Ascending the Mountain
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[This version: 28 July 1993]
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TITLE: Ascending the Mountain
AUTHOR: Bernard Tetsugen GLASSMAN
SOURCE: The Ten Directions, Summer/Fall 1982, Vol 3, No.2, pp 16
NOTES: Poems composed by B.T. Glassman, Sensei, on the occasion of the ceremony of "Ascending the Mountain" (Shisanshiki), on the 6 June 1982, during which he was installed as abbot of Mount Doji, Zenshin Temple of the Zen Community of New York.
Standing alone on a solitary peak,
The gateless gate crumbles.
Moving straight up the windy
road,
Heaven and earth are walking as one.
Buddhas intimate with buddhas-
What need is there for old
medicine bottles?
Then thousand blossoms perfume
the vast sky.
Like this, like this !
Protecting the Dharma,
purifying beings,
Dragon-heads search for water.
Nothing to protect, no one to
purify-
uphold the true Way.
Eyebrow-to-eyebrow,
Karmic relations everywhere.
Three bows, ten thousand bows-
White plum blossoms fill the air.
The diamond sword flashes;
The shadow beckons.
The only path is descending
the mountain.
The gnarled roots are ruthlessly
exposed.
Before the heavens were created,
this seal is.
After the heavens are destroyed,
this seal is.
A formless field of benefaction,
Enveloping the worlds of
liberation.
Who has transmitted it?
Who is not embraced by it?
At play in the field of the Buddha,
A solitary eagle circles the big
mountain,
Sheer cliffs afford no resting place;
It is time to ascend-
Cloud stepped upon cloud.
