Sandõkai

by Sekitõ Kisen1

From the mind of the Great Hermit of India2

Flows the clear stream, intimately transmitted, its source unseen.

The path of true Zen dips and turns through scenes

That reflect the sharp or dull-witted traveler.

While branching streams flow in the dark everywhere,

No patriarchs to show the way are to be found anywhere.

Born of dust, we cling first to things, then tumble

Into their twin, the delusion of ideals.

All our senses and their objects together work and play

Through gates and over bridges that both span and separate.

To all appearances things and voices differ deeply.

Poetry and obscenities merge

In the darkness where words echo;

Light brings clarity to muddy depths.

The four elements return to the source, like a child to its mother,

Fire warming, wind blowing, water dampening, earth supporting.

Colors embrace the eye; notes caress the ear;

Aromas seduce the nostrils; tastes kiss the tongue.

Thus each natural thing lives its nature;

Ethereal air or common dirt, each speaks its speech.

As leaves grow from roots, so the end from its beginning;

No high and low, only a blossoming from its source.

All light springs from darkness, all darkness from light.

Yet light cannot explain darkness, nor darkness light.

Light and dark are steps in the unconscious magic of walking.

All things are empty, pregnant with potential—function and significance.

The ideal holds the actual, like a box its dimensions.

The actual beholds the ideal, like two arrows that meet head-on.

Hear the meaning. Don’t get stuck on the words.

Understand. Don’t set up your own standards.

Pay attention to the senses that placed you on the path:

Practice here and now.

How else can you expect to travel the great distance?

Just walk: the difference between near and far drops off.

But should you get lost, don’t forget

The Peakless Mountain, the Shoreless River.3

I can offer only this: Study the mystery!

Don’t waste time!

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1. Sekitõ Kisen (700–790), who was struck with Master Seigen’s whisk, had a dream
that he was floating in a great pond with Enõ, the Sixth Patriarch (Seigen’s
teacher), on the back of a giant turtle. Upon awakening, he wrote the Sandõkai (see
Denkoroku, chapter 35).

2. Sekitõ calls the Buddha the “Great Hermit” (大仙: Ta-hsien, Daisen or Taisen).
The title calligraphy is by Taisen [泰仙] Deshimaru.

3. The anachronistic reference is to Peakless Mountain Shoreless River Temple

(Muhozan Kozenji: 無峰山廣川寺): New Orleans Zen Temple.

(Richard Collins on the occasion of receiving Shihõ, 2 January 2016 at Zen

Bakersfield)