Revised on the 22nd, May 2015
I was ground down to the utmost;
I was ground down to the utmost;
Hell is definite – ah, that’s tough!
Give everything
up,
Trust only in the Vow-Power.
Over seventy years of age—think it over—
This human life—
Just too short!
Clouds float,
Boats drift,
I pause.
O young man,
The dusk is close
Before the night falls.
My true character,
Unconcealed
Before the mirror of Great Compassion.
Reflected in the bright mirror
Are the delusive thoughts of sentient beings.
Grateful in life to have
The light of Great Compassion.
This body is just shallow,
Yet we rejoice at
Amida Nyorai who proclaims, “You are my children.”
Finally it has come, finally it has come;
I have prepared for this awakening!
Awakened to the impermanence of life,
Let this body be blown by the wind (of impermanence).
So quickly it is time for me take my leave.
The Primal Vow-Power is so great!
Reluctantly,
I must go to be born in the Pure Land.
This life is but a dream, a dream.
Awaken thoroughly to the impermanence of life;
Spring is right at the Other Shore.
This human life, transient and dreamlike, is a short
journey.
The chill wind has long been blowing. [1]
Human life is impermanence;
However dreamlike, we still suffer and grieve.
Living in the six-syllable Name throughout this dreamlike
life,
The joy of Dharma is inexpressible.
Human life, transient yet illusory, is a short journey.
Living in the six-syllable Name throughout this dreamlike
life,
The joy of Dharma is inexpressible.
The dark and empty sky has no bounds;
We have been wandering through the wilderness for
immeasurable kalpas of lives.
Ah, the moon of the Primal Vow—what a joy!
It carries hope and calls for me.
Though my life is approaching its end,
My aspirations never come to an end.
My vision is gone, yet my career begins right at this
moment!
Every time I see a bird disappear into the clouds
I wonder:
Riding on the Vow,
The day when I take to the air will come.
Death is the end of human life
And the beginning of a true life.
Going and returning to expound the Dharma ad infinitum—
The sacred mission has just started.
On the other side of the graveyard, aspirations abound.
Why are we sorrowful?
Human life, transient yet dreamlike, is a short-lived coat.
However distressed and worried you may be,
These are but dreams.
Oya-sama is following—no worries!
In this life or the life after, Oya-sama is by our side.
Namu Amida
Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu.
Good and evil, who can understand these two words?
Newly wakened from the dream of distant kalpas,
Within the embracing light I find no life and dealth.
The Great Compassion can exterminate the poisons of
wisdom and stupidity.
The dream has no power to awaken itself.
Look afar, you wake up from dreams repeatedly while
dreaming.
And your experience of it, though repeated, remains falsehood.
Last night again you spoke about a dream while dreaming.
Though waking up, again, you went back to dreaming.
Remove the bandage that covers the ailing eyes—the
mountain in the autumn. [2]
Walk out into the field; the moon is hanging visible in
the sky.
Say “must discard the calculating mind,” that’s
impossible!
Without thinking of “having to discard it,” unknowingly
it has already been discarded. How inconceivable this is!
“As it is…” Those who fail to savor its taste have “the
mind that hears.” [3]
[1] Those with
Buddha-dharma will chance upon the cold wind earlier. Cold wind is the strong
sense of impermanence. He who is hit by the cold wind will necessarily seek the
path of deliverance from birth-and-death.
[2] In the
autumn, the sky is cloudy and therefore the mountain is not easily seen. Bonbu,
though accepting shinjin, are still unable to behave like Buddhas and merge
with ultimate truth. This is just like ailing eyes that, though they have
recovered, remain unable to see the full landscape of the mountain.
[3] The
mentality of "I have heard it."
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