Ox Herding Picture


You glimpsed the hollow circle,

but the moon still seemed to be

above you, and the stars beyond.

Then something shifted,

though nothing moved.


Now words like above, beyond,

inside, outside have no meaning.

10,000 things arise and pass away

without coming or going.

You cherish the musk of emptiness.


Walking barefoot by the river,

noticing young green willows,

you listen to the whisper of their fronds
and grasp without a single thought

that the ripple and sigh of the willows
are not other than your eyes and ears.

The river flows through the stillness
of the Self, yet the Self is not other

than this shimmering of water and sunlight.


Through every cell of your body,

you see that the 10,000 things

are weightless, free of existence.
With every breath, you touch

the uncreated stars and know

that creatures are pulsations of stone,

free of non-existence.

 

And because you were never born
you dance upon the earth.
Now you can solve the koan: "Why walk
barefoot by the river in Springtime?"

To greet each wild dandelion

as an old friend, and to learn

by the scent of every hyacinth

that the mud between your toes

must be made out of pure awareness.

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