Keep it Simple

Zen Lessons 2025 12 16: a poem from the Blue Cliff Record

Shadow of a Beech on Mother Beech, & her young Beeches.

Ju Di used to respond to every question, sincere or not, grasping or wise, with a single, upward pointed finger. This was thier way of not getting overly involved; it was respectful of the mysteries that unfold, avoiding pointing to a book or a distant mountain. Such distractions can trip a seeker up, looking to the distance instead of living their own lives.

Thought where i live now is less rural then where i once roamed, there are fields and woods that someday i might know well. The river here is narrow, the woods don’t get dark. There aren’t any hidden, drinkable springs that i know of, and there are no cliffs. The fields are, in the very middle, quiet, but road noise is never far. For all that, there is this young stand of beeches Dolly and I run through, and beeches feed a great deal of animals, it seems, and the snow keeps their trails.

Ju Di's "One Finger Chan"

This very moment
You should take all the complications
And cut them off.

Bring out your own family treasure
And respond everywhere, high and low,
Before and after, without missing.

Each and every one will be fully manifest.
If you are not yet like this, look into what follows.

-Yuan Wu, from the Thomas Cleary translation of the Blue Cliff Record