The following is extracted from a website featuring talks
by Rev. Goto Tensho, head priest of Entoku-in, Kyoto, Japan
Essays of a Zen Priest
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by Rev. Goto Tensho, head priest of Entoku-in, Kyoto, Japan
Forming with the dew, vanishing with the dew-like this, my life! All things-dreams, nothing but dreams The dream has faded, but its lingering fragrance is sweet The world, truly, is like a dream, And wealth a fleeting illusion. Like perspective in a painting- One can see them, but they are not there. Perfect emptiness is an inexhaustible treasury! There are flowers, there are pavilions, there is the moon. How pleasant the tranquility of a mountain village No one comes, no one visits Don't worry today about tomorrow's affairs; Don't brood forever over yesterday's sorrows. Don't eat until you are full. Bring me your mind And I will set it to rest for you The mind that seeks outside for truth Is the most deluded mind of all. Impermanence rules the world Why do you laugh and make merry? Darkness surrounds you Why do you not seek the light? Great is the matter of birth and death! Life slips quickly by. Don't waste a passing moment, Time waits for no one. Look at the flowers in the fields.... I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory Was clothed like one of these. |
