Showing posts with label Ko Un. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ko Un. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Poem from Ko Un: Winter Journey


From Ko Un ("Buddhadharma," Fall 2006):
Winter Journey
How can you make it through winter
without knowing the fragrance of winter wind?

Dreams of that fragrance
are utterly unknown
to frogs, and snakes
underground.

Utterly unknown,
and that's the place you'll reach in the end.

Utterly, completely unknown!



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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Today I am Waiting for a Bus




A Poem by Ko Un, from "Buddhadharma", Fall 2006:
Some say they can recall a thousand years
Some say they have already visited the next
thousand years
On a windy day
I am waiting for a bus



No matter what we think we know about the past,
No matter what we believe about the future
This life or the next,
Today is windy. Today we need to ride the bus.

We have two options:
Wait skillfully
Or unskillfully.
We can never experience the future
Until it becomes the present. This moment
Was the future for the infinite past
And will be the past for the infinite future.
To wait unskillfully is to disrepect your
Infinite past and your infinite future,
And wasteful of all the time you spent
Planning and thinking about
This very moment.



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