Zen Poems

After zen gardens, zen poems. Zen is often described as being beyond words and letters but here are the words from an inscription on a Chinese stone figure of the Buddha, dated 746:-

"The Highest truth is without image.
If there were no image at all, however, there would be no way for truth to be manifested.
The highest principle is without words.
But if there were not words at all, how could principle possibly be revealed?"

(Well, my grandaughter, when not quite three, is not to be fooled by words. After a year or so of "grandad's special pizza" she saw through the whole thing.........."THAT'S not pizza, that's cheese on toast". And Grandad, chastened, retired to the kitchen to lick his wounds)

To add to the "not in words" conundrum, the great Japanese zen master Dogen (13th century) taught that there was always the correct word for everything, but only for that particular moment. Which, perhaps getting in a bit too deep, reminds me of the response of another master, Yun Men, when he was asked what were the teachings of a whole lifetime. "An appropriate statement" he answered. (Just to add that as far as Pure Land Buddhism is concerned, we don't go much on "masters" - we are extremely egalitarian, and know that much can be learnt from - for instance - grandchildren) 

Anyway, where was I?  Oh yes, zen poems. Words.

Here we have Sogi (1421 - 1502):-

To each thing, its own

true deepest inner nature:

water does not think

of itself as consort

of the bright moonlit it hosts.

(Translation from the Japanese by Sam Hamill)


Moving on, Jane Hirshfield writes of great art and great poetry that it is "a truing of vision.........a changing of vision. Entering a good poem, a person feels, tastes, hears, thinks, and sees in altered ways................by changing selves, one by one, art changes also the outer world that selves create and share."


Another zen poem.......

Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house

​(Izumi Shikibu)


Jane Hirshfield comments that in Japanese poetry the moon is "always the moon" yet is also an image of Buddhist awakening. She adds that the poem reminds her that "if a house is walled so tightly that it lets in no wind or rain, if a life is walled so tightly that it lets in no pain, grief, anger, or longing, it will also be closed to the entrance of what is most wanted."

Not a zen poem, but the Persian poet Rumi seems to seek to convey the same insight......

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meaness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honourably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond

Anyway, perhaps enough for now. Just a final little haiku...........

For those who proclaim
they've grown weary of children,
there are no flowers.

​​(A Haiku translated by Sam Hamill, poet unknown)