Book Title: Zen Buddhism
Author(s): Christmas Humphereys
Publisher: William Heinemann LTD

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Page 221
________________ 192 ZEN BUDDHISM That, I think, is bad, because it describes, and stops. How feeble these are compared with even a translation of Basho! "Along the mountain path The scent of plum-blossoms And on a sudden the rising sun!" W. J. Gabb does better than mine in their Zen content, though the form is that of a ge rather than a haiku. He is describing a moment of satori in a train. “These words floated ready made into my mind.” “Seated cross-legged, hands folded on breast, Reverently he makes bows. The crowds that jostle him in the train See him not. They stir his garments as the breeze stirs the pine. Framed in the window is a solitary gull, soaring.”l Let me try again. “You may speak of 'left'. You may also speak of frighť. There is no middle." This is mystical" and too abstract. The same applies to the following, though it is an experience which I hope to know: “This diversity, How exhausting it all is. But if I let go?” This is a little better: 2 From an unpublished MS.

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