FEATURE - More Zen Mountain Poems

Valley Sounds, Mountain Colours

The murmuring brook is the Buddha's long, broad tongue.
And is not the shapely mountain the body of purity?
Through the night I listen to eighty thousand gathas,
When dawn breaks, how will I explain it to others?

Su Shi

Mount Lu Revisited

Regarded from one side, an entire range;
From another, a single peak.
Far, near; high, low, all its parts
different from the others.
If the true face of Mount Lu
cannot be known,
it is because the one looking at it
is standing in its midst.

Su Shi

With coming and going, a person in the mountains
understands that blue mountains are their body
The blue mountains are the body, and the body is the self,
so, where can one place the senses and their objects?

Zen Master Hongzhi Zhengjue
(1091-1157)

A person in the mountains should love the mountains.
With going and coming, the mountains are their body.
The mountains are the body, but the body is not the self
so where can one find any senses or their objects?

Eihei Dogen
(1200-1253)