Bankei's Song of Original Mind

Unborn and imperishable
Is the original mind
Earth, water, fire and wind
A temporary lodging for the night
Attached to this
Ephemeral burning house
You yourselves light the fire, kindle the flames
In which you're consumed


Keep your mind as it was
When you came into the world
And instantly this very self
Is a living "thus-come" one
Ideas of
What's good, what's bad
All due to
This self of yours
In winter, a bonfire
Spells delight
But when summertime arrives
What a nuisance it becomes!
And the breezes
You loved in summer
Even before the autumn's gone
Already have become a bother


Throwing your whole life away
Sacrificed to the thirst for gold
But when you saw your life was through
All your money was no use
Clinging, craving and the like
I don't have them on my mind
That's why nowadays I can say
The whole world is truly mine!


Since, after all this floating world
Is unreal
Instead of holding onto things in
Your mind, go and sing!
Only original mind exists
In the past and in the future too
Instead of holding onto things in
Your mind, let them go!


Having created
the demon mind yourself
When it torments you mercilessly
You're to blame and no one else
When you do wrong
our mind's the demon
There's no hell
To be found outside
Abominating hell
Longing for heaven
You make yourself suffer
In a joyful world
You think that good
Means hating what is bad
What's bad is
The hating mind itself


Fame, wealth, eating and
drinking, sleep and sensual delight —
Once you've leaned the Five Desires
They become
Your guide in life
Notions of what one should do
Never existed from the start
Fighting about what's right, what's wrong
That's the doing of the "I"
When your study
Of Buddhism is through
You find
You haven't anything new


If you think the mind
That attains enlightenment
Is "mine"
Your thoughts will wrestle, one with the other
These days I'm not bothering about
Getting enlightenment all the time
And the result is
I wake up in the morning feeling fine!
Praying for salvation in the world to come
Praying for your own selfish ends
Is only piling on more and more
Self-centeredness and arrogance


Die — then live
Day and night within the world
Once you've done this, then you can
Hold the world right in your hand!


If you search for the Pure Land
Bent upon your own reward
You'll only find yourself
despised
By the Buddha after all!
People have no enemies
None at all right from the start
You create them all yourself
Fighting over right and wrong
Clear are the workings of cause
and effect
You become deluded, but
don't know
It's something that you've done yourself
That's what's called self-centeredness


Though the years may creep ahead
Mind itself can never age
This mind that's
Always just the same
Wonderful! Marvelous!
When you've searched
and found at last
The one who never will grow old
— "I alone!"
The Pure Land
Where one communes at peace
Is here and now, it's not remote
Millions and millions of leagues away
When someone tosses you a tea bowl
— Catch it!
Catch it nimbly with soft cotton
With the cotton of your skillful mind!

Loving Kindness-Buddha, Metta Sutra

This is what should be done

By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:

Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.

Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.

Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.

Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.

Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.

Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.

Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,

The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,

Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.

Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:

Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;

Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down

Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.

This is said to be the sublime abiding.

By not holding to fixed views,

The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

Buddha, Metta Sutra