John Fraser’s Kusen
Master Dogen’s poem ‘Zazen Practice’:
The moon mirrored
By a mind free
Of all distractions;
Even the waves, breaking,
Are reflecting its light
We have a primitive idea what a symbol is. Usually, we think it’s like a code. So, in this case, ‘Moon’ will mean ‘Enlightenment’, or ‘Buddha Mind’, something like that. But a symbol is like a real person: it has infinite expression.
In his commentary on the Heart Sutra, Dogen said that “the bodhisattva of compassion, practicing zazen with the whole body, sees the five skandas are empty, and relieves all suffering”
So, we can see that one face of the symbol of the moon is Avalokitesvara, whose ‘whole body’ is the whole Universe, whose hands are the moonlight, whose eyes are the space above and the ground below, both holding the mind waves, enabling each wave to break, not through stillness but
through light
Zazen Practice:
at peace
within the heart
the clear moon
even the smashing waves
reflecting light
(translation by Blair Shogen)
More zen articles at Kusen & Notes from John