Case 83    The Ancients and the Pillar

 

The ancients merged thought with the column of stone.
A thousand years later, the plaster cracked open--
Not a drop falls.
People these days make a living from feelings.
As soon as you look for them, you've bound your hands and feet.
In Korea they've already gone into the hall.
In China they haven't yet beaten the drum.
Give me back the story. Who wants to know?
Who says gold is like garbage?
The road is hard, there is joy in pain.
Pain in joy, wide open spaces, paths to the clouds.

 

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

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