Words from our Ancestors

     In late summer of 1659, Ungo was living in a hermitage on the summit of Mount Tsunagi in Sendai. At twilight he climbed the mountain’s eastern slope, rang the evening gong himself, and then sat in meditation until midnight, when he summoned his disciples and announced that he was about to depart the world. Begged for a final verse, Ungo laughed and replied, “The streams, the birds, the trees and woods, all these are my verse. Why are you asking for something more?” And so saying, he quietly passed away.

            As a lamp, a cataract, a star in space,

            an illusion, a dew drop, a bubble,

            a dream, a cloud, a flash of lightening;

            view all created things like this.

                       - Diamond Sutra

           This dewdrop world        

           Is a dewdrop world

           And yet, and yet

                      - Issa (1763-1828)

- From Hilo Zen Circle Newsletter, October 2019