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Zen 96

Page 7

by Alexander Goldstein

knowledge,

  But do not follow the proper course of life,

  The whole world is thrown into great disorder.

  The knowledge shown in the making

  Of all modern tools and devices is great,

  But the environment is troubled by them,

  From above and below, and in all respects.

  The knowledge shown in their inventions is great,

  But resources are mercilessly exploited by them;

  The knowledge shown in the arrangements

  For the new methods of management is great,

  But men in the lower regions are disturbed by them.

  So, the versatility shown in the artful deceptions,

  Becoming more and more pernicious

  In ingenious discussions as to what is global

  And therefore capital-intensive warming

  And political cooling, and what is easy to lose

  And hard to prevent, and what is black and white

  In useless argument, and in attempt to disperse the dust

  And reconcile different views are great indeed,

  But people are perplexed by all the sophistry.

  Truly, as is said, 'The greatest art of politics

  Sounds reliable to the deceived ears.'

  65

  Doomed HD & Hi-Fi

  As they fairly say,

  An extraordinary power of vision

  Leads to the confusion

  Of all colours and therefore

  An excessive use of ornament.

  Its possessor, in the resplendence

  Of one's red and yellow,

  White and black, blue and green

  Will not stop till he has become

  A pheasant with its colourful plumage.

  An extraordinary power of hearing

  Leads to a confusion of all notes

  And an excessive use of the accords.

  Its possessor, in bringing out the tones

  From the instrument made of metal,

  Stone, silk, skin, wood and bamboo

  Aided by the tuning fork, will not stop

  Till one has become a nightingale of May.

  66

  Letting Go

  A high achiever is he

  Who can present in his body

  The appearance of being agitated,

  But in his mind he is conscious of no loss.

  Even the loss of life to him

  Is like the exiting from his home

  In the early morn, and no more ill reality.

  In this way, he is more awake than others are

  To reboot himself and start a day from the right end.

  67

  Opening and Closing

  Every man may well proceed on one's mission;

  But let me repeat to you what I have heard

  From sagely people. 'Skilful wrestlers,' they say,

  'Begin with open trials of strength, but always

  End with masked attempts to gain a victory;

  As their excitement grows excessive,

  They display much wonderful dexterity.'

  Parties drinking at first observe an order,

  But always end with complete disarray;

  As their excitement grows excessive,

  Their fun becomes uproarious and erratic.

  In all things it is so. People are at first sincere,

  But always end with becoming rude; as a rule,

  At first things are treated as trivial, but as the end

  Draws near, they assume great proportions, for sure.

  The breath comes angrily, as when a beast

  Driven to death, wildly bellows forth its rage.

  On this animosities arise on both sides.

  Hasty examination of the case eagerly proceeds,

  And revengeful thoughts arise in their minds,

  But they do not know how. Since they do not know

  How such thoughts arise, who knows how they will end?

  68

  Words

  Words are like the waves

  Acted on by the onshore wind

  When the real point of the case,

  Which is a match for the sea itself,

  Discussed by them is lost.

  The wind and waves

  Are easily set in motion;

  Success of a sailing is failed

  Once the port of destination is lost,

  Putting the vessel in peril

  Of the deep blue whirl.

  This is the reason why

  Quarrels are occasioned

  By nothing so much

  As by the artful words

  And one-sided speeches.

  69

  The Human Nature

  The centuries-old question

  Of the men's primordial nature,

  Whether it is good or ill,

  May be reduced to the following 'ifs.'

 

  If you make for men a device

  To measure their wares,

  Even by means of that device,

  Whether you like it or not,

  You thus teach them to steal

  From their neighbours;

  If you make for them weights

  And steelyards to weigh their goods,

  Even by means of those tools

  You teach them to steal from their clients.

  If you make for men tallies and seals

  To secure their good faith,

  Even by means of those things

  You teach them to steal

  From their counterparties;

  If you make for them the fair system

  Of punishment and pardon

  In order to make their doings right,

  Even by means of this you teach them

  The way to steal from those

  Who are in the lower regions. . .

  70

  What If. . .

  As it runs, "The greatest art looks like stupidity."

  What if all sophisticated schemes of governing

  Were to be seized and thrown aside--

  The virtue of all mankind would begin to display

  The men's mysterious excellence. What if the men

  Have possessed and employed their power of vision--

  There would never be distortion in the world.

  What if the men have possessed and employed

  Their natural power of hearing--there would be

  No distraction at all. What if all the kind men

  Have possessed and employed their natural faculty of wisdom--

  There would be no delusions around. What if the men

  Have possessed and employed their good qualities in full--

  There would be no depravity in the entire world.

  What if all the artful men would display their skills

  And tricks of the trade outwardly, setting the world

  In a blaze of admiration and confound it entirely

  By praising this with the formal term 'globalizing'

  That requires the informal worldwide government,

  The final countdown, a method of deadlock,

  Has been brought into operation once and for all

  Without any conjectural questioning 'What if. . .'

  71

  The Old Hand at Governing

  I have heard of letting the world be so

  And exercising forbearance,

  But I have never heard of the way

  Of ruling people and governing the state

  By virtue of someone's full authority.

  The notion of 'letting be' comes out

  From the fear that the people,

  Once interfered with, will carry their nature

  Beyond all norms and regulations;

  The 'exercising forbearance' comes out

  From the fear that the people,

  Once not so dealt with, will alter specifics

  Of their human habits from bad to worse.

  When all the people do not carry their nat
ure

  Beyond the norms and regulations,

  Nor alter dramatically their human features,

  A good governing is firmly secured

  For long-lasting job and common goodness.

  72

  Rewards and Punishments

  If now the modern world

  Were taken to reward the good,

  It would not suffice

  Nor would it be possible with it

  To punish the evil so far.

  This world, great as it is,

  Not sufficing for rewards,

  As well as for punishments.

  From the time of old

  There has been nothing else

  But bustle and excitement,

  And that's the whole issue.

  Always occupied with rewards

  And punishments, what leisure

  Have men had to rest in the instincts

  Of their nature with which

  They are endowed so richly?

  But when men begin to honour them

  And long for them with partiality,

  How great is the deception

  Practised on the worldly conditions

  By dividing them into the ends of Extremity!

  And not only when a performance of them

  Is once and suddenly over,

  Do they not have done with them,

  But they prepare themselves

  As with fasting to describe them,

  They seem to kneel reverently

  When men bring them forward

  And they go through them

  With excitement of a musical show. . .

  And what can be done then

  To remedy the evil

  Within the human deportment?

  73

  The Human Mind

  If not to govern the world,

  How can we make

  Men's demeanour good?

  The human mind,

  If pushed about, gets depressed;

  If helped along, it gets exalted.

  Now exalted and now depressed,

  Here it appears as a prisoner

  And there as a wrathful fury.

  At one time it becomes pliable and soft,

  Yielding to what is hard and strong;

  At another, it is keen as the sharpest blade,

  Fit to carve or chisel the hardest stone.

  Now it is hot as a scorching fire,

  And anon it is cold as the icy water.

  It is so swift that while one is bending down

  And lifting up one's hands

  In propping the Buddha's feet,

  It shall twice have put forth

  A soothing thought beyond the four oceans.

  Resting, it is still as a deep abyss;

  Moving, it is like one of the shooting stars;

  In its resolute haughtiness,

  It refuses to be bound --

  Such is the human mind!

  It is the beauty of the skin

  Of tiger and leopard

  Which makes men hunt them;

  The agility of a monkey

  And sagacity of a dog

  Which strangles bears

  Make men lead them on a leash.

  But can one similarly endowed be matched

  To the sagely man? Does the human nature

  Permit it without demur? . .

  74

  Phrases and Faces

  Words cannot express in full

  The true meaning of things;

  Speech does not convey

  The spirit of the transcendental.

  Swayed by words

  One becomes frustrated and lost;

  Blocked by cliches

  One sees the bewildered look

  On one's woody face.

  75

  Trees, Tears, Trees

  The Bodhi tree or the Tree of Enlightenment

  Is in your pure heart, not in the pericardium--

  The storage of ambitious and voluptuous airs;

  Hence no one else is able to dig down its root

  Which cannot ever be rotten or vermiculated.

  Once turning from the juicy fruits of peaches

  Grown in the low-lying vale, you are doomed

  All your life to pick the harsh and sour plums

  Raised on steep slopes of the wind-blown hills.

  Hence, think twice before you tell your boss,

  A true woodworm, where to get off and for all.

  76

  A Bear's Affection

  Formerly I frequently strolled

  A decade or two of miles

  Through the deepest snow

  In the wind-blown bottomland

  To keep an appointment

  With an elm or a white birch,

  Or with an old acquaintance

  Among the wild plum trees.

  Today I sit alone on a high cliff

  Surrounded by my only intimates--

  The cypress trees and red pines.

  77

  Heaven's Layout

  Mountains and streams,

  Midwood and wasteland

  In the clear vision

  Of a poet and writer

  Are the junctions of Eternity

  Skilfully mapped out

  In accord with the starry pattern

  Which is answered in Earth's soul

  As the blueprint for fertile going on.

  78

  The Sabbath

  Some keep the Sabbath

  Going to a synagogue

  That is Beit-Knesset

  In the Hebrew tongue;

  I keep it staying

  In my backyard instead

  With an oriole for a cantor

  And the olive tree shade

  For my 'kipa,' my skullcap.

  As for the candle light,

  It is all the way in my mind.

  79

  High Peaks

  I admire high peaks

  Because they seem

  More selfless to me

  And more resigned

  In the way they are,

  Going thru the cold

  Of a long night and

  Midday heat ahead

  Than all the other

  Low-lying entities

  Whose fat lots flow

  In their due security.

  80

  The Bamboo Grove

  From time immemorial

  The bamboo groves

  Were еhe cradle

  And sanctuary and then

  The mass grave

  For all the sagely minded

  Hermits, secret societies,

  Rebels, decadents

  And poets in exile.

  81

  Still Stands Up and How!

  Each one is a bunch of wars

  And truces, from time to time

  Waged reasonably and without

  Any good reason but flamed up

  In one's bursting mind, like a flint.

  Like a knotty and contorted

  In the gusty wind cypress trees,

  With their blown out bare roots,

  Each of us clings to the rocky

  And jaggy cliffs of today's conditions

  To be on duly reproduction

  Of a plenty of cones.

  What compels each one,

  Whose living conditions

  Are so severe, to propagate well

  And be remarkable for longevity

  If not that gusty wind above all things!

  82

  Among the Thickets

  Upon entering into a midwood,

  You find yourself surrounded

  By the ancient trees

  Which are much higher

  Than lofty towers and castles

  Upon the rocky hills.

  Look up to observe the glory

  Of their everlasting cooperation

  With the blazing sun;

  Look down to only imagine

  How deep-rooted />
  Is their system of wrapping around.

  Touching the azure sky

  With their thickly boughs,

  They dip their luxuriant crowns

  Into the milkshake of clouds.

  They cast their stately shadows

  Of the trunks for masts

  Across the prominent boulders,

  Swampy ponds, bubbled brooks

  And sagged down lairs of tigers.

  The gloomy silence

  Of their shrivelled leaves

  Frozen within the twilight mist

  And the darkness of hollows--

  All those mysterious things

  Strike you straight to the marrow

  With an obvious presence

  Of something spirit-like and

  Ghostly vital hidden behind

  The palisade of elves and giants.

  83

  Patrimony

  What kind of age we live in

  When talks of deforestation

  And abuse of surroundings

  Are almost a taboo subject

  Because they imply silence

  About so many aberrations

  Of the doomed humankind

  In full ignorance of Nature!

  What times we're going thru

  If all talks of water pollution

  And need effluent treatment

  Are negligently reduced to

  Soothing delay "for later,"

  As though we hope for

  A second lifetime without

  Succeeding generations. . .

  84

  Springtime

  A saunter around the vernal hills

  May teach you more of yourself--

  What's wrong and good with you

  Than all a big city's practices in

  Various groups and societies can.

  85

  Overlapped Manifestations

  Holding in your hand

  Even a single leaf --

  The very last gift

  Of outgoing season. . .

  You look at it and

  What you see is a vision

  Of many inherent facets

  Of the uncarved

  Philosopher's monolith.

  In such a way

  It is to be manifested

  As an overall universal design

  Laying out in your palm's lines.

  86

  A Settled Abode

  Once on the edge of stress,

  Just think of the deep forest:

  It lets the birds perch and nest

  With no intention to call them

  When they come and no longing

  For their return when they fly away.

  If only men's minds can be like the forest,

  They would not swerve from good relations

  With their parents, kids, friends and colleagues.

  87

  When It Goes to Imbalance

  If we take knowledge as a rootage,

  We easily find out that all things

  That are destructed are yet

  The very cause of generation.

  We know subliminally

  That to stand up for generation

  And ignore destruction

  Is to violate the rootage and thus

  Spoil the whole superstructure.

  88

  Good Old Times Blossoming

  When these wild plum trees just start

  To burst their buds, I recall my fellows,

  My old brethren in the harsh wilderness:

  One was a ferryman, another a woodcutter,

  Who once upon a time gave me the saplings.

  Whereas the times we used to drink together,

  Sitting beneath these blossom trees, are fallen

  In oblivion, those years of ten or so springs ago

  Are like old snapshots to me, and the wine cups

  Of those days I now use as tea-bowls to entertain

  Some rare those who stay away from the highway

  To be one with themselves, Nature and Providence.

  89

  A Clear View

  At an instance I glance

  A dry leaf ramified pattern

  I see a marvel of the universe

  Lied at the very centre of my palm.

  90

  We All Are Like Trees

  We all are like the trees that

  Use what comes their ways

  To provide well themselves.

  By means of dipping roots

  They reach the azure skies;

  By accepting the rains

  They strengthen the ground

  On which they stand up

  In the winds and thunders;

  By reaching out to the sun

  They perfect the lives

  Of all who move around.

  All their excellences reduce

  To the motto which states:

  'Absorb, Refine, Appropriate'

  In order to grow greater day

  By day, year after year, forever.

  91

  Routine

  Our daily life

  Lies between

  Public haunts

  And home rest.

  We find benefits

  In communion,

  But our beatitude

  Comprise

  Cultivating virtues

  While common sense

  Gets into our hands

  From Mother Nature's

  Expedience.

  As for our good habits,

  We derive them all

  At the first light of dawn.

  92

  The Guardians

  High mountains serve as temples

  For visiting godheads and deities

  Who do not approve themselves

  In the earthly manifestations but

  Who dwell in the fibres of gems

  And stones, feeding from jasper

  And communicating by virtue of

  Opal, ruby and, most of all, jade.

  Some are permanently stationed

  And known as the kings of cliffs--

  The guardians of hallowed places,

  The gateways to the parallel worlds.

  93

  The Celestial Office

  The terrestrial mapping is design

  To present Mother Earth's making

  She has done upon celestial patterns.

 

  Only the human beings are able

  To look up into heavens and read

  Their records in the office upstairs.

 

  Yes, Heaven has the stars, Earth has

  The mountains and rivers while Man

  Has the steering wheel of his fortune.

  94

  Final Realization

  First we see mountains as the mountains;

  Then we see them as something different

  From mountains, and only after that stage

  They are the mountains in our eyes again.

  The wonder is that we ultimately see them

  And do not wonder any more of their look;

  And this is how it works thru contemplation.

  95

  A Song of Contemplation

  All this has been experienced

  And tasted more than once

  To be put to the worse:

  The course of years and

  Generations of foreign descendants,

  Progression, oppression,

  Recovery, discovery, and finally

  Enduring affection of the polar exile;

  A half-yearly chasing of the sun

  And wind-break which penetrates at last

  Into

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