Tides of Mind

David K. Reynolds, Ph.D.

These works are protected by the Creative Commons license.

Mountain streams whisper with eloquence.
Last night they chanted a thousand choruses.
All mountains offer us their teachings of Reality.
How can I explain these truths to you?

Constructive Living rendering of a Chinese poem by So-toba.

Dedicated to the Memory of Morita Masatake and Yoshimoto Ishin.

Without words Reality keeps teaching.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Roots

The Voice of Raindrops
Reflections on the Genjo Koan by Dogen

Dew Drop Moon
Reflections on Verses on the Faith Mind by Sengstan

Moon Shadows in a Stream
Reflections on the Song of Mu

Drawing Water from the Well
Reflections on the Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness

Water Wheel
Reflections on the Zazen Wasan by Hakuin

Dew-Soaked Path
Reflections on a Handbook for Zen Students

Misting Breath
Reflections on Poems by T'aego

Summer Frost
Reflections on Poems by Han-shan

Leaf on the Waves
Reflections on Ikkyu's Skeletons

Currents of Stillness
Reflections on Poems by Chuang Tzu

Waterfall Rising
Reflections on the Mountains and Rivers Sutra

Spring Showers
Reflections on Affirming Faith in Mind

Constructive Living Creations
Modern Constructive Living Poetry

References

Introduction

This work is written for self study or for study with a Constructive Living instructor. These adaptations from the literature of several Asian countries and traditions will lead the reader through Constructive Living thought.

I have written a number of books about Constructive Living (CL) for the layperson and mental health professional. Reading one or more of those earlier books will make this volume more understandable, but, in any case, understanding may not come easily. Tides of Mind offers demanding resources to be debated or derided or ignored. So far in my writings many readers have seen only the surface of Constructive Living, the material which anyone appears to understand and anyone can verify simply by observing the reality around and within us. This work is more difficult. I suspect that only those who live this lifeway can discover the deepest sense of the strings of words here. Even then, only sometimes are they intelligible, because sometimes is the way we live this life.

I simply don't understand many of the words people use, and they seem to think that I should. Especially I notice this slippage when others talk about psychology or compare Constructive Living with psychotherapy. Constructive Living is not psychotherapy--at least not in any traditional Western sense of the word. It is nothing more than a description of the way the world operates and the implications of that operation for our thoughts and feelings and behavior. As is my practice, the titles of these interpretations all contain water in the title. For example, Moonlit Shadows in a Stream comes from a poem by the Zen teacher Takuan. Note that Drawing Water from the Well is not Drawing Water from a Well and that The Hidden Springs is not Hidden Springs. Sub­tleties of this sort make a difference in this work.

The text calls these Constructive Living creations "adaptations" or "interpretations" of the original Asian works. Perhaps it would be more appropriate and less confining to consider the compositions below to have been "inspired" by the originals. I suggest that the reader go to the originals or translations of these Eastern masterpieces in order to compare the Constructive Living reading with the reader's understanding of the works. Whether we shed new light or dark shadow is up to the reader's judgment.

I wish to emphasize the point that these interpretations are not attempts to offer simplified Zen reconstructions of Asian texts. I am neither interested in offering nor qualified to provide Zen glosses on Asian literature. I do wish to offer a CL perspective on these writings which were written for readers centuries ago. If my writing is to be faulted let it be because it doesn't speak to modern readers and not because it is poor Zen or poor Taoism or poor something-else-it-isn't-intended-to-be.

In this introduction I've wrapped a box of wrappings in more wrapping paper. Perhaps by now you can guess what you will find when all the unwrapping is complete.

Roots

The roots of Constructive Living lie deep within human history. Surface shoots have appeared in the writings of Hasidism, mystical Christianity, Sufism, and Buddhism to name a few better-known visible growths. I came across this life wisdom quite by accident. In my academic study of Japanese Morita and Naikan psychotherapies I stumbled over these roots again and again until it dawned on me that they deserved examination, too. They go deeper than I had expected. And they extend broadly, as well--beyond Japan, beyond Asia, beyond Buddhism.

As a matter of historical fact, Morita Masatake and Yoshimoto Ishin (two Japanese philosophers and psychotherapists) developed the ideas they learned from Buddhist psychology into unique therapy forms, and I learned these forms in Japan. So that is the tradition from which much of this book emerges. Perhaps here it would be useful to offer a few introductory words about the Zen-Buddhist-based Morita psychotherapy and the Shinshu-Buddhist-based Naikan psychotherapy. If this level of information intrigues you, I invite you once again to examine the references at the end of this book and explore the growing literature on the subject for more detail.

Morita therapy was developed in the early 1900's by a psychiatrist, Morita Masatake. Morita became Professor of the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry at Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo. He wrote extensively for both academic and popular readers. His methods are still practiced in Japan today.

You may have read among the novels of Natsume Soseki, the world-famous author of Morita's era. A number of Soseki's works are in translation these days. Soseki's novels are filled with characters who ponder and plan to the point of paralysis. In their attempts to figure out themselves and their surroundings they spiral into mild despair and passivity. They come to fear the ordinary. They become obsessed with minor physical complaints. They find themselves uncomfortable around others and uncomfortable with themselves. These days we might call them "neurotic."

Morita's therapy was developed for just that sort of person. Morita used the term "shinkeishitsu" to designate this neurotic oversensitivity. His unique set of psychotherapeutic techniques have been described elsewhere (Reynolds, 1976, 1980; Fujita, 1986) and modified over the years. What Morita aimed for in his approach to curing neurosis (those neurotic elements in all of us) was an attitude of "arugamama." Arugamama means a sort of acceptance of reality as it is. Instead of being caught up in how life ought to be, how we wish it would become, we are advised to get our attention out into the world and act sensibly in response to the reality we find there. This active merging with our circumstances doesn't result in passive preservation of the status quo. It promotes positive behavioral change which, in turn, affects our thoughts and feelings.

In Buddhist terms Morita takes a basically jiriki, or self-powered, approach to life. It is through our own effort and energy that we make vital changes in our lives. There is truth in such an understanding, but not all the truth. Although we are self-powered we are also empowered by others. The understanding which emphasizes the contribution of others to our lives is called tariki, an empowered approach to life. Not only other people, but also other living creatures and non-living things and energies contribute to our lives. To ignore them would be as blind as to ignore our own responsibility and credit for our actions.

The avenue for grasping our existence which emphasizes empowerment is fundamental to Naikan psychotherapy in Japan. How can I take credit for my actions when I owe my life, my body, my words, my health, my very thoughts to others? Naikan therapy is particularly effective for those with interpersonal difficulties, including those whose criminal actions hurt others, and those who seek more existential meaning in their lives.

Yoshimoto Ishin was a successful businessman who left the world of commerce to devote himself to his development of Naikan. Gratitude and (that rather unpopular word in some circles these days) repentance provide powerful impetus for life change. The roots of Naikan lie in a bygone Shinshu-Buddhist meditative process called mishirabe, but Naikan didn't begin to flower in Japan until the 1950's. Again, the specific methods of Naikan are spelled out elsewhere (Reynolds, 1980, 1983).

To be sure, when one looks deeply enough jiriki, and tariki, understandings merge. As you read the verses below you will frequently find alternate interpretations of their meaning depending upon whether you read them from self-powered or empowered perspectives. In Constructive Living we recognize the dual wisdom of our teachers.

Understanding Constructive Living and its primary sources, Morita and Naikan psychotherapies, will make the poetic lines of this book intelligible in historical-sociological and intellectual senses. But anyone with his or her eyes on Reality will bring specific and personal meaning to the words.

The Voice of Raindrops

The Genjo Koan by Dogen Zenji provides the basis for these reflections. One translation of the koan appeared in The Ten Directions, Fall/Winter, 1993, pp. 10-12. The title is adapted from Sekida's translation of the 46th koan in the Blue Cliff Record.

• Reality displays itself in a variety of forms:
• Noble and foolish, grand and minute, gaudy and plain.
• However you interpret it, Reality is the way it is.
• However you rate it, It is the way it is.
• However you paint or sculpt or record or foresee it,
• Reality keeps generating itself.
  
  
• Including and excluding your biases,
• Inside and outside of your awareness,
• Incorporating logic and illogic,
• Dancing and cuffing and leaping and dragging
• The show goes on.
  
  
• You have those dreams.
• You have your preferences.
• You have aversions.
• Or they have you.
• Eddies in the stream
• Streaming.
• Who chooses self improvement?
• Who decides to proceed?
• Who moves you to tears?
• Who celebrates success?
• Who comes to your senses?
• Who commits to commit?
  
  
• You can't make it on your own.
• You never have.
• Everything was given to you.
• Including you.
• Don't you agree?
• Who agrees or disagrees?
• Assent happens.
• Or not.
• Both gifts.
  
  
• Notice the noticing notice.
• Feel the feelings feel.
• Accept the acceptance accept.
• Give it all up.
• Receive relief.
• Receive the reception receiving.
• Relief.
• What now?
  
  
• Working on relationships, society, and personality
• Is meaningless. Building self confidence, self esteem, self love
• Is senseless.
• Dismount from the rocking horse.
• Stand firmly.
• Walk straight.
• Drop into reality.
  
  
• Self consciousness is glare on the windshield.
• Search for the light source.
• And keep your eyes on the road.
• The road leads somewhere
• You've never been.
• And you're always
• Arriving.
  
  
• A mystic is someone with no hands on the wheel.
• Better to be a good mechanic.
• And a sure driver
• Of your borrowed car.
• There's a lot of traffic out there.
• And in here.
  
  
• Filling time, filling space
• Is no life for human or rock.
• New life is there for the doing.
• Fresh life is there for the seeing.
• Ask and it is already given to you.
  
  
• Examine yourself by looking around. These words are you now.
• What?
• Yes, that is you, too.
• How?
• And that, too.
• Yes.
  
  
• Bore yourself with yourself.
• Bore into yourself with yourself
• Until you become the drill
• And then the hole.
• The whole.
• But don't neglect the dusting.
• Carry out the trash.
• Care for your body.
• Greet your neighbor.
• All-inclusive drilling.
  
  
• The other day I was a highway;
• Now I'm a thinking keyboard.
• Self-conscious receptivity.
• Sometimes just receptivity.
• Hello, mind.
• Word wording word.
• Something keeps moving.
• When I blink my eyes rapidly
• The flashing cursor stands still.
• Yet something knows it's still flashing.
• What knows?
• Is there a trash can for old thoughts?
• Where did last year's feelings go?
• Yesterday's apples were ripe.
• Now they're rotten.
• Same or different?
• Both, of course.
• But also neither.
• Posited apples are not yesterday's apples.
• Are apple constructs apples at all?
• Yes and no.
• But also neither.
• So they say.
  
  
• You can't eat tomorrow's apples.
• You can't die tomorrow either.
• Or today even.
• But words won't stop the worry.
• So worry while sweeping.
• Worry while cooking.
• Worry while driving.
• Worry while sawing.
• Worry while worrying.
• Until the worry fades
• Into brooms and dust and pots and salt and off-ramps and so on.
• Good enough.
  
  
• Tomorrow's worry
• Isn't troublesome now. Hidden worries are the best kind--
• Nonexistent--
• Except in therapist's wallets
• Where they multiply secretly
• And pay bills.
  
  
• When you are alive that takes care of itself.
• When you are dead that takes care of itself.
• What is that?
• What presents us with the gift of now?
• What asks these questions
• Then answers them with this here-now?
• Look around and see it rediscover itself.
• Or not.
  
  
• Reality keeps happening.
• Sometimes reflected in our eyes.
• Sometimes reflected in our minds.
• The stage, the props, the actors,
• The whole show.
• The audience, too.
• See it?
• Hear it?
• Signals bouncing off signals.
• Software creating software.
• Folds enfolding themselves.
• Right here on this very stage.
  
  
• Stepping back is stepping into. Meditation is action.
• Quiet is noisy.
• And not,
• Of course.
• The view from the highest peak
• Is just another view.
• And it's worth the climb.
  
  
• Sorting through words
• Looking for mixtures
• That ferment.
• Searching for flavors
• With tang.
• Looking for gossamer
• To clothe breath.
• While reading
• Don't forget to breathe.
  
  
• Dreams occur.
• All of a sudden there they are.
• Or there they aren't.
• Replaced by memories
• Or deadlines
• Or phone calls.
• Dreams whisper
• Of what to do.
• Dreams sculpt
• Possibility.
• Don't let them fade Unrealized.
  
  
• Reality provides
• Infinite backup,
• Hidden failsafes,
• Unconceived variety.
• It brushes and scrapes the mind
• Grooming itself.
• We shield ourselves from infinity
• In mental neighborhoods.
• Preferring the familiar
• To the cosmic,
• Framed art
• To panorama.
• Disappear within the gallery.
  
  
• Humming life comes and goes.
• Shadows appear and disappear.
• Ticks follow tocks, emerging and fading.
• The vastness of the there-ness of it all
• Interwhelms awareness
• Sometimes.
• Did you put your cup away?
• Is your living room clear?
• Have you swept the dust from your soul?
  
  
• I don't really know you.
• Or you me.
• But we're so much alike We're the same.
• And different, too,
• Of course.
• Ocean, clouds, ocean.
• Lots of reality out there/in here.
• We are the limits we test.
  
  
• Nibbling crumbs isn't bad
• But hunger remains.
• Comfort isn't bad
• But yearning remains.
• Your convenience
• My convenience
• Who draws the line?
• And where?
• But the line remains.
  
  
• The mind is without limit.
• It understands space and time
• Because it invents them.
• Therefore they cannot bind it.
• The mind rules its own rules.
• It creates boundaries and then trespasses.
• It curls itself in crevices
• And coats entire mountains.
• For all its sweep
• The mind is trustworthy
• For purposes of mind.
• It is intimate reality.
• You don't know how events turn out
• Until they turn out.
• When you're asleep you could be anywhere.
• By walking you discover where you are.
• Baskets aren't made
• By thinking alone.
• Immerse your whole bodymind
• In reality.
  
  
• Master the basics of walking
• Before you seek to fly.
• Walking is flying, after all.
• Mending is clothes design.
• Sweeping is interior fashion.
• Courtesy is world peace.
• This life, now, is all you have.
• Or all that has you.
  
  
• Reality's grace is within immediate reach.
• Come to your senses.
• And do what needs doing.
• Thus realizing reality.
• Ocean spray is still ocean.
• Hear the breakers roar!
• Then lapse into silence.
• You can't fence the ocean with salt water.
• Despite current trends.
• Playing on the surface Then diving for the depths
• Dissolve yourself in salinity.
  
  
• You can't figure out the ocean.
• You can't map its shores.
• Scouting the tides here and there
• Is the best you can do.
• But isn't that enough
• For a mere droplet?
• There are those who ride the tides
• And don't speak of it.
• There are those who speak of tides
• And don't know how to float.
• Salty tears blur our vision.
• Sometimes.
  
  
• Something decides what needs doing.
• Something gets the doing done.
• Something understands,
• Sometimes.

Dew Drop Moon

This poem is based on reflections stimulated by pondering the Hsin Hsin Ming (Verses on the Faith Mind), written by Sengstan. I used the translation from the Chinese by Richard B. Clarke for this Constructive Living interpretation.

• Reality is neither difficult nor easy.
• It just is.
• Why wear emotional sunglasses at night?
• Shoulds and might-have-beens don't get the bed made.
• For clearer vision objectify your subjectivity.
• Preferences are inevitable, but the whole blanket keeps you warm.
• You can't grasp the whole of it;
• Stretch out under your corner.
• Recognize the pattern.
  
  
• Life couldn't be better
• Or worse
• Than it is now.
• As for tomorrow, who knows?
• Yesterday is already lost in today's mist.
• Those sunglasses again.
• We all write historical novels and science fiction
• To pass the time and fill the gaps.
• It's time to grow up. While feelings come and go
• Walk straight ahead.
• While praised and criticized
• Walk straight ahead.
• Rest while walking;
• Walk while resting.
• Contain yourself
• In order to expand.
• Discover yourself
• By looking about.
• Complete yourself
• in the whole of it.
  
  
• Reality is just the way it is,
• Not as we wish it to be.
• Our wishes, too, are real wishes.
• Wake up to the changes.
• Change the changes by doing change.
• But keep your balance
• With clear purposes.
  
  
• When is doing not doing?
• When is not doing doing?
• When is pushing ahead falling behind?
• When is falling behind pushing ahead?
• Rules arise with situations
• So pay attention.
• Talk about circumstances applies to
• Talk about circumstances. There is a time for planning
• But life doesn't appear on schedule.
• Reality won't follow directions.
• We don't either.
• Whose directions?
• Do you know?
• Who knows?
  
  
• Enlightened moments
• Happen.
• It would be a shame to miss them
• By inattention.
• They don't happen to anyone.
• Find the right frequency.
• Tune in.
• Adios.
  
  
• All minds judge.
• All humans desire.
• All beings suffer.
• All hearts whirl.
• Without judging there is no purpose.
• Without desire there is no satisfaction.
• Without suffering there is no relief.
• Without whirling there is no rest.
• Neither heaven nor hell,
• The way things are.
• Just this.
• Just where is that pine tree?
• Out there?
• In here?
• Everywhere?
• Nowhere?
• Already the pine tree is gone,
• Many thought-miles away.
• Here it comes again.
• Superimposed on itself.
• Endless snapshots without negatives
• Or camera.
  
  
• Don't be late for life.
• Rushing won't get you there on time.
• No-load funds won't endow the cruise.
• High tech can't upgrade the process.
• It's happening already.
• This very moment.
• Don't miss it.
  
  
• Face the facts.
• You feel the way you feel.
• You think what you think.
• You do what you do.
• Imperfect, always changing.
• There is only one reality.
• Salute what is,
• Like it or not.
• When doings arise, Do them.
• Make a career of doing life well.
• Including mistakes.
  
  
• This quilt is one quilt.
• The whole quilt warms you,
• Covers your whole existence.
• Why create imaginary quilts
• Full of patterned holes?
• The pattern of Reality's quilt
• Is both simple and complex.
• This pattern is hard to see
• While you sleep.
• Wake up!
  
  
• Everyone dreams.
• Everyone is entangled.
• Everyone compares.
• Everyone sleeps.
• Sometimes.
• Minds are relentless.
• Good habits help.
• Nothing is forever.
• No time-out.
  
  
• Moments flash by
• Or crawl
• Or slip past unnoticed.
• Reality's pace. Effortless appearance.
• Who knows?
• What or Whom
• Does time pass?
  
  
• Movement or rest
• Relative to what?
• Within or without
• Relative to whom?
• Here or there
• Relative to where?
• No fixed points.
• No certain measurements.
• No final laws.
• No seasonal certainties.
• Just this, here, now.
  
  
• Reality is all of a piece.
• Despite our doubts,
• Despite our hopes,
• Despite our preferences,
• Despite our blinders,
• Reality is a whole.
• Accept it for what it is.
• Act realistically.
• Sit back or struggle
• Realistically.
  
  
• Wherever you turn There's just reality-you.
• Your two eyes, too, are reality.
• They are separated by seen-unseen space.
• Windows with inside shutters.
• Polarized peepers.
• You can't talk your way
• Out of eyestrain.
  
  
• You can count on reality.
• It's there for you.
• Even when you're not.
• Paradoxical perfection.
• Perfected imperfection.
• Just the way it is.
  
  
• Fancy talk
• Won't get the closet cleared
• Or the letter written.
• No academic degrees
• Or road maps to heaven
• Come from words alone.
• Now turned left on Me Street.
• Keep straight ahead.

Moon Shadows in a Stream:
A Constructive Living Interpretation of the Song of Mu

I have adapted the translation by Hasegawa Seikan in The Cave of Poison Grass (1975, Great Ocean Publishers, Arlington, Virginia) to present a Constructive Living perspective on the subject. How strange to use so many words to describe what cannot be uttered!

• Pay attention to the details of Reality.
• If you are lax, you will lose your way.
• Without an experiential understanding of Reality,
• Having figured it out intellectually, using conventional theories,
• You drink the words of academics and "experts"
• Avoiding the responsibility of awareness while thinking you are educated.
• The result is an inflated ego, empty conceit.
• The trail keeps moving whether you sit on the wayside or not.
• Death approaches, passes, approaches, passes, how to go beyond it?
• Just this step, now this step.
  
  
• All students of Constructive Living
• need to accept Reality as it is.
• You must break through your delusions of oughts and should-have-beens.
• Strengthen yourselves by acting on Reality.
• Polish yourselves by attending to Reality.
• Living with awareness is sufficient for your climb.
• Only therein lies freedom.
• Such effort and responsibility is awesome.
• But by this means we slice through fancy talk and what we call life's difficulties.
• You can count on these methods/results.
• About Reality: it's the same Reality that presented itself
• To the people of ancient times.
• It was those people.
• Just Reality.
• The practice is practicing.
• When you are twenty or eighty it is the same.
• Give up on yourself and expand a millionfold.
• Just this Reality, here, now.
  
  
• Though quite a few people know the words.
• Only a few live the words.
• The secret lies in the doing.
• Even if you know the words, they are empty sounds.
• Anyone who teaches without the doing fools self and others.
• The results are soon noticeable.
• Constructive Living is passed on down the line
• by the mysterious process of hard effort.
• Transmitting this understanding is both means and end.
• Right and wrong become clarified by this means.
• Seek the teacher who demands much from you.
  
  
• If you understand Constructive Living show it to me in your life.
• Show me how you have transcended the chatter of life and death.
• Before you have pondered the contents of all the books
• Before you have attended all the lectures and workshops
• What needs to be done?
• What will last beyond your death?
• I invite you again
• Look at Reality.
• See it shift, flow.
• From where does it emerge?
• Live it naturally, freely.
• Examine purposes, actions, feelings;
• But more than those discoveries
• Find Reality beyond the words.
• Read Reality without words.
• Without these very words
• Catch the heart of it.
• Now yes, now no.
• Now this, now that.
• Now me, here; now not-me, nowhere.
• Don't allow images of your past to distract you. Step past them; practice your life now.
• Then you will come to understanding and commitment.
• Know the difference between Reality and your mind's construction of the past.
• They are separated by a gulf, but related.
• How related? How different?
• In exploring these questions you run the risk of turning in on yourself and suffering.
• Pass through this difficulty to freedom.
  
  
• Acting on Reality brings experience.
• Experience may lead to wisdom.
• The only true wisdom is your own Realistic wisdom.
• While becoming clear on present Reality and past constructions
• practice by practicing, live by living.
• Create your own words for pointing to the fruits of Reality.
• Enlightenment allows the song of life to be sung with joy and gratitude, sorrow and suffering.
• Reality, past, reality, practice.
• Complexity on complexity
• In the study of this single Reality.
  
  
• After mastering the principles of Constructive Living
• You can say you have begun to encounter Reality in a new way.
• Be careful at first. It looks too easy.
• You cannot complete this encounter once and for all.
• Reality will send you puzzles and problems.
• After surmounting what is,
• Watch out for the pride, the self-consciousness, And other pitfalls behind success.
  
  
• Your body allows the freeing action with pain and fatigue.
• The salmon fights its way upstream with bursts of effort.
• Few people make the sacrifices necessary to ascend this stream.
• The teachers who certify lightly, indiscriminately float downstream as though dead.
• Such teachers may look regal floating along
• In view of society's admiring eyes.
• As you travel and teach
• Don't be impressed by the numbers who attend.
• Don't be fooled by the titles and degrees.
• Just notice Reality.
• Maintain the tradition of those who came before you
• In the current of Constructive Living.
• The current flows simply, straightforwardly, alone, along a difficult course.
• Take care, you who aspire to excellence.
• Your practice will allow you to begin the repayment of your debts
• To sages, teachers, parents, farmers, clerks, chairs, shoes, water and other inhabitants of the universe.
• How wonderful! Amazing! My fellows,
• The secret lies in silence
• Talking without words, we do the constructive life.

Drawing Water from the Well:
A Constructive Living Adaptation of the Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness

The verses below offer a Constructive Living interpretation of the Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness {Baojing Sanmeike?} composed by Dongshan Liangjie. It was inspired by the translation by Thomas Cleary in Timeless Spring, Tokyo, Weatherhill, 1980.)

• The teaching of Reality
• Has been personally communicated by wise teachers
• Over many years.
• It is yours.
• Recognize its worth.
  
  
• Silver bowl, silver snow,
• Black shoes, black grief,
• The words are the same But the phenomena are different.
• Where does the meaning of words come from?
• It is worth the probing.
• Emotions may distract you from the search.
• The search itself may distract you from action.
• Distraction and random action are both wrong.
  
  
• Reality surrounds you, is you, brightly.
• To write about it
• Is to dim its brilliance to colorless ink.
• Its illumination is unrelated to day and night.
• Moreover, by its light we find our way.
• We both suffer and triumph in its glory.
  
  
• Reality is not created by our minds.
• Our words are part of it.
• It reflects back to us who we are.
• It is who we are.
• Yet we are not all of it.
• Reality is pure, naive
• Addressing our consciousness
• Just being itself.
• We add sense to it, interpret it.
• We organize its complexity
• First by sensing, then by understanding.
  
  
• Fit yourself to what Reality brings.
• The fitting itself is the practice.
• The merging is nothing special. Now actual, now not.
• Always possible.
• When the merging is noticed
• The merging fails
• Unless noticing, too, is merged.
  
  
• Suddenly grasping,
• Gradually understanding--
• The styles are various.
• But realize it or not, Reality keeps keeping on.
• Just this, here, now.
• Just this-here-now.
• We do our best to explain
• Using words that can't describe.
• Watch what we do; watch Reality.
• Do what needs doing.
• There is just time enough to comprehend it.
  
  
• Reality generates jewels and furs,
• Reality offers sidewalks and spoons and starvation.
• Reality presents the mundane and the exotic.
• Like it or not, we must accept it.
• And do what we can to affect it/us.
• Not merely by feeling compassion or outrage or whatever
• Not merely by pondering Reality's quirks
• But by carrying out its tasks.
• Reality requires our service.
  
  
• There is no need to advertise your practice. Be ordinary, even be a fool.
• Put Reality before yourself.
• If you can achieve this stability in your life
• You will become what you already are--Reality.

Water Wheel:
A Constructive Living Interpretation of Hakuin's Zazen Wasan

The original poem which inspired this piece is readily accessible in the Zen literature. For example, it may be found in Kapleau, Philip, Zen Merging of East and West, New York, Doubleday Anchor, 1979. Hakuin wrote in praise of zazen meditation, but I suspect he would not have found much to disagree with below.

• We are all as we are
• Changing and the same
• Minds, brains; thoughts, actions
• Perspectives on Reality.
• But whose?
• Reality surrounds you, is you.
• Why go looking for it?
• Walking in the rain why are you thirsty?
• You are enriched by Reality, supported by it, composed of it.
• Don't impoverish yourself with blindness.
• You wander around without noticing the layout of the land.
• You miss the facts hidden in the jumble of hopes and fears.
• Misty unreal imaginings.
• Reality cannot be praised enough.
• Offerings, morality, faith, repentance--
• All are founded on the acceptance of Reality.
  
  
• You can't live in the present and past at once.
• Give up your efforts to motivate yourself.
• Just once give this pure moment a try.
  
  
• Do what needs doing,
• And discover timelessness, infinite space.
• Just thoughts rising, beyond philosophy's bifocals.
• Who invented cause and effect?
• Wisps floating, fading.
• Where can I be but here?
• What can I think except thoughts?
• The doing becomes Reality as it emerges.
• Before space, beneath time.
• Right here, now; nothing held back.
• Greet Reality with attention.

Dew-Soaked Path
Reflections on a Handbook for Zen Students

The ideas for these Constructive Living lines were inspired by Sosan Taesa's Handbook for Zen Students translated from Korean by Rebecca Bernen and published in Mu Soeng Sunim, Thousand Peaks, Berkeley, Parallax Press, 1987.

• Let's call that fluorescent flashing "Reality."
• Or so it calls itself.
• Look about you, there it is.
• Look within you, there it is.
• You,
• Looking,
• There it is.
  
  
• You have emerged as part of this Reality.
• Fit yourself to the rest of it.
• Adapting is no great mystery:
• Mow your lawn;
• Smile at your customer;
• Type carefully;
• Say, "Thanks."
• Sing your share of the harmony.
  
  
• Flower arrangement,
• Word arrangement,
• Designing cars, Designing peace--
• Circumstances change
• As our debt to those who taught us grows.
• A million hands fed us.
• A million hands kept us warm.
• A million hands, two hands at a time.
  
  
• Words are handy, though mischievous, creatures.
• They tease and taunt and lie.
• They also inform and uplift and connect.
• Keep a careful eye on them.
• Given the chance they run away and cavort among the clouds.
• While your feet stick in the mud.
• Beware!
  
  
• Myths and doctrines and laws are words, too.
• Keep a wary eye on them.
• Make them live with you on the ground.
• Or let them fly away.
• Roll yourself up in reality.
  
  
• Shoveling sludge is a spiritual practice,
• or not.
• Climbing stairs is a spiritual practice,
• or not.
• Offerings are a spiritual practice,
• or not.
• Seeing the Whole Show puts it all
• in Whole-Show perspective. Whose perspective?
  
  
• The world got along without me before I noticed it,
• Runs in orderly fashion while I notice it,
• Performs flawlessly when I don't notice it.
• Thanks, world.
  
  
• Getting me out of myself takes diligent effort.
• Sometimes something forgets
• And I shrink back into existence.
• But sometimes something remembers
• And fills the universe.
• Thanks, something.
• Something thanks itself.
  
  
• I worry most about smoggy air.
• Not the kind from cars and waste,
• But sooty air from the past
• And smoky air from the future.
• The air here, now, is fresh and clear.
• Even when smoggy.
• Talk leaves hazy tracks in the air.
• Silence can produce clouds, too.
• In an ever-changing sky, watch for
• The moments of clearing.
• Each time we move we create a breeze.
• The eddies from that breeze
• Stir up the murky air
• Or clear it away. For the moment.
  
  
• We must attend elementary school
• Before proceeding to college.
• We must learn to read primers
• Before writing novels.
• Put your life in order before exploring it.
• Why dig around in disarray?
• No genius is needed.
• No prerequisites to enter.
• Be foolish and ordinary.
• And keep your room clean.
• The graduation ceremony is held in your room.
• Not in the library.
  
  
• When we hurt we want relief.
• Naturally.
• No teacher is necessary
• To instruct or assign.
• We want refuge from the pain.
• But how?
• Fighting strengthens the foe.
• Embracing changes the foe into companion.
• Get to know one another.
• Take a trip together.
• With eyes on the scenery.
• Remember your destination.
• Pay as you go.
• Our minds flitter flutter.
• Now confidence, now doubt.
• Just keep climbing.
• The vast panorama isn't seen from a valley.
• Just keep climbing.
• Give up on yourself
• And keep climbing.
• Be ignorant and laughable
• And keep climbing.
• Discover your legs.
  
  
• Why strain and clutch?
• Why smother and hide?
• Why loiter and sleep?
• Keep up the pace
• Moment by moment.
• There's just enough time
• To do what needs doing.
  
  
• Books never become movies.
• Tomorrow never arrives.
• We show photos of trips we never took.
• We talk as though we'll die someday.
• And stumble over pebbles.
  
  
• Logic is a plumb line
• For surveying the trail.
• But it isn't the trail itself.
• There is more to the trail Than engineering.
• Your feet know that.
  
  
• A feeling-centered life
• Invites demons of pride and despair
• And all their cousins
• To enter your now
• And cloud your vision.
• Exploring your passion
• Diverts your movement
• Into spirals of stupor.
• Brilliant chatter
• Won't get the roof fixed.
• Or make the path level.
  
  
• Novices pause at each overlook to view the scenery.
• Experts know the whole trail is a vantage point.
• It's all in the climbing.

Misting Breath
Poems of T'aego: A Constructive Living Interpretation

The original translations of these poems may be found in the book, A Buddha from Korea: The Zen Teachings of T'aego, translated with commentary by J.C. Cleary (Boston, Shambhala, 1988). They inspired the following Constructive Living verses.

• 1. Song of This Life (inspired by Song of T'aego Hermitage, p. 119)
  
  
• How long have I been in this life?
• I've learned to count in years.
• This life is always thus--
• earth, sky, time, movement.
• My imagination takes me elsewhere
• beyond this everyday
• to ideals, to perfection.
• Moment after moment emerges.
• Is it so?
• What lessons lie in the timeless-spacelessness
• of imagination?
• Neon flashing on, off.
• Listen to it
• Happening.
• Now these word-happenings. All those me's through all those pasts.
• How are they related to me-here-now?
• Nows just kept coming.
• So I write about them
• Tastelessly.
• Same old stuff,
• no new recipes.
• Poised on a pinhead, this life.
• Projected just wide enough
• to fill the screen of consciousness.
• What's beyond the screen?
• What's backstage?
• Do you wonder about the maybe's?
• Who is to teach you but you?
• And when?
• I don't know.
• Why should I?
• Held firm by Reality,
• noticed or not,
• I'm free to write a life verse.
• Trusting in Reality
• who will play this game without rules?
• Join me.
• Leave driving and riding to Reality.
• Now driving, now riding, now just a brochure.
• The window is momentarily clear.
• What a view!
• Moving along.
• This life has companions of many races and times.
• There's no doubt about it.
• But doubt if you like
• or don't like.
• Just watch yourself doubt.
• And watch yourself watching yourself,
• until you get tired of the watching,
• and see.
• It can't be figured out beforehand.
• It can't be figured out at all.
• Just this route now
• with this street name.
• And another name tomorrow.
• The road keeps winding,
• showing breathtaking scenery.
• It flows around curves like water.
• It dashes through groves like the wind.
• Studying Constructive Living?
• What is that?
• Just walk the road.
• Just passing through.
• Thought I'd drop in
• Or out.
• A road construction sign
• is meaningless.
• What a strange notion!
• Walking backward, going forward.
• Seeing neither back nor front.
• Falling down, getting up. You know the course.
• Of what use is a map?
• Vacation over, it's time to go home.
• The landscape goes on.
  
  
• 2. Song of Delight (inspired by Song of Spontaneous Joy in the Mountains, p. 126)
  
  
• I'm such a barbarian!
• Screwed up here, screwing up there.
• Missing the point, sliding along.
• Looking for a mind-fix.
• While mouthing the latest advice from a tv guru.
• Mumble, mumble, mumble.
• Hey! What am I missing here?
• Look at the marvels of this place!
• Indescribable! Wonderful!
• Reality and me, what a combination!
• Lost in time, I notice myself noticing
• and smile.
• How to communicate this life
• that comes and goes?
• Midst life's twists and turns
• I'm only responsible for me.
• What a relief!
• What a mind!
• How pleased it is to bounce and rest
• and bounce again! Where does this joy come from?
• Whose joy is it?
• Do you know?
• Upheld, uplifted, upended
• someone smiles.
• Doing Reality's deeds
• how do we appear to others?
• Consider well and keep doing
• with quiet knowing.
• Rare are those who understand
• these words, this satisfaction.
• Keep your eyes open
• for the mirthful dance of Reality.
• Spinning leaps freeze in mid-air.
• Take your bow to silent applause.
  
  
• 3. Song of Freedom (inspired by Song of the Hermitage of White Clouds, p. 128)
  
  
• On the Umpqua River logs drift and jam and drift again.
• They float forever beneath the moon.
• Reports come that there may be better grade lumber elsewhere.
• Then the logs jam and back up.
• But the River keeps flowing.
• Headed one way, knowing its destination.
• Believe it or not the jostling logs are happy,
• though lumberjacks may not be.
• Moving toward the sea. The banks of the Umpqua River murmur appreciation.
• Velvety with green moss, dripping wet and slippery.
• Morning fog has lifted, the logs slide along.
• Will you ride them?
• All the way to the sea?
• Greet the logs, the River, the banks
• While amused by your impertinence.
• Where's the rush?
• The logs won't sink
• waterlogged.
• Get the picture?
• Scenic postcard view, carefully selected
• for the folks back home.
• What can I write them about the trip?
• All the seasons are good for a visit.
• Always something to do.
• Exhausted, I drift into sleep
• to ride the logs some more.

Summer Frost
Poems of Han-shan: A Constructive Living Interpretation

The following selected poems offer Constructive Living interpretations from the complete collection translated by Robert Henricks, The Poetry of Han-Shan. Albany, SUNY Press, 1990. (Numbers are from the original.)

Part I

• 1
• Whoever follows this path
• Must yield to Reality
• Cloudiness must turn to transparency day by day.
• Why fool yourself? Right now become impeccable.
  
  
• 3
• The path runs by fields of delight, pain, and boredom.
• It is uncharted.
• Winding through scene after scene.
• Layered with meaning.
• The detail of it all,
• Yet all the same.
• Your feet know the way even when your mind drifts.
  
  
• 9
• Can I offer directions to your destination?
• You can't get there from here, not today.
• Make your difficult way through the fields.
• Even this poor fool stumbles along
• directed by mind without compass.
• But the sun in the East.
  
  
• 28
• It's worth the climb, this view.
• Though the climb is never-ending.
• Looking out at the scene
• What variety!
• Watch your step!
• Feet dangling over the cliff
• Who will join me for a respite?
  
  
• 67
• Chilly moments, now and again. Especially now that wind blows through snow hair
• and life's leaves have fallen.
• Can I find my way with sun concealed by overcast?
  
  
• 69
• Right this way!
• The fog is no obstacle.
• May I give you this bouquet?
• It's yours to keep.
• But you must climb up to get it.
• Who will receive these wildflowers?
• Reality grows them, not I.
• Just a flower vendor on a mountain pass.
• Where's his profit?
  
  
• 82
• Just this one mind,
• Neither focused nor fuzzy.
• Neither cultured nor untutored.
• For all occasions
• For all seasons
• Just this one mind.
  
  
• 141
• When those who don't understand read these verses
• They smile at the simplicity and foolishness.
• When those who aspire read these verses They consider them weighty.
• When those who understand read these verses
• They, too, smile
• And look around.
  
  
• 154
• Everyday Reality doesn't exist,
• but it's marvelous,
• For those who perceive the density.
• Washed windows,
• Water running through pipes.
• Aging roof frosted white.
• Chipped paint covered by spider webs.
• Raincoat shiny with raindrop tracks.
• Wipe the mist from your glasses.
  
  
• 155
• Before you became a rosebush what were you?
• Mulched and watered, pruned and protected
• Your roots twisted with the intricacy of history.
• Your leaves sought sun through breezes and gales.
• Now you're old and thorny.
• Blossoms straggle.
• But life/you still flows along out of sight.
• You are no less real than ever before.
  
  
• 226
• What is so special about this place now?
• Just ivy and concrete and carpet and steps.
• Delightful and unrestrained.
• Who? What?
• My eyes? The clouds?
• No address, no home.
• Just sitting in the night
• Greeting an old, round friend.
  
  
• 236
• Reality talks through me,
• And you.
• A strange idea,
• but merely more Reality talk.
• Surface talk--nothing beneath or behind.
• Direct talk--change, death, the unknown
• Told from chains, to chains, by chains.
  
  
• 259
• Win a free trip to Hawaii!
• And lose your soul.
• Scheming to get the prizes of life without effort
• Takes effort.
• Don't miss the chance to earn rewards
• Through toil, the ultimate prize.
  
  
• 266
• Rockbed Reality
• Keeps on amusing me, pleasing me, taunting me,
• Hurting me, chilling me, delighting me.
• So many me's.
• So much moss on the pebbles.
  
  
• 277
• Aging yellow moon.
• Glows its message to earth.
• Traces shadowed forms for imagination.
• The glow within me
• sketches shadowed forms, too.
• Glow meets glow in wondrous fancy.
• Just one glowing.
  
  
• 281
• How long must I sit for the debris to settle?
• I stand and stir it up again.
• I live with dust motes swirling about.
• They infect the eyes, cause tearing.
• Choke the breath, cause coughing.
• Swallowed, they are indigestible.
• But I am made of dust.
• It is my life.
  
  
• 282
• Clouds, rain, rivers
• All the same water.
• Now here, now there.
• Beating, flowing, misting, blocked.
• I am water, too.
  
  
• 288
• Telegraphing dots and dashes.
• Who believes a dot?
• Wrapped in colors
• neon, flashy.
• Who believes a dash?
• Flavored salty, pickled, juicy
• Muted bitter, fetid, sugared.
• We taste with borrowed tongues,
• And tire of home-cooked meals.
• Starved for dots and dashes
• that mean something.
  
  
• 304
• How can you get here from there?
• Is the road on the map? Autumn leaves blow across the map.
• Fog makes it hard to read.
• Give me a call and I'll offer directions.
• But watch carefully for the turn-off.
• The signs are weathered.
  
  
• 305
• Enlightenment is cool.
• Why is that?
• Why is snow pure?
• Pure sun transforms the snow to slush.
• Pure slush.
  
  
• 306
• Nobody knows where I live.
• Oh, they know the address.
• They've seen the house, perhaps.
• But I live in the forest in back.
• Walking shaded paths alone.
  
  
• 308
• Something made a breeze for me today.
• I own fans and air massagers.
• I bought comfort; paid the price.
• Today that something put a cloud across the sun and tossed a wind through branches toward me,
• through me.
• Different somehow.
  
  
• 309
• Do I think that I'm alive?
• Only rarely when I raise my head from walking, talking.
• Do I think that I shall die?
• Only rarely when I bow my head before Time's altar.
• Mostly not alive or dead.
• Is that living by default?
  
  
• 311
• Tiny mirrors, lenses, lightbulbs;
• Flicker, flaring, glowing focus;
• Glassy visions of your being;
• Take a look, take a look.

Part II

These four short untitled poems were inspired by the original translations by Ivan Morris in Madly Singing in the Mountains, London, George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1970.

• 1
• It's an uphill climb
• and endless.
• Choices appear limited and unenticing.
• Obstacles abound
• Not the least of them my feelings.
• And my ruminations continue in good times and bad.
• Reality entertains me.
• Who can move beyond the self-imposed limits
• and see clearly?
  
  
• 2
• I attended workshops and seminars.
• Where words floated like rosy clouds.
• But Reality kept reminding me of firm ground
• and the way to walk with balanced tread.
  
  
• 3
• This here now is worth appreciation.
• While thoughts float around.
• While words drift with feelings breezes.
• While panic shoves and bullies.
• Alone I walk this path with attention.
• Reminding myself of the principles of Constructive Living
• Feelings rise and fade.
• Thoughts tint the scene with idiosyncrasy.
  
  
• 4
• There's so much he wants to do.
• And hasn't over the years.
• A moment ago he started a difficult task
• But got sidetracked by regrets and worries.
• He recalled previous failures
• and doubted the chance of success.
• So he's taking a break
• for a snack
• and a fantasy.

Leaf on the Waves
A Constructive Living Interpretation of Ikkyu's Skeletons

Two translations of Ikkyu's well-known poem inspired a pair of Constructive Living reflections for comparison and inspiration. Firstly, Thomas Cleary's The Original Face. New York, Grove Press, 1978 contains the translated verses titled Skeletons written by Ikkyu. Ikkyu's verses inspired the following lines.

Part 1

• A wide-brimmed hat shields our eyes from the sun.
• We forget the finish line and meander through the course
• Eyes half closed watching dreams thrilling and appalling.
  
  
• Divide the path into right and left and you lose your way.
• Watch your step!
• You lost your goal!
• But the end remains anyway, unnoticed.
• Build your strength during the race. After it's done what prize is there to collect
• As you stumble across the finish line?
  
  
• Having glimpsed the terrain how can you lose your way?
• Take your time; it is "yours," you know.
• Not for long, perhaps, but precisely long enough.
• To arrive at the final starting line.
• To make it home.
  
  
• What scenery here, this life!
• Climb or descend, the view keeps ch