zen graffiti
| if you want the truth, give up the lie. trying to put the truth into concise terms, the pen cries for direction, but the universe keeps its secret. black days along the way don't despair! stand up in praise of your misery. look, all you aspiring buddhas! sakyamuni is still holding up the flower. heresy and dogma are of the same nature. i believe it's true, but i wish i knew. beliefs and opinions can answer the questions, but only truth can solve the mystery. what place do dreams have within a dream? we are the ignorance which blocks out reality. i just open my mouth, and samsara pops out. without "me", mara would be nothing. man aspires to be buddha; poor old buddha. the flower and the thorn are on the same stem. the void and me are one; the trouble is that's one too many. i think i have a mind, i think i have a body, i think i think, i think i see, i think i taste, i think i hear, i think i touch, i think too much. the mantra 'buddha' is a thunderbolt from the void, which clear away all defilement. see the pure land today: namu-amida-butsu. can you hear the dharma above the din of the words? how long have you been looking for a guru? what will your excuse to when you find one? the dhama's free, but even sakyamuni couldn't give it away. look here, all you women, you're not allowed to be monks, so you'd better make up your minds to be buddhas instead. all day and night i hunger for truth, but in the morning i hunger for breakfast. don't worry about the world, it can crumble on its own. just see the freedom in impermanence. samsara is stuffed with bohisttvas. how can one talk of saving all beings with the same mouth that eats their flesh? i am haunted by the ghost of tomorrow. how many nows in the hour? what would the time be if all the clocks were stopped? if it were only a matter of time, we would all have been buddhas long ago. say when this moment started say when it ends. we are all contemporaries of beginningless time, yet we run in fear of death. to realise the deathless, see all life is impermanent. to realise the wishless, see all life is dukka. to realise the void, see all life is not self. i want to be free, but my chains are broken! commentators talk of the great awakening, but the moon shines every night. stillness to shake the universe; shudders of astonishment the deathless was never lost. don't fall into the error of thinking this is samsara. defilement is instantaneous. there are no holy places, only moments of holiness; no gurus, only moments of understanding; no bodhisattvas, only moments of compassion; no enlightment, only moments of wisdom; no moments, only awareness; no awareness, only buddha. siddhartha gautama born a long time ago, died a long time ago buddha never born, never died. there are many paths to truth, don't die choosing. |
itiffarg nez