The Moon

Nothingness

Zen Poetry

When mortals are alive, they worry about death.
When they're full, they worry about hunger.
Theirs is the Great Uncertainty.
But sages don't consider the past.
And they don't worry about the future.
Nor do they cling to the present.
And from moment to moment they follow the Way.
 Bodhidharma

Zen and the Art of Landscape

Zen and the Art of Landscape

I find this picture to be particularly beautiful and restful. It was done by Herb Arnold for the Zen Center of San Francisco. Enjoy!

Zen Mind

Zen and the Poetry of Landscape

All sentient beings are essentially Buddhas.
As with water and ice, there is no ice without water;
apart from sentient beings, there are no Buddhas.
Not knowing how close the truth is,
we seek it far away
--what a pity!
Hakuin Ekaku Zenji

Zen and the Art of Landscape

Zen and the Art of Landscape

The magic of Chinese sumi-e landscape painting...

I've put pictures of Zen landscapes here, but little in the way of the artist's rendition of landscape. Here's one in motion, creating an evocative scene with a few sure brushstrokes in ink. Magic!

Zen and the Art of Landscape

I found a great site put up by Bowduin College about the Zen gardens of Kyoto, Japan. Kyoto was not attacked during WWII, and is known for its original architecture, particularly the Buddhist temples and monasteries.

   The web site is dedicated to the gardens of Japan, and primarily to the historic gardens of Kyoto and its environs, including Nara...Although many of these gardens are located within Zen Buddhist monasteries, this site is not intended to explore the influence of Zen thought on Japanese garden design, an influence that is often a matter of conjecture rather than historical evidence. Instead, the site is designed simply to provide the visitor with an opportunity to visit each garden, to move through or around it, to experience it through the medium of high-quality color images, and to learn something of its history.

Zen and the Poetry of Landscape

 

“To what shall

I liken the world?

Moonlight, reflected

In dewdrops,

Shaken from a crane’s bill.”  

Dogen

Tao Te Ching (The Way)

The Way that can be told
is not the eternal Way
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.


- Lao Tzu

Zen and the Art of Landscape

Zen and the Art of Landscape

The Non-Way

Well versed in the Buddha way,
I go the non-Way
Without abandoning 
My ordinary person's affairs.


The conditioned
and name-and-form.
Are all flowers in the sky.

Nameless and formless,
I leave birth-and-death.

Layman P'ang (740-808)

Serenity

If you wish to see the truth
Then hold no opinion for or against.
The struggle of what one likes
And what one dislikes
Is the disease of the mind. - Sosan

The Water

SHISENDO AUTUMN LEAVES

	Shisendo is a delughtful little temple in the northern part of the Higashi-yama mountains. It was built in 1641 by the poet Ishikawa Jozan (1583-1672) as a moutain retreat for hermits. It now belongs to the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. The temple is famous for its Japanese azalea ("tsutsuji") garden and its tranquility