{"id":8443,"date":"2024-07-12T08:09:26","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T15:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=8443"},"modified":"2024-07-12T13:27:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T20:27:12","slug":"ikkyu-the-vast-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/12\/ikkyu-the-vast-flood\/","title":{"rendered":"Ikkyu – The vast flood"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vast flood
\nby Ikkyu<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by R. H. Blyth<\/font><\/p>\n

The vast flood
\nRolls onward
\nBut yield yourself,
\nAnd it floats you upon it.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Zen and Zen Classics<\/a>, by R. H. Blyth<\/font><\/p>\n


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

This short poem feels like it is saying a lot.<\/p>\n

The vast flood
\nRolls onward<\/i><\/p>\n

Day after day, experience after experience, terrors and tragedies, joys and victories, everything \u2014 life. It can feel like an onslaught. Most of us learn to dampen down the awareness in order to cope and mimic those around us.<\/p>\n

Yet even with dimmed senses we feel overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

But yield yourself,
\nAnd it floats you upon it.<\/i><\/p>\n

This is the liberating wisdom of surrender.<\/p>\n

Most of our intense efforts in life, whether directed toward work, family, even spirituality, are about trying to control the flow of life. We want to master the flood, bring it under our will. We want to tame it so we can be safe.<\/p>\n

But it never really works.<\/p>\n

This lifelong effort is like a duck on a great river who imagines he controls the current by the action of his paddling feet. When he happens to face downstream \u2014 Amazing! The river goes just where he commanded! When he turns left or right, he imagines that he needs to increase his effort and improve his technique to get the river flowing where he wants. And when he turns upstream \u2014 Calamity! He has lost control of the river.<\/p>\n

Or\u2026 he can just sit on top of the river and let its current carry him.<\/p>\n

Yielding ourselves to this great river, no longer imagining that we control it, we can finally begin to discover its true nature and direction \u2014 and beauty. We come to see its flow as a unifying harmony and not a threat. Importantly, we notice our natural buoyancy. We are built to float upon it.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Ikkyu (Ikkyu Sojun)<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nHaiku Enlightenment: New Expanded Edition<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Poetry of Zen: (Shambhala Library)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nCrow With No Mouth: Fifteenth Century Zen Master Ikkyu<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nZen and Zen Classics<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Ikkyu<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nIkkyu (Ikkyu Sojun)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Japan (1394 \u2013 1481) Timeline<\/a>
\nBuddhist<\/a> : Zen \/ Chan<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Ikkyu Sojun\u2019s poetry is irreverent and iconoclastic, bitingly critical of false piety, hypocrisy, and formalistic religion. His poetry is often frankly erotic, sometimes humorously so. Yet his poetry manages to reach an immediacy and insight that is the essence of Zen practice.<\/p>\n

Ikkyu was appointed to be the head priest of the great temple at Kyoto, but he renounced the position after just nine days, denouncing the hypocrisy he saw among the monks around him. In a famous line from one of his poems, he told his fellow monks they could find him in the local brothel instead.<\/p>\n

Though clearly not of an ascetic temperament, Ikkyu was a poet, calligrapher, and musician who viewed the world with a deep insight that permitted no pretense, favoring direct truth over religious and social facades.<\/p>\n

He founded what became known as the Red Thread school of Zen.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Ikkyu (Ikkyu Sojun)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vast flood by Ikkyu English version by R. H. Blyth The vast flood Rolls onward But yield yourself, And it floats you upon it. \u2014 from Zen and Zen Classics, by R. H. Blyth \/ Image by bimjo \/ This short poem feels like it is saying a lot. The vast flood Rolls onward […]<\/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":[588,2159,2562,2154,1869,118],"class_list":["post-8443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-effort","tag-float","tag-flood","tag-surrender","tag-yield","tag-zen-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443","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=8443"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8446,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions\/8446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}