Mr. Charlie

My poems are poems,
even if some people call them sermons.
Well, poems and sermons do share one thing;
when you read them you got to be careful.
Keep at it. Get into detail.
Don’t just claim they’re easy.
If you were to live your life like that,
a lot of funny things might happen.

- Shih Te



Greed, anger, ignorance: drink deep
these poisoned wines and lie
drunk and in darkness, unknowing . . .
Make riches your dream: your dream’s
a cage of gold. Bitterness is cause of bitterness;
give it up, or dwell within that dream.
You better wake up soon, wake up
and go home.

- Shih Te



Wisdom’s wine’s cold water, pure.
Drink deep, it sobers you.
Where I live, at T’ien-t’ai mountain’s side
no silly fools will ever find me.
I roam in every shady valley,
but never where the world goes.
No worry, no grief,
no shame, and no glory.

- Shih Te



I see a lot of silly folks
who claim their own small spine’s
Sumeru, the sacred mountain
that supports the universe.
Piss ants, gnawing away at a noble tree,
with never a doubt about their strength.
They chew up a couple of Sutras,
and pass themselves off as Masters.
Let them hurry and repent.
From now on no more foolishness.

- Shih Te



See the moon’s bright blaze of light,
a guiding lamp, above the world!
Glittering, it hangs against the void,
a blazing jewel, its brightness through the mist.
Some people say it waxes, wanes;
theirs may, but mine remains
as steady as the Mani Pearl . . .
This light knows neither day or night.

- Shih Te



The Buddhas left their Sutras,
just because men are so hard to change.
It’s not just a matter of saintly or stupid,
each and every heart throws up a barricade,
each piles up his own mountain of karma.
How could they guess
that every single thing
they clutch so close is sorrow?
Unwilling to ponder, day and night,
as they embrace the falsehood that is flesh.

- Shih Te



Sermons? There must be a million.
Too many to read in a hurry . . .
But if you want a friend,
just come on out to T’ien-t’ai.
Sitting deep among the crags,
we’ll talk about True Principles
and chat about Dark Mysteries.
If you don’t come to my mountain,
your view will be blocked
by all of the others.

- Shih Te



Han Shan’s Han Shan.
Me, I’m Shih Te:
How could the ignorant know us?
Old Feng Kan, he thought he knew,
but when he looked, he couldn’t see,
and where he searched, he couldn’t find us.
You want to know how that could be?
In our way’s the power of nonbeing.

- Shih Te



Not going, not coming,
rooted, deep and still,
not reaching out, not reaching in,
just resting, at the center.
The single jewel, the flawless crystal drop,
in the blaze of its brilliance,
the way beyond.

- Shih Te



Cloudy mountains, fold on fold,
how many thousands of them?
Shady valley road runs deep,
all trace of man gone.
Green torrent’s pure clear flow,
no place more full of beauty:
and time, and time, birds sing,
my own heart’s harmony.

- Shih Te



Now your modern day monk’s
fond of preaching of love: hard-core fool.
He starts out in search of getting free
and ends up somebody’s lackey,
morning to evening one mean hut to the next
praying and chanting for cash . . .
He makes a bundle, then drinks it up
like any other shop-boy.

- Shih Te



And a few by Wang Fan-chih, who wrote in a similar style:


Rotting corpses don’t stop off to chat
once they start on their way away.
Quick! They get hauled to the fire.
Die young! There’ll be no more taxes to pay,
and no more sh*t to take from the boss man.

- Wang Fan-chih



A hungry bird will gorge itself to death,
like a man who’ll die to get his hands on property.
Money’s the thing that ruins humans.
The wise will keep it at a distance.

- Wang Fan-chih


A lot of guys want high office.
A job that pays enough to fill two bowls
of rice is good enough for me.
The fire that simmers the rice pot
will warm my toes too.

- Wang Fan-chih




I’m poor, so they laugh at me.
I’m so poor, their laughter delights me.

- Wang Fan-chih



So what in the world’s worth anything?
Poetry is priceless (or at least that’s what they
pay me).
Explaining, clearly, deeply, Love, and Duty,
what monkey-hearted men will never learn.

- Wang Fan-chih




I don’t want to be real, real rich,
don’t want to be real, real poor.
Let yesterday become today,
and today become tomorrow.
If you can learn to want no more,
you might become a real, real man.

- Wang Fan-chih



You don’t need a mirror to see your face.
You don’t have to be rich to give alms.
Just sitting will find you the face . . .
the face of the Buddha, thus come.

- Wang Fan-chih



Listen you, enjoy your time,
you really don’t have very long.
You were born just a moment ago,
in another moment you’ll be gone.

- Wang Fan-chih