The Reading:
The past is already past-
Don't try to regain it.
The present does not stay-
Don't try to touch it from moment to moment.
The future is not come-
Don't think about it beforehand...
Whatsoever comes to eye leave it be.
There are no commandments to be kept,
There is no filth to be cleansed.
The past is already past-
Don't try to regain it.
The present does not stay-
Don't try to touch it from moment to moment.
The future is not come-
Don't think about it beforehand...
Whatsoever comes to eye leave it be.
There are no commandments to be kept,
There is no filth to be cleansed.
-P'ang Yun; Crazy Clouds; p21
Discussion:
Crazy Clouds is a portrait of the rise of Buddhism. It chronicles more or less the decent of Zen from what P'ang taught to those who lost sight of the warnings of the elders, from Bankei alone in the wilderness to Hakuin and Nyogen Senzaki and Soen who, each of them, would have turned away from their own teachings if they had been their own decedents.
Look no farther than P'ang Yun. Not "in the present", not anywhere. Nothing to follow, no one to lead.
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