Case 27      Limbs Exposed to the Autumn Wind

 

See the rabbit and unleash the falcon
use wind to fan the flames--
What's it like to enter a tiger's lair?
What season is this? The family breaks up, the people scatter.
When leaves fall the body is exposed to the air.
Hold up the sky and carry the earth.
Clean, pure, even steps through the empty breeze.
You feel oncoming winds from the source of unrest.
These are the questions that use things.
An arrow flies far through the void.
Do you feel your hair standing on end?
The truth of things is always this obvious.
Is it subject or object? Quandary or awe?
Limbs left out in the autumn wind,
no leaves yet to cover them.
When you fuse all past and present
fools and sages, sky into earth,
and everything else, you will see
how these questions have helped us.

From David Rothenberg, Blue Cliff Record: Zen Echoes (New Paltz, NY: Codhill Press, 2001).

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