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Every day, priests minutely
examine the Law
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that,
though, they should learn
How to read the love letters sent by the
wind
and rain, the snow and moon.
examine the Law
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that,
though, they should learn
How to read the love letters sent by the
wind
and rain, the snow and moon.
Â
~ Ikkyu ~
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(Ikkyu and the Crazy Cloud
Anthology, trans. by Sonya Arutzen)
Anthology, trans. by Sonya Arutzen)
Ikkyu Sojun's poetry
is irreverent and iconoclastic, bitingly critical of false piety,
hypocrisy, and formalistic religion. His poetry is often frankly
erotic, sometimes humorously so. Yet his poetry manages to reach an
immediacy and insight that is the essence of Zen practice.
Ikkyu
Sojun was appointed to be the head priest of the great temple at Kyoto,
but he renounced the position after just nine days, denouncing the
hypocrisy he saw among the monks around him. In a famous line from one
of his poems, he told his fellow monks they could find him in the local
whorehouse instead.
Though clearly not of an ascetic
temperament, Ikkyu was a poet, calligrapher, and musician who viewed
the world with a deep insight that permitted no pretense, favoring
direct truth over religious and social facades.
He founded what became known as the Red Thread (or erotic) school of Zen.
is irreverent and iconoclastic, bitingly critical of false piety,
hypocrisy, and formalistic religion. His poetry is often frankly
erotic, sometimes humorously so. Yet his poetry manages to reach an
immediacy and insight that is the essence of Zen practice.
Ikkyu
Sojun was appointed to be the head priest of the great temple at Kyoto,
but he renounced the position after just nine days, denouncing the
hypocrisy he saw among the monks around him. In a famous line from one
of his poems, he told his fellow monks they could find him in the local
whorehouse instead.
Though clearly not of an ascetic
temperament, Ikkyu was a poet, calligrapher, and musician who viewed
the world with a deep insight that permitted no pretense, favoring
direct truth over religious and social facades.
He founded what became known as the Red Thread (or erotic) school of Zen.
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/I/IkkyuSojunIk/index.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikky%C5%AB
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