“The great road has no gate” by Tiāntóng Rújìng [w/ Audio]

The great road has no gate.
It leaps out from the heads of all of you.
The sky has no road.
It enters into my nostrils.
In this way we meet as Gautama's bandits,
or Linji's troublemakers. Ha!
Great houses tumble down and spring wind swirls.
Astonished, apricot blossoms fly and scatter -- red.

Translated by Mel Weitsman and Kazuaki Tanahashi; printed in: Essential Zen. 1994. HarperSanFrancisco, p. 136.

Note: While Rujing was Chinese he was teacher to the prominent Japanese Zen Teacher, Dōgen Zenji, the latter published this and other poems, hence the dual categorization of it as Chinese and Japanese Literature.

Picture Horse [Lyric Poem]

Stacks and stacks
of wooden plaques:
Prayers on front,
Art on the back.

Each a wish
and a dream?
More an expression,
or so it seems.

Whatever prayer
may be writ,
There’s always
something
more to it.

A need to show
one’s unique soul:
To tell the world
that one is whole.

A life reduced
to a shingle:
Multitudes,
to a single.

“Ox” by Ikkyū [w/ Audio]

Among other creatures this is what I was.
Abilities depend on the realm;
realm also depends on abilities.
At birth I forgot completely by which path
I came.
I don't know, these years, which school
of monk I am.

Translation by Kazuaki Tanahashi and David Schneider in Essential Zen. 1994. HarperSanFrancisco.

DAILY PHOTO: Guardian Serpents of Luang Prabang

DAILY PHOTO: Pha That Luang, Vientiane

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DAILY PHOTO: Wat Phramahathat Rajbovoravihane, Luang Prabang

DAILY PHOTO: Black Stupa, Vientiane

That Dam Stupa (no, that is not a misspelling of a vulgarity)

They say that a seven-headed Naga lives inside and has protected Laos from a Siamese invasion. (But, I did not see said Naga, and can give no testament.)

DAILY PHOTO: Naga & Water Lilies, Wat Don Muang

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DAILY PHOTO: Wat Sensoukharam by Night

DAILY PHOTO: Wat Sisaket, Vientiane

Library
Courtyard