Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Dilemma


.




The Three Wise Monkeys in the Monkey Sculpture ("Mizaru/ Hear no evil, Kikazaru/ speak no evil, Iwazaru/ see no evil")
, Nikko Toshogu Shinto shrine, Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan: photo by rangaku1976, 2008




The monk asked Fuketsu, "Speaking and silence belong to the absolute and the relative worlds; how can we escape both these errors?"




Fuketsu said,

"I always think of Kónan in March;

Partridges chirp among the scented blossoms."







Crested Wood Partridge (Rollulus rouloul), male
: photo by Michelle Tribe, 2008


Reginald Horace Blyth: Zen (excerpt) in Haiku: Volume I: Eastern Culture, 1947