The Zen Poetry and Sayings Collection of Bruce Jones

H. L. Mencken

We are here ...

Alan Watts

Past and future are illusions.

Sheng-ts'an

Don't seek reality

Master Sessan

The secret of seeing things as they are ...

Zen anon.

In the scenery of spring...

George Orwell

To see what is in front of one's nose...

Zen master

Who binds you?

Georgia O'Keefe

Nobody sees a flower -

Krishnamurti

Meditation is not a means to an end.

Panchadasi

How shall I grasp it?

Rumi

Break the legs of what I want to happen.

Claude Bernard

Man can learn nothing except by going

Zen Koan

How do you step ...

Rumi

Be a spot on the ground where nothing is growing...

Lao Tzu

We shape clay into a pot...

Muso Kokushi

A primary aim of Zen is the uncovering of what is

Lao Tzu

Do your work, then step back.

Zen koan

When I hear I see, when I see I hear.

Zen master.

If you try to aim for it, you are turning away from it.

Alistair Reed.

"Did you have a happy childhood?"...

Bulgarian Proverb.

If you wish to drown...

Tai-hui

This matter, Zen, is like ...

zen saying

Ears hear and eyes see...

Unknown

If all the waves of the Zen stream were alike...

Dogen

Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and

Satre

Being is what it is.

Alan Watts

Zen is a way of liberation, concerned not with

Zen saying

If you do not get it from yourself...

Muso Kokushi

It is a characteristic tendency of human beings to

The Shodoka

You must neither strive for truth nor seek to lose

All the Mornings in the World

Death is the sum of what it steals from us.

Muso Kokushi

It is there, right where you are;

Muso Kokushi

Worldly Feelings

Saigyo

I'll forget the trail

Oscar Levant

So little time, so little to do.

Jack Kerouac

If you want to tell me that the stars are not words...

Sheng-Ts'an

No yesterday, no tomorrow, and no today.

Albert Schweitzer

Natural and super-natural...

The Buddha

Sit

Huanchu Daoren

Strong drink, fat meat...

Huanchu Daoren

Calm in quietude is not real calm...

W. H. Auden

To ask the hard question is simple.

Sir Richard (Francis) Burton

Abjure the why and seek the how.

The Six Rules of Tilopa

Do not think...

Pai-chang

A day without work is a day without eating.

Shunkyu Suzuki

Zen is not some kind of excitement...

Zen saying

Do not permit the events of your daily life to bind you...

Dogen

There is no beginning to practice

necessary for training.

Great Faith.

Hakuin

Should you desire great tranquility...

Anon

What is the meaning of life?

Richard Kostelanetz

Value judgements are destructive to our proper business...

Ojibwa saying

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while

Basho

An autumn night -

Ts'ai Ken T'an

Water which is too pure has no fish.

Zen saying.

Where there is great doubt...

Dogen

In autumn

Seneca

Some there are that torment themselves afresh with

Layman P'ang

All existent phenomena are empty;

Muso Kokushi

It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.

Zen saying

Everything the same;

Chinese proverb.

In a hundred-mile march...

Yun-men's One Word Zen

Student: "What is the most urgent phrase?"

Muso Kokushi

If you forget your feelings about things of the world...

Dogen

As usual

Kazuaki Tanahashi

If one becomes free of viewpoints, objects are no

Dogen

...enlightenment is the mind which sees into impermenance.

Dogen

Do not assume another person's functions or neglect

Dogen: What are words?

Tenzo: Nothing in the universe is hidden

Dogen

A refined cream soup is not necessarily better than

Dogen, quoting "a teacher of old"

Two-thirds of your life has passed...

Dogen

Here is the place; here the way unfolds.

Dogen

Water birds

Dogen

All my life false and real, right and wrong tangled.

Ikkyu

A mind to search elsewhere

The Seven Taoist Masters

Chi, or original breath, is the foundation of life....

Basho

First snow

Charlotte Joko Beck

There is no end to the opening up

Ryokan

How pitiful, those virtuous fellows!

Ryokan

I've never bothered about getting ahead

Ryokan

All my life too lazy to try to get ahead...

Ryokan

Who was it said, "Names are the guests of reality"?

Ryokan

Let the smallest lust for fame and fortune enter the mind...

Ryokan

Picking persimmons

Ryokan

*A Visit from Chikukyu Rojin*

Ryokan

The days and months move on, and now as

Ryokan

How long has it been since I came to this place?

Ryokan

Walking along

Ryokan

Because of the finger

Ryokan

Where you have beauty

Ryokan

Sitting alone in my empty room

Ryokan

The weather at last is turning mild

Ryokan

*Song of the Wide-Open Spaces*

Ryokan

*An Answer to your Poem*

Ryokan

In the shadow of the mountain

Ryokan

I count them off -

Ryokan

Burning brushwood

Soshitsu Sen XV

The Way of Tea has undergone many generations ...

Soshitsu Sen XV

One important Buddhist sutra says ...

Ikkyu

Still breathing...

Ryokan

Though travels

Ryokan

In this village

Ryokan

Woody peonies

Ryokan

These old days - I wonder...

Ryokan

In the still night by the vacant window...

Ryokan

Dark of winter, eleventh month...

Ryokan (Eizo)

As a boy I left my father, ran off to other lands...

Ryokan

I have a walking stick -

Joshu

A monk approached ...

Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin

I had been told to try to exactly copy my teacher ...

Ken Burns

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism...

Jamaica Kincaid

Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably

Tung-Shan

Ernestly avoid seeking without...

Jim Harrison

Our minds buzz like bees

Jim Harrison

One part of the brain attacks another...

Jim Harrison

The hound I've known for three years

Jim Harrison

Time and tide that wait for no man willingly

Jim Harrison

I once thought that life's what's left over after

Jim Harrison

I feel pleasantly old and stupid...

Jim Harrison

The actual speed of life

Jim Harrison

Even running downstream

Kazuaki Tanahashi

A bamboo brush is an extremely inefficient tool. It takes years to

Kazuaki Tanahashi

If each moment is our entire life...

Kakei

Will the two-day moon

Basho

Make the universe your companion...

Lord Mitsutoshi

A carp in a tub

Issa

From now on...

Issa

Writing shit about new snow

Issa

Cuckoo singing;

Issa

No talent

Issa

What good luck!

Issa

The moon and the flowers...

Issa

Moon, plum blossoms...

Issa

What a strange thing

Issa

New Year's Day --

Buson

Three springs now since leaving my home

Bruce Jones

Following Buson:

Buson

A moored boat;

Buson

That snail --

Buson

Coming back --

Basho

As for the hibiscus

Basho

Another year gone --

Basho

A cicada shell;

Basho

Winter solitude --

Basho

The beginning of art --

Basho

A caterpiller...

Eido Tao Shimano

Impermanency is not theory but dynamic fact.

Basho

Along this Way

Mumon

In spring, hundreds of flowers;

Kazuaki Tanahashi

Attentiveness rather than effeciency.

Kazuaki Tanahashi

Less judgement, less trying, less improvement...

Kazuaki Tanahashi

As soon as you accept the accidental effects...

Kazuaki Tanahashi

What is remarkable about Zen is to make your mind flexible...

Kazuaki Tanahashi

Mountains in waters

Kazuaki Tanahashi

If a journey is a departure from where we usually

Kazuaki Tanahashi

Skill is a hinderance.

Kazuaki Tanahashi

If you are under control you lose the danger of

Kazuaki Tanahashi

If we learn to enjoy waiting...

Kazuaki Tanahashi

Industrious people build industry.

Yoshishige no Yatsutane

As for the people and affairs of the contemporary

Frantz Kafka

You do not need to leave your room.

Taoist ideal.

To the mind that is still

Loy Ching-Yuen

We can hold back neither the coming of the flowers

Joko Beck.

Let us be respectfully reminded:

Loy Ching-Yuen

An inch of time is an inch of gold:

Masahide

Barn's burnt down -

Issa

All the time I pray to buddha

Issa

Crescent moon -

Issa

Insects on a bough

Buson

The butterfly sleeps well

Anon

Sitting peacefully doing nothing

Sengai

To what shall I compare this life of ours?

Carl Abbott

Difficulties along the way are opportunities

Hui-neng

Zen: Seeing into one's own nature.

Ryokan

I see people in the world

Ryokan

Keep your heart clear and transparent

Kenko

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from

Kenko

The fence round her house...

Kenko

You must not wait until you are old before you begin practicing the Way.

Kenko

Expert knowledge in any art is a noble thing. [But] a man should avoid

Kenko

A man who has determined to take the Great Step should leave

Kenko

They flock together like ants, hurry east and west, run north and south.

Kenko

I wonder what feelings inspire a man to complain of "having nothing to

Kenko

If a man conforms to society, his mind will be captured by the filth of

Kenko

I was impressed to hear the Abbot Kyoku say, "It is typical of the

Kenko

How is it possible for men not to rejoice each day over the pleasure of

Kenko

When in doubt whether or not to do something...

Kenko

It is good for a scholar to act like an ignoramus...

Kenko

If some man came and informed...

Kenko

True wisdom consists in knowing...

Kenko

The intelligent man, when he dies...

Kenko

Do what is good and ask not ...

Kenko

If you wish to avoid mistakes of any kind...

Kenko

Man is eternally swayed ...

Ryokan

The water of the mind, how clear it is!

Ryokan

The past and the present...

Richard D. Lem

When I was growing up, I never felt I was an individual. I was

Joseph Goldstein

Next time you face some difficulty, imagine that you face your

Unknown/a>

...this you can prevent.

Issa

Dying cricket -

Issa

Year-end sprucing...

Issa

Man's end -

Issa

Journey's end -

Issa

Year's end -

Issa

Skylark on moor -

Issa

On the dead limb

Issa

Do not forget the plum...

Issa

Sparrows in eaves...

Issa

Year by year...

Issa

In my new robe

Issa

Summer grasses...

Tenzin Gyatso

The basic, fundamental nature of human beings is gentleness;

Koji

The desire for enlightenment

Koji

Tomorrow's wind blows tomorrow.

Dogen

Think three times before speaking. Then choose to speak only one of

Tenzin Gyatso

Be kind whenever possible.

M. K. F. Fisher

One has to live, you know. You can't just die from grief

Michael McClure

Despite Fascination

Bruce Jones

After Saigyo

Saigyo

Now I understand -

Saigyo

Ice wedged fast

Saigyo

Tangled even further

Saigyo

Why should I resent

Issa

In early spring rain

Vaclav Havel

By perceiving ourselves as part of the river...

Bishop Daniel Corrigan

You put your foot on a path and walk. One day, you look back...

Sam Hamill

Mono-no-aware: a sense of beauty intensified by recognition of

Sam Hamill

Shikan: a meditative state in which perception is utterly free of

Zen saying

Live as though you were already dead.

Issa

Several people told me a story about some folks who heard heavenly

Issa

New Year greeting-time

Issa

A little shady

Issa

Life is brief, desire infinite.

Issa

The nature of man

Issa

The small butterfly

Issa

Thus spring begins: old

Issa

What is the lord's vast wealth

Issa

The old dog listens

Issa

O autumn winds...

Issa

A world of dew...

Issa

Give me a homeland...

Issa

A world of trials...

Issa

After a long nap...

Saito

Love:

Eugen Herrigel

The master sticks to his traditional customs because he knows from

Eugen Herrigel

Practice, repetition, and repetition of the repeated with

Eugen Herrigel

What is true of archery and swordsmanship also applies to all the

Norman Maclean

Many of us probably would be better fishermen if we did not spend so

Dogen

No matter how bad a state of mind you get in...

Sounds like Satre

The door to Hell ....

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Perfection is finally attained...

Philo's Law:

To learn from your mistakes...

The Internet Oracle

You owe the Oracle a top-notch performance...

The Internet Oracle

You are a god, the world spinning before you...

Armey's Axiom

You can't get ahead while getting even.

Mary W. Shelly

Alas! Why does man boast ....

David Budbill

No one cares about

David Budbill

Never be deliberately obscure.

David Budbill

An Age of Academic Mandarins

David Budbill

I don't want your advice.

David Budbill

The cycle of the seasons is to teach us to prepare

David Budbill

Frost comes at night

David Budbill

I want to be

David Budbill

Try not

David Budbill

If you are artless and ordinary...

David Budbill

Struggle

David Budbill

Another Lie

David Budbill

Variation on a Theme by Another Recluse ...

David Budbill

No Trail

David Budbill

The Three Goals

David Budbill

When I came to Judvine Mountain

David Budbill

After Thirty Years

Master Po

"Reach out, yet be wary of what

Watazumi-do Shuso

There is something deeper if you would go deeper...

Will Durant

One of the lessons of history is that nothing

Unknown

Student: "Master, what is the purpose of life?"

Marcel Proust

[When the] habitually concealed

Unknown

Blessed are they who can laugh ....

Moind

The degree of certainty in one's level of competency is...

The Internet Oracle

A spring robin hangs

Jon Postel

"Be conservative in what you do...

Brahma

"Well, after hearing ten thousand explanations...

Steve Talbot

My own intellectual work is in fact ...

Bishop Herbert Welch

In the waning light of day you see more clearly

Brahma

Well, after hearing ten thousand explanations

Stick Man

The human world is a sad place where lives are short and meaningless

Unknown

Your don't have to go to the East Sea to meet Kuan Yin.

Kuan Yin

The restless, surging waves bring troubles your way -

Kuan Yin

A true man doesn't allow emotions to distract him...

Kuan Yin

Don't give your ears to intrigue and scandal

Kuan Yin

On the eastern edge, the moon rises, so full of grace

Kuan Yin

Fate

Kuan Yin

The Middle Way

Kuan Yin

A plum tree stands alone on a hill of its own...

Kuan Yin

Simplicity

Ryokan

The plants and flowers

Leonard Cohen

Ring the bells that still can ring

Unknown/a>

...each time, one time...

Andrew MacGregor

A great shakuhachi teacher once told me ...

Suzuki Roshi

Everything is perfect, it just needs a little improvement.

David Abram

Nothing is more common to the diverse indigenous cultures...

Tibetan Buddhist Saying

Abandon all hope of fruition.

Georges Bernanos

In order to be prepared to hope in what does not deceive...

Dogen

To what shall

Unknown mid-16thC Waka poet

Amidst spring flowers who should care that the wind blows?

Hsueh-tou (980-1052)

The moon floats above the pines...

Huntington Cairns

The essence of Platonism may be said to be ...

Charles Schultz

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.

Quaker saying

Proceed as the way unfolds.

Master Po

"Where fear is, does not danger also live?

Noh master Zeami

Matters to Take to Heart ...

Sarah Orne Jewett

Satisfaction, even after one has dined well...

William Least-Heat Moon

... the point is to go a difficult way

Kenny Werner

If you think music is ...

Fuyo Suga no Sadaharu

There is shakuhachi as a Zen instrument...

Keith Jarret

Oh, anyone can play like Miles...

Shakespeare

How sour sweet music is...

Zhuangzi

Use what you don't know

Kung-fu Tze

All wisdom is rooted in learning to call things by the right name.

Philip Marlowe

There are days like that. Everyone you meet is a dope.

the Buddha

Your work is to discover your world

Haiku...

What Zen?

Karen Horney

Pride ... is the enemy of love.

Unknown

Do not seek to follow the footsteps of the masters

Eugen Herrigel

The first characteristic ...

Eugen Herrigel

The illuminating vision is such that ...

Eugen Herrigel

... try to be of service uncriticzingly...

Nyogen Senzaki

If you cannot hold even the mind and body you use...

Nyogen Senzaki

Bamboo shadows sweep the stairs...

Brett Breitwieser

The great mantra that cures all suffering:

Leon Kass

[We] can never adequately understand a human performance as ...

Rene' Char

The moment the instinct for survival gives way ...

Anne-Sophie Mutter

Art involves more than just playing a piece quickly...

William James

Belief is thought at rest.

David Bader

If there is no self, then whose arthritis is this?

Steve Talbott

If you aim for happiness...

Dostoevsky (paraphrase)

The point is not to understand life...

Joel Taylor

Reflections on *Kyorei*

Cathy Bacquet

I worried incessantly about my job, my daughter and ...

Anon

To learn is to adapt to being less than perfect.

Unknown

If you understand...

Rolf Gates

The truth is, we are all so very ....

Tao Te Jones

The Tao is the center of the universe...

"Mrs. Marriam Taylor"

Happiness, joy, peace, trust, is an attitude of mind, born of the

Rafi Zabor

In real-life, grown-up, no-shit mysticism, Enlightenment, Union...

Rafi Zabor

The primary profession of the Islamic faith *La ilaha ill'Allah*

Ikkyu

No masters

Christopher Maurer

As long as he does not try to free himself from the world, the poet

James Thurber

All men should try to learn before they die

Yoshimura Fuan Soushin

"Myoan Shakuhachi can not be likened to ...

Tao-sheng

The symbol serves to express an idea, and is to be discarded once

Rebecca Solnit

For many years, I have been moved by the blue ...

Eric Hoffer

It is not good for our efforts at self-realization to know the

Eric Hoffer

The most important point is - and remains ...

Genro

A white cloud hangs over the summit

Nyogen Senzak

Zen is not a thing that can be given by a teacher to a disciple.

Budhist saying.

Sameness without difference

Genro

Because human affairs are uncertain...

Nyogen Senzak

The world is filled with people who are "too much" of this or

Genro

True emancipation has nothing to hold to, no color to be seen...

Nyogen Senzaki

If you have no attachment for a thing you may see, it will simply

Genro

Watch a falling leaf.

Craig Nova

It's not an easy moment when you realize you haven't escaped life at

Craig Nova

He never thought he'd get old. He had the sense about himself that

Gregory Orr

To be alive: not just the carcass

Gregory Orr

When I was a child

Gregory Orr

dos of a stone

Gregory Orr

The truth's in myth not fact...

-David Budbill

Gama Sennin

David Budbill

All this ego

David Budbill (excerpt)

Will your poems seduce a dark, young maiden

Unknown/a>

The dumplings in a dream are not dumplings, only dreams.

John Andrew Holmes

It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one

Gregory Orr

How can I celebrate love...

David Stacton

No system of self-discipline can ever be one's self. It is merely

David Stacton

Koan: a metaphysical riddle that can only be answered

David Stacton

...for when you acquire a dog...

lyricalworks.com

Artistic expression is the honest expression of your life experiences

David Stacton

The absence of effort is a characteristic only of great vigor.

David Stacton

There is only one Micho waterfall. Yet who is to say how it differs

David Stacton

Japanese art always leaves something out, so that we may put it in.

David Stacton

Fear can also be beautiful, if only one has the ease to enjoy it.

David Stacton

One must be much alone to master a technique.

Pope Benedict

Love is indeed "ecstasy." Not in the sense of a moment of

Fung Yu Lan

nothing is accomplished by writing a piece of music

Alan Watts

There is, indeed, a considerable therapeutic value in allowing

Alan Watts

Lao-Tzu said 'the five colors make a man blind, the five tones make

Kinky Friedman

The un-aimed arrow never misses.

Ikkyu Sojun

Go down on your silly knees pray for what?

The Talmud

We do not see the world as it is.

P. D. James

We need, all of us, to be in control of our lives, and we shrink

The Hagakure

When you are at a parting of the ways, do not hesitate to choose the

Louis Jenkins

Earl (a poem)

Fredrick L. Lovret

"Do not covet illustrious titles and certificates; practice your

P. D. James

It is only through learning to love that we find identity.

Shelley L. Cummins

part of a letter to Mit:

James Howard Kunstler

Kunstler's Law:

Mahatma Gandhi

Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.

Yoda

Fear is the path to the dark side.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen...

Carlos Castaneda.

Sunday, August 20, 1961

Carlos Castaneda.

Thursday, November 23, 1961

Carlos Castaneda.

Monday, January 28, 1963

Carlos Castaneda.

Sunday, April 21, 1963

Yoda

Attachment leads to jealousy.

Richard Jones

that connects me to the world.

David Budbill

Tomorrow

The Secret

victory.

CSI - the "A Space Oddity" episode

Stop trying so hard to be something you're not

Buddha Nature

Then you are probably the family dog.

Jill Bukkai Washburn

Buddha says that most people imagine that reality is based upon

Unknown

Coincidence is what happens when we are not paying attention.

Shodo Harada Roshi

Bamboo shadows sweep the stairs...

Susuki Roshi

Incense touched by fire

Giancomo Leopardi

Little old white-haired man...

Stan Brakhage

Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye

John Cage Muses

What I'm proposing, to myself and other people...

Eckhart Tolle

Stillness

Laozi

A good traveler has no fixed plans...

Alfred Kozbyski

Having failed to disinguish thoughts from things...

Seth Godin

There are no shortcuts.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

Unknown

Be grateful for every step you take

Samuel Butler

Do not be anxious about tomorrow...

Unknown

To give up something is not true detachment

Karl Durrant

When faced with a delay, see it as an opportunity to stop rather

Isabelle Cholett

Stop clinging and embrace change as a constant.

miss l m davis

Give people the benefit of the doubt if they snap at you.

Julian Pollman

Few things are as serious as they seem in the first moment.

Will Hopkins

QTIP: quit taking it personally.

George Bernard Shaw

What is life but a series of inspired follies?

Renior

The pain passes, but the beauty remains.

Alan Watts

You don't need any book for Zen.

Matt Groening

Keep your expectations tiny

Albert Einstein

Problems can't be solved at the same level..

Eugen Herrigal

In Chinese and Japanese painting you do not look..

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Holding back the night

Takarai Kikaku

Bright moon...

Maeda no Munehisa

Usually I dislike a cloudy sky...

Su Shi

Do you know the water and moon?...

Jim Harrison

Birding is time out

Dogen

There is no beginning to desire

William Goldman

Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling

Linda Gregerson

No Fault.

Lao Tzu

If you are depressed, you are living in the past.

Vivian Greene

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.

Soen Nakagawa

Nowhere, now here!

Ted Kooser

December 24 / Sunny and clear

Adrian McKinty

Life is all about perspective.

Zen Master

Student: "Master, what is the purpose of life?"

Zen Saying

It is useless to show the gold piece to the cat.

Kozan Ichikyo

Empty-handed I entered

Lucan

Is the abode of God anywhere but in the earth, the sea, and sky...

Marcel Proust

We don't receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves after a

Bruce Jones

The believer is happy, the faithful, wise.

Hasidic mondo

You can only tell when night has ended and day has begun when you can

Albert Camus

We all carry within us places of exile; our crimes, our ravages.

Lao-tzu

Knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness.

Izumi Shikibu

Although the wind