The following is extracted from a website featuring talks
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.

  Essays of a Zen Priest         return to Index