If we are to live a meaningful life, we each need to understand and acknowledge what 
we have “strewn along our path” good, bad, or indifferent–actions, words, and deeds.
Ikkyu wrote yet another profound poem when he said:
Bliss and sorrow; love and hate; light and shadow;
heat and cold; happiness and anger; self and other.
The enjoyment of poetic beauty may well lead to hell.
But look what we find strewn along our path:
Plum blossoms and peach flowers (page49)!
I resonate with his idea of poetic hell sometimes, for sure! Although I was an English Lit major in college, I was never good at writing poetry. I always felt like I was working on an assignment that was undoable, unmanageable, and frankly really bad writing! So, I avoided it at all costs… until I became a Buddhist and starting writing poems for each of my friends as a gift for their Jukai ceremony.
Each person gets a Zen name during the Jukai ceremony that embodies them as a student and practitioner of Buddhism. That’s why you see Shokai on my writings. Shokai means “inviting the world.” You can all guess why I was given that name! I’m always inviting my friends and family to meditate or read a great Buddhist book, or read my blog, or come sit with us at the Zendo.
Some students want to go even further on their path with additional studies to move into even higher positions like a monk or a teacher.
In your life you’ve created many paths from careers to families and more. Some of the paths have been easy and smooth as the ice on a lake in January or some may have been as unexpected as a summer storm. Sometimes others have strewn things on your path that may make you stumble or pause or even force you to rise to the occasion.
What have you “strewn” along your path today? What has been strewn along your path by others? How did you handle it? Like “Plum blossoms and peach flowers?” Or not…
Footnote: J. Stevens (1999) Zen Masters A Maverick, a Master of Masters, and a Wandering Poet Ikkyu, Hakuin, Ryokan Kodansha International: New York
I never tire of reading the beautiful poetry of the Buddhist monks and Ikkyu is no exception to the rule. Living a meaningful life also requires us to enjoy the beauty of spring, the sound of music, the laughter of our teachers, friends, and families, the words of our favorite writers, and poets—past and present.
e years ago, I came across a wonderful little book entitled Zen Masters, a Maverick, a Master of Masters, and a Wandering Poet by John Stevens. Immediately I began to think about myself and my work and my studies as a Buddhist priest, teacher, and blogger. Would my friends and students place me in any of these areas? Do I place myself in any of them? If so, how has my self-image affected my life? How has it given meaning to my life?
In Zen Buddhism there are so many wonderful teachers and writers that you could spend the rest of your life reading their original books and their translations of the ancient writers. Plus, we have the current teachers and writers taking a particular point of view or sutra or teaching and creating a blog or a book or a lecture from the information. I, of course, happen to be one of them.
We feed our mind with many things and what we feed it with can determine who we are, how we treat others, and what will manifest in our lives. Words can be sweet like the taste of a ripe apple in Spring or sour like a pickle that has been soaked in brine for many weeks or months. But it is always up to us which we will eat and which we will share with others. And how we share it…
Haiku for you all to enjoy from one of our Zen students studying “behind the fence.”
There are so many kinds of meditation from the simple Zen method of clearing your mind and counting your breath 1 on the in breath and 2 on the out breath. Then there is the wonderful description by Frances W. Foulks in her iconic book Effectual Prayer where she writes: “To meditate on a subject is to give it attentive, earnest thought with the idea of having all its meaning revealed; that is, all the meaning that one is capable of receiving at the time (page 65).”