Clinging to samsara with a Vengeance—²
We let go a Presence—for an expectation—³
So long as we are conscious of space & time,
Zen keeps respectable distance from us: our
Holiday is Ill-Spent, our sleep is Disturbed—
And our whole life is a Failure—⁴
Renounce thy seeking—confess it Feigned!⁵
Contriving, we are defeated—Grasping we lose:⁶
We can outdistance that which runs after us
But not that which is runs Inside us—⁷
We seek throughout the world for what is
The Closest of all things to ourselves and
Look into every heart but our own for
What is hidden in no other breast—⁸
If there is but a hairsbreadth deviation from the Way—
It is like the gap between Heaven & Earth.⁹
We find consolations, we find numbings,
We learn skillful ways to delude ourselves,
But the Essential thing: the Path of Paths—
That we do not find.¹⁰
¹ Aeschylus tr. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Prometheus Bound
² Maggie Nelson, Bluets
³ Emily Dickinson, Renunciation
⁴ D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism
⁵ John Milton, Samson Agonistes
⁶ Lao Tzu tr. Charles Muller, Tao Te Ching 64
⁷ Rwandan proverb
⁸ Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ethan Brand
⁹ Dogen tr. the Soto Zen Text Project, Instructions for Zazen
¹⁰ Hermann Hesse tr. Joachim Neugroschel, Siddhartha