isn’t it?

[…] “everything in the realms of the lower, middle and upper heavens is engaged in spiritual training. All at some point or other become bodhisattvas, so that the title bodhisattvas is unnecessary. If all are becoming Buddha and bodhisattva, surely there is no reason to make a distinction between ‘Buddha nature’ and all living creatures? At this moment you, us, and the ground we are treading on, all of us are in a process of striving and growth. The very motion of the whole universe is a process of profound spiritual growth. All change, all life and death, loving and hating, all is training and growth. Isn’t it? Isn’t it?”

Ko Un, Little Pilgrim, Parallax Press, Berkley, 2005

turning into bodhisattvas

I ought not to turn back towards the past. My road always lies ahead of me.

“Thanks to you,” the Brahman said, “my eyes of crimson fire, my body of crimson fire and blood have at last found sleep. I could never have attained this purified body without you. Many, many thanks indeed.”

“Master, as I entered the flames, my body was filled with intense wellbeing!” Sudhana spoke in aew. Sacred bliss flowed from his penance. He no longer feared sword or fire. He knew that swords, fire, and evil spirits, too, were all love. All evil was Buddha. All fear was compassion.

“It is not possible to restrain what flows,” Prabhuta whispered in his dream. “You cannot restrain water, wind, or all the immensities of time. I couldn’t force you to stay here, even if I wanted to, just as I couldn’t command a bird to perch on a branch.”

“For me, things that stay in one place all part from me, as I flow on,” Sudhana replied. “If I decided to settle somewhere, everything else would flow away from me. There are people who live beneath trees that span a hundred and fifty generations, until the trunk rots into the ground, but that is not for me.”

“How could I ever experience unending bliss without undergoing the Eight Sufferings? Birth, age, disease, and death are the first four, of course. Then there are the last four: parting from what we love, meeting what we hate, failing to attain our aims, and all the ills of personality, the five skandhas. As I cut off my toes one by one I’m gaining my joy. You have to know that truth, don’t you?”

“Look! Fix your whole heart on the center of the empty air. See how all creatures become bodhisattvas in the empty air. Look! Look!”

[…] “Look, they are turning into bodhisattvas, then as bodhisattvas they are reborn and take on the sufferings of life again. It’s a life of greater suffering they take on now. There is no bodhisattva life without living creatures. Without sentient beings there can be no bodhisattva and no Buddha.”

“My path exists,” he thought, “even if no one tells me where it lies. I have to make my roads as I go. For me, every road is newly made.”



Ko Un, Little Pilgrim, Parallax Press, Berkley, 2005

drawing by Warwick Globe found at the marvelous blog Japonisme

in his heart he prayed for guidance

The wind blowing over the mountain often turned into a tornado – the birds and animals living there, even the smaller rocks, found themselves whirled up into the air. When the gardenia flowers blossomed, a special gardenia wind blew. Not a single petal would fall to the ground, instead they would be swept up into the sky and their scent would fill the air.

Still, if he has come, he can’t really have come too soon. When anything comes or appears, it comes when it has to come, appears when it has to appear.

[…] he gathered his wits and made a sign of reverence in the direction he was heading. In his heart he prayed for guidance.



Ko Un, Little Pilgrim, Parallax Press, Berkley, 2005


drawing by Nakamura Hochu, taken from the marvelous blog Japonisme, a link that in my absence I leave as a gift for you to browse...

an elephant's lullaby

The elephant began to sing him a lullaby:

There was never a moment
When I was not wildflowers in the field.
There was never a moment when I was not water babbling.
There was never a moment when I was not birds or beasts.
There was never a moment when I was not a weary seagull
forced to fly from island to island.
There was never a moment when I was not a beggar.
I am a father, and stars, and the bright morning sun.
I am rainbow after rain.
And like all these things
There was never a moment when I was not an elephant.



from the book by Ko Un, Little Pilgrim (Parallax Press, Berkley, 2005), papercut illustrations by Jason DeAntonis

let's proclaim!

Float down this river…
float down in this old boat…
every river reaches the sea…
where upstream and downstream meet…
reaches the darkening sea…
is left as a crust of white salt on the shore.

So float down the river…
eyes closed… lips shut…
every scrap of dharma set aside.
Float down alone…
winds will blow…
night will fall and float down with you.
When you reach the sea…
Proclaim…
there is no one in pain…
anywhere in this world.


Ko Un, Little Pilgrim, Parallax Press, Berkley, 2005




illustration: The Monkey Bridge in Kai Province by Ando Hiroshige, Famous Views of the 60-odd Provinces - Rokujuyoshu meisho zue, 1853 - 1856

To see more of these beautiful prints please refer to:
http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/60_odd_provinces/60_odd_provinces.htm

when you reach the sea...

Float down this river…
float down in this old boat…
every river reaches the sea…
where upstream and downstream meet…
reaches the darkening sea…
is left as a crust of white salt on the shore.

So float down the river…
eyes closed… lips shut…
every scrap of dharma set aside.
Float down alone…
winds will blow…
night will fall and float down with you.
When you reach the sea…
Proclaim…
there is no one in pain…
anywhere in this world.



from the book Little Pilgrim by Ko Un, Parallax Press, Berkeley, 2005

photo: Dead Sea Sunset