Friday Night Poetry Slam

THEME: selected verses of Layman Pang, verse 6

I have been appreciating the verses of Layman Pang that are translated by Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshita Iriya, and Dana Fraser in "A Man of Zen: The Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang", so for the next several weeks, I intend to share a verse from the Layman and respond with a verse of my own.

Share your zen poetry below. The theme is merely a suggestion.

Layman P'ang's Verse

Going out of the room,

Coming into the room,

Coming and going, coming and going-- therefore your weeping!

Coming and going was due only to greed, anger, and folly.

Now that you've realized, you should be content.

Being content, you should penetrate the Source,

And discard your former false teachers.

Those false teachers--

Make them your handmen!

Dharma-almsgiving has no before or after;

Together you preserve the Birthless Land.

...

Jungle_Toad's verse

The meaning of tatha is 'thus'

Agata 'come', and gata 'gone'

Tathagata ties them all in one

Neither coming nor going

The Thus Come, Thus Gone One

Greed, anger, and folly are known as three poisons

A silence most vast contains all of their noises

All of your coming and going, bringing on tears

"Is there something else I should be doing?" bringing on fears

Not accepting nor rejecting, a teacher serves the servants

By going with the flow and cutting off the currents

The gift not given, the prize not to be won

Resting in the birthless womb of the world honored one

Submitted July 16, 2022 at 02:00AM by jungle_toad https://ift.tt/gXn2GvZ