The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse

How could someone who practices not become a buddha if water drips long enough even rocks wear through it’s not true a thick skull can’t be pierced a person just needs a hard enough mind Note: In “Choosing a Friend,” the T’ang poet Meng Chiao wrote, “To be like the immortals / you need a mind as hard as iron.”

pass your days in freedom

delusions require stillness to end

What’s gone is already gone and what hasn’t come needs no thought right now I’m writing a right-now line plums are ripe and gardenias in bloom

rein in your senses and stop indulging be ever mindful and nothing else

the flag moves or is it the wind it isn’t the wind or the flag Note: The “gate” is the gate of Zen, and the teaching is Bodhidharma’s: “This mind is the buddha” (The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma: p. 9). The last couplet comes from this story: One day two monks were arguing in a temple courtyard. Pointing to a flag flapping in the wind, one said it w

my survival has always depended on what’s present why should I tire myself out making plans

all night I sit in bed listening to rain when it clears I open the window and doze off watching clouds nothing in life is better than being free but getting free isn’t luck

Rain soaks my hut then the sun shines weather can change in the blink of an eye but not as fast as the breath of existence at dusk it’s hard to hear the morning bell