Muso Soseki: No End Point

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Sacred Poetry from Around the World

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No End Point

Muso Soseki, Muso Soseki poetry, Buddhist, Buddhist poetry, Zen / Chan poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry

by Muso Soseki
(1275 - 1351) Timeline

English version by
W. S. Merwin

Original Language
Japanese

Buddhist : Zen / Chan

14th Century

The whole world is clear and empty
     to the ten directions
          There is no end point
And yet when we
     look carefully
          there is one after all
You fly out of this world
     looking backward
          riding the giant roc
into the hollow of a lotus thread
     to live there where heaven and earth
          were never divided

-- from Sun at Midnight: Muso Soseki - Poems and Sermons, Translated by W. S. Merwin / Translated by Soiku Shigematsu

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Themes

Lotus

Recommended Books

	East Window: Poems from Asia, Translated by W. S. Merwin
	Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, Edited by Nelson Foster / Edited by Josh Shoemaker
	Sun at Midnight: Muso Soseki - Poems and Sermons, Translated by W. S. Merwin / Translated by Soiku Shigematsu

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Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World