Sonome

[Guest guest]

Originally submitted by "Gill Eardley"

*A Lone Lamp*

 

Sonome was a well-known poetess and a profound student of Buddhism. She

once wrote to Zen master Unko: "To seek neither reality nor falsehood is

the

root source of the Great Way. Everyone knows this, so even if I seem

immodest for saying so, I do not think this is anything special. As

goings-on in the source of one mind, the willows are green, the flowers

are

red. Just being as it is, I pass the time reciting verse and composing

poetry. If this is useless chatter, then the scriptures are also useless

chatter. I dislike anything that stinks of religion, and my daily

practice

is invocation, poetry, and song. If I go to paradise, that's fine; if I

fall into hell, that's auspicious."

 

*By myself I remember

not to seek mind;

the green lamp has already illumined

my lone lamp heart.

Whether in clamor or silence,

I have a clear mirror:

it thoroughly discerns

pure hearts among humans.

 

It is not something existing,

that anyone can see and know,

nor does it not exist:

such is the lamp of truth.*

 

When Sonome was about to pass on, she bade farewell to the world with

this poem:

 

*The sky of the autumn moon

and the warmth of spring:

Is it a dream? Is it real?

Hail to the Buddha of Infinite Light!*

 

from "Zen Antics," Thomas Cleary