Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Buddhist : Zen / Chan Taoist 7th Century	About Yoka Genkaku (Yongjia Xuanjue) Timeline (665 - 713)
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English version by Robert Aitken Original Language Chinese	[25] Just take hold of the source (from The Shodoka)
Commentary of Ivan M. Granger Themes   Moon           Recommended Books Buddhism and Zen, by Nyogen Senzaki / Ruth Strout McCandless	Just take hold of the source And never mind the branches. It is like a treasure-moon Enclosed in a beautiful emerald. Now I understand this Mani-jewel And my gain is the gain of everyone endlessly.
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Commentary of Ivan M. Granger

This expresses the essentialism of Zen: "Just take hold of the source, / And never mind the branches." Don't dally about with the endless manifestations of the mind and its experiences -- even 'spiritual' experiences. There is always one more "branch," one more variation of experience to be had. Go immediately to the source, the root of existence and discover how everything emerges from that point. This is the core teaching of Zen.

When Yongjia Xuanjue proclaims that "my gain is the gain of everyone endlessly," he is reaffirming what mystics all over the world have asserted, that, in that moment of pure awareness, all conflicts, all opposites, all disharmonies, even past and future, are fully resolved within the individual. For those who, through compassion, wish to bring healing to the world, the way to do this is to first bring the world to resolution within oneself, and then all actions naturally lead toward establishing that truth externally. Or, more accurately, all of the world is found to be within oneself. When the world is resolved within, the mind ceases to project false images of the world that appear to be external to the individual. Resolving the world within, bringing "gain" to oneself and automatically brings "gain" to everyone eternally since everything emanates from that single point of resolution and there is nothing truly external.

Let's have our gain be everyone's gain... endlessly!

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
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