Mist clears from ancient cedars and days last
forever… right and wrong don’t enter the
clouds.

– Stone House

Original Face is the reality of realities:
Stretch your hand to the winging bird.
Vertical nose, horizontal eyes – and then?
What if your mind is empty?
– Tokugaku (15th Century)

If you have not
Linked yourself
To true emptiness,
You will never understand.
– Morihei Ueshiba

The moonlight
High in the sky,
Shining through the eves,
Falls on a mind
Undisturbed by what
Might have been.

– Rikyu

Truth is perfect and complete in itself.
It is not something newly discovered;
It has always existed.
Truth is not far away.
It is nearer than near.
There is no need to attain it,
Since not one of your steps leads away from it.

– Dogen

Deep in the mountains,
on an isolated peak,
I live on my own in a stand of pines.

In a simple hut,
I sit meditating without concerns,
silent and alone, dwelling peacefully, lighthearted.

Once you’ve awakened,
it’s done:
no effort needed.

– Yung-chia (d.713)

Traceless, no more need to hide.
Now the old mirror reflects everything,
Autumn light moistened by faint mist.

– Suian (Southern Sung Dynasty)

Before the first step is taken the goal is reached.
Before the tongue is moved the speech is finished.
More than brilliant intuition is needed,
to find the origin of the right road.

– Mu-mon 1228

The perfume of sandalwood,
rosebay or jasmine
cannot travel against the wind.
But the fragrance of virtue
travels even against the wind,
as far as the ends of the world.

– Buddha