Ask a question,
if you get no response
is the question good
or is it foolish,
is the teacher fooled,
or simply too busy to answer.
Be careful or you
will be trapped
deep within the net.
A reflection on Case 52 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)
Standing in the ordinary
stare out across
the great gulf searching
for that which is sacred.
It seems to dance
just beyond the edge of vision.
Close your eyes and lift
your right foot,
place it down.
How does it feel
to stand amid
all that is sacred.
A reflection on Case 39 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)
If you fall, 20,000 arms
will lift you up,
when you sit
10,000 join the Sangha.
If you walk barefoot
in the snow
I will put socks
on my feet for you.
If you hunger, I
will give you an empty bowl
and this will be
our shared dharma.
A reflection on Case 47 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)
Coming in
from a just planted
but barren rice field
when I ask you
how many grains of rice
this harvest will yield
you stand silently
and we nod in agreement.
A reflection on Case 68 of the Shobogenzo (True Dharma Eye) koans.
As you walk
in search of enlightenment
stop at a temple
and seek it there.
If you cannot find
a temple, build one.
Look at where you are
and be there
in that temple
and stop searching,
for you are home.
A reflection on Case 4 of the Book of Equanimity
You may wrap yourself
with all of the sutras,
drink dharma with a straw,
look carefully for teachers.
You will drown in the conditions
your breath swallowed
but unending thoughts.
The answers are always within
teacher is student
student is teacher
this moment
only moment.
A reflection on Case 3 of the Book of Equanimity
When teacher and student
sit face to face,
mat to mat, looking deeply
one at the other,
which is the teacher
and which is the student?
You are wrong.
There is no teacher,
there is no student,
there is only the silence
of the moment
in which all dharma
is made obvious.
A reflection on Case 2 of the Book of Equanimity
A collection of sticks
and boards is Keichu’s cart
Keichu’s cart no more
than a pile
of sticks and boards
not I
rides no horse
pulling no cart
a hundred spokes
dance in ten directions.
A reflection on Case 8 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate Koans)
There is no stick, no shout
we go uninstructed
on a full stomach.
We do not see water
in the midst of an ocean.
We are given a sink
full of breakfast bowls, plates,
cups and spoons.
Handlessly we perform
our task and sit
to lunch with Joshu.
A reflection on Case 4 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate Koans)
Thirty blows of the stick
if right, thirty blows
if wrong, or Namsen’s sword
and a severed cat
a half to each
a whole to none
Be thankful you
didn’t argue about a man
for with a shoe
on the head, your feet
may touch the sky.
A reflection on Case 14 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate Koans)
