If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

~Dogen
@GatelessGate

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

~Zen Proverb
@GatelessGate

I. 尋牛

I. The Search for the Bull

In the pasture of this world, I endlessly push aside the tall grasses in search of the bull. Following unnamed rivers, lost upon the interpenetrating paths of distant mountains, My strength failing and my vitality exhausted, I cannot find the bull.
I only hear the locusts chirring through the forest at night.

~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

2. 見跡

2. Discovery of the Footprints

Along the riverbank under the trees,
I discover footprints.
Even under the fragrant grass,
I see his prints.
Deep in remote mountains they are found.
These traces can no more be hidden
than one's nose, looking heavenward.

~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

3. 見牛

3. Perceiving the Bull

I hear the song of the nightingale.
The sun is warm, the wind is mild, willows are green along the shore,
Here no bull can hide!
What artist can draw that massive head, those majestic horns?

~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

4. 得牛

4. Catching the Bull

I seize him with a terrific struggle.
His great will and power are inexhaustible.
He charges to the high plateau far above the cloud-mists,
Or in an impenetrable ravine he stands.

~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

5. 牧牛

5. Taming the Bull

The whip and rope are necessary,
Else he might stray off down some dusty road.
Being well trained, he becomes naturally gentle.
Then, unfettered, he obeys his master.

~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

6. 騎牛歸家

6. Riding the Bull Home

Mounting the bull, slowly I return homeward.
The voice of my flute intones through the evening.
Measuring with hand-beats the pulsating harmony, I direct the endless rhythm.
Whoever hears this melody will join me.


~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

7. 忘牛存人

7. The Bull Transcended

Astride the bull, I reach home.
I am serene. The bull too can rest.
The dawn has come. In blissful repose,
Within my thatched dwelling I have abandoned the whip and rope.

~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

8. 人牛俱忘

8. Both Bull and Self Transcended

Whip, rope, person, and bull — all merge in No-Thing.
This heaven is so vast no message can stain it.
How may a snowflake exist in a raging fire?
Here are the footprints of the patriarchs.

~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

9. 返本還源

9. Reaching the Source

Too many steps have been taken returning to the root and the source.
Better to have been blind and deaf from the beginning!
Dwelling in one's true abode, unconcerned with that without —
The river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red.


~Kuòān Shīyuǎn
@GatelessGate

10. 入鄽垂手