{"id":5576,"date":"2017-01-18T09:20:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T16:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=5576"},"modified":"2017-01-18T09:23:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T16:23:23","slug":"muso-soseki-satori-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/18\/muso-soseki-satori-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"Muso Soseki – Satori Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toki-no-Ge (Satori Poem)
\nby Muso Soseki<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by W. S. Merwin <\/font><\/p>\n

Year after year
\n      I dug in the earth
\n            looking for the blue of heaven
\nonly to feel
\n      the pile of dirt
\n            choking me
\nuntil once in the dead of night
\n      I tripped on a broken brick
\n            and kicked it into the air
\nand saw that without a thought
\n      I had smashed the bones
\n            of the empty sky<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> — from Sun at Midnight: Muso Soseki – Poems and Sermons<\/a>, Translated by W. S. Merwin \/ Translated by Soiku Shigematsu<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Questavia<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Don’t you like the way this short Zen poem says so much? <\/p>\n

Year after year
\n      I dug in the earth
\n            looking for the blue of heaven<\/i><\/p>\n

The spiritual quest is first seen as some sort of construction project, but he doesn’t really know what to build or what he’s doing so he just digs deeper.<\/p>\n

He is digging into the earth searching for heaven. We might take this to mean that he is delving into worldly, material existence. Or perhaps it is merely to suggest the heavy effort of spiritual striving. Either way, the effort, rather than freeing him is choking him. <\/p>\n

only to feel
\n      the pile of dirt
\n            choking me<\/i><\/p>\n

It is as if he has been digging his own grave. Even then he doesn’t know what else to do.<\/p>\n

But insight, that moment of satori<\/i> or enlightenment, comes almost by accident. <\/p>\n

until once in the dead of night
\n      I tripped on a broken brick
\n            and kicked it into the air<\/i><\/p>\n

Though it may be an accident, it is not random. If he hadn’t been digging in the first place, he never would have stumbled. So, in an ironic way, the effort has served its purpose, but not in the purposeful cause-and-effect manner he imagined.<\/p>\n

Significantly, it is “in the dead of night” when he stumbles and falls, what we might interpret as the dark night of the soul when he feels most hopeless and drained.<\/p>\n

and saw that without a thought
\n      I had smashed the bones
\n            of the empty sky<\/i><\/p>\n

Yet in falling on his back he is face up and finally sees the sky. He’s stunned into silence (“without a thought”). The sky itself shatters. He pierces through the false sky, which is a construction of his mind — his thoughts about the sky and the heavenly realms, his concepts and assumptions of all that encompasses his world. He finally sees clearly sky<\/i>, as it is, the living, empty spaciousness that overarches and permeates everything.<\/p>\n

A reminder to us that earnest seekers labor hard, but the masters know how to fall back — and so see the sky.<\/p>\n

=<\/p>\n

Big energies are circulating because of the inauguration this week in the US. It’s okay to not go along with the pretense that things are okay. <\/p>\n

The challenge going forward — cultivating a peaceful heart in coordination with a strong voice and a willing hand.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Muso Soseki<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sun at Midnight: Muso Soseki – Poems and Sermons<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nEast Window: Poems from Asia<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nRoaring Stream: A New Zen Reader<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n
\n\"Muso<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nMuso Soseki<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Japan (1275 – 1351) Timeline<\/a>
\nBuddhist<\/a> : Zen \/ Chan<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n

[ad#Adsense-4]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

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 certification of enlightenment in 1339.<\/p>\n

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

Soseki is perhaps most famous, however, for his profound influence in the art of Zen gardening as spaces to cultivate awareness.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Muso Soseki<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toki-no-Ge (Satori Poem) by Muso Soseki English version by W. S. Merwin Year after year       I dug in the earth             looking for the blue of heaven only to feel       the pile of dirt             choking me until once in the dead of night       I tripped on a broken brick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[267,988,118],"class_list":["post-5576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-muso-soseki","tag-satori","tag-zen-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5576"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5579,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions\/5579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}