Moments:
Falling Maple Leaf
Poem:
bright autumn sky
a teacher swearing
at a swearing child
…and so we endlessly struggle in delusion. Why not be bold and break free?
Poem: I wake from my noon nap
and see the shadows
moving in the afternoon
Mist fades from the old cedar
and I am face to face
with Haku Mountain
Thirty years
so many events
have come and gone
Now I let them all go
and sit in the stillness
and am still
Sun at Midnight. Translated by W.S. Merwin & Soiku Shigematsu.
Kindly shared with me by Emily Hancock
Resting in the silence already present in each breath, there’s no need to create silence.
Poem:
morning drizzle
light reflections
on the rails
The following is a poem from the Therīgāthā, also know as Verses of the Elder Nuns—an anthology of utterances attributed to one of the first ordained Buddhist women who attained enlightenment. The poems often describe and celebrate their awakening experiences. While the tradition holds that the utterances date back to the Buddha’s time, their exact dates are uncertain. In the broader context, the Therīgāthā is considered the first collection of women’s literature in the world. This poem is attributed to Venerable Uttama.
Poem: Uttama
Four times, five times, I went out from the monastery,
heart without peace, heart out of control.
I approached the nun,
she seemed like someone I could trust.
She taught me the dhamma
about what makes a person
about the senses and their objects
and about the basic elements that make up everything.
I listened to what she taught,
did exactly as she said,
for seven days I sat in one position, legs crossed,
given over to joy and happiness.
On the eighth day I stretched out my feet,
after splitting open the mass of mental darkness.
Poems of the First Buddhist Women. Translated by Charles Hallisey.
Sailboat on a Marshy Lake
歌川広重 Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
The Sketchbooks of Hiroshige
A man was rowing his boat upstream when, suddenly, he saw another boat coming toward him. He shouted, “Be careful! Be careful!” but the boat plowed right into him, nearly sinking his boat. The man became angry and began to shout, but when he looked closely, he saw that there was no one in the other boat. The boat had drifted downstream by itself. He laughed out loud.
The Heart Of Buddha’s Teaching
November 1
Poem:
early mist
a quiet pop of a leaf
becoming free
Poem: Showing its back
and showing its front,
a falling maple leaf.
Sky Above, Great Wind. Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
