Mr. Charlie

Snappy title, no?

I'll kick things off with some Zen poems, only because that's what I've been reading a lot of lately. I love Zen poems. Sometimes a single line will transmit the essense of zen or illuminate the zen way of life better than entire books dedicated to the matter. But enough waffle, enjoy (or not):



To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops.
Shaken from a crane's bill.

- Dogen



The wind has settled, the blossoms have fallen;
Birds sing, the mountains grow dark -
This is the wondrous power of Buddhism.

- Ryokan



Nothing in the cry
of the cicadas suggests they
are about to die

- Basho



Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain.
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Who can leap the world's ties
And sit with me among the white clouds.

- Han-shan



Completely freed from yes and no;
great emptiness charged within;
no questions, no answers;
like a fish, like a fool.

- Roshi



The sound of the water
says what I think.

- Chuang Tzu


If there is beauty, there must be ugliness;
If there is right, there must be wrong.
Wisdom and ignorance are complementary,
And illusion and enlightenment cannot be separated.
This is an old truth, don't think it was discovered recently.
"I want this, I want that"
Is nothing but foolishness.
I'll tell you a secret -
"All things are impermanent!”

- Ryokan



Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its business. It does not believe
that I do not want it. Now I understand
why the old poets of China went so far and high
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.

- Mary Oliver