First compiled in 16th and 17th century Japan, these Zen sayings range from profound to mystifying to the absurd and comical.
A Zen Forest is, according to poet Gary Snyder, “the meeting place of the highest and the most humble”: where the wisdom of both the great poets and the local folk storytellers meet.
Translator Soiku Shigematsu, abbot of Shogennji Zen Temple in Shimizu, Japan, has rendered these pieces into poetic English that illuminates aspects of Zen from kenshō (awakening) to satori (enlightenment).
The sayings open windows to the Zen world, while also reminding us that “however wonderful an expression may be, it will be a stake that binds you unless you keep yourself free from it.”