This week's class was on "The Heavenly Messengers." When sickness, old age and death touch us, our lives can be transformed. As a great sage once said when asked of the greatest wonder of the world, he replied, "That everyone dies ... and no one thinks they will."
I thought I'd share a few of the Death Poems I read. This is entitled "Zazen on Ching't'ing Mountain:"
The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.
I love the following from Dogen. How could one better describe impermanence?
To what shall I liken the world? Moonlight, reflected In dewdrops, Shaken from a crane’s bill.