NIGHT RAIN

Before he went to live in the mountains, Zen master Ranryo traveled throughout the four quarters, making no distinction between court and countryside,city and village,not avoiding even wineshops and brothels.

When someone asked him why he acted this way, the Zen master said,

"my way is right there,wherever i happen to be. There is no gap at all."


Later,Renryo went into the mountains, where he built a simple hut and lived a life of frugal austerity as he continued to work on Zen.

Especially fond of night rain, Ranryo would burn incense and sit up on rainy nights, even until dawn. The people of the mountain villages, not knowing his name, named him "the Night Rain Monk" This amused him, so he began to use Night Rain as his literary name.

Once a visitor asked about the relative merits of Zen meditation and the Pure Land Buddhist practice of Buddha remembrance, reciting the name of the Buddha of Infinite Light. Ranyro gave his answer in verse:

Zen meditation and Buddha-remembrance
are like two mountains
Higher and lower potentials
divide a single world
When they arrive, all alike
see the moon upon the peak,
only pity those who have no faith
and suffer over the climb.


PS: a Zen Anecdote

from 'the little book of Zen"

haiku

koans


sayings

(pabloshouse)