Ryokan

Pen Picture: Taigu Ryōkan, The Great Fool

Ryōkan was an ordained monk, a Soto Zen master, who left his monastery even though he was qualified to lead it.. He called himself Taigu—the "Great Fool"—and chose to live in a rickety mountain hut.

His life to others seemed wonderfully free.  He would walk into the village to beg for rice, get roped into a game of hide-and-seek with the local children, hide behind a haystack, and remain crouching there until nightfall because he simply forgot what he was doing. He had a love for rice wine (which may explain why he forgot what he was doing )  When a burglar broke into his dilapidated hut and found nothing worth taking, Ryōkan felt so sorry for the empty-handed thief that he took off his only robe and offered it to him. Later that night, sitting shivering in the cold, he penned a short poem:

The thief left it behind:

The moon

At my window.

Ryōkan saw possessions as a trap. By being thoroughly content as a happy beggar, an ordinary bumbler who loved flowers, bamboo, and muddy paths, he quietly bypassed every religious ceremony and every intellectual knot many monks tied themselves to..

"Who says my poems are poems?

 My poems are not poems. 

After you know my poems are not poems, 

then we can begin to discuss poetry!" 

Here Ryokan seems to illustrate the limitations of words. Wish I had been aware of this 50 years ago, it would have saved me a lot of brain ache trying to get my head around the shite many Gurus and Scholars pontificate🤣🤣🤣 (Ryokan weaponises this poem in his fight with Cartman detailed elsewhere on this site.)

*

“When you look for the moon,

It hides behind the clouds.

When you give up looking,

The whole sky is bright.

Enlightenment and delusion:

Two sides of the same foolish coin”

To me this poem seems to be Ryokan saying  all this spiritual seeking is bollocks.

Free Online Ryōkan's Haiku below 

(Courtesy of the Terebess Collection)