Poetry Chaikhana Blog

Ivan M. Granger August 16th, 2008

Clear Valley
by Muso Soseki

English version by W. S. Merwin

The water that can’t be muddied
      with any stick
            is deeper than depth
The sky and the water
      are a single
            deepening blue
If you really want to find
      the source of the Sixth Patriarch’s
            fountain
don’t look for it
      on the one bank or the other
            or in the middle of the stream

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

/ Photo by net_efekt /

I won’t try to offer much commentary here, just a little set up. Muso Soseki has confronted us a good koan-like image to work with. Best to sit with riddle until the mind gives up… that’s when the answer comes.

The water here is pure mind, Buddha mind. It is by its nature empty — or, perhaps a better way to say that, is that it is spacious, all-permeating. No ‘thingness’ obstructs it… it can’t be “muddied” no matter what apparently passes through it.

The Sixth Patriarch is Hui-neng (Eno in Japanese), usually considered the last patriarch of early Chinese Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism. His insights and teachings were particularly powerful in the development of Zen practice in Japan.

So we have the water. And we are seeking the Sixth Patriarch’s fountain or source of the water. But Muso Soseki teasingly tells us we won’t find it “on the one bank or the other / or in the middle of the stream.” Where then is the source found?

(As I was contemplating this poem, it started raining heavily outside… water everywhere…

Muso Soseki Japan (1275 - 1351) Timeline Buddhist : Zen / Chan

Muso Soseki first practiced Zen under the guidance of a Chinese teacher but he “failed miserably.” He later studied with the Japanese Zen master Koho Kennichi and soon began to unfold into profound awakening, receiving inka or certification of enlightenment in 1339.

Muso Soseki went on to teach large numbers of students and, like many Zen practitioners, write poetry. He also became an advisor to the first Ashikaga Shogun and helped to re-establish trade and communications between Japan and China.

Soseki is perhaps most famous, however, for his profound influence in the art of Zen gardening as spaces to cultivate awareness.

More poetry by Muso Soseki

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