE it to know it. Being is knowing. And there is no other knowing.
That's why religion has to choose a different kind of language. Religion has to talk in parables, in poetry, in metaphors, in myth. Those are indirect ways of hinting at the truth -- only hinting at the truth, no direct pointing; just whispering, not shouting. It comes to you in a deep rapport.
These small poems of the Zen master, Ikkyu, are of immense importance. They are not great poetry, remember, because that is not the concern. The poetry has been used as a device, so that yom heart can be stirred. The poetry is not the goal. Ikkyu
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