Song of the Original Mind
Bankei Yotaku
Unborn and imperishable is the original mind.
Earth, water, fire and wind, a temporary lodging for the night.
Attached to this ephemeral burning house, you yourselves light the fire,
kindle the flames in which you’re consumed.
Keep your mind as it was when you came into the world
and instantly this very self is a living “thus-come” one.
Ideas of what’s good, what’s bad
all due to this self of yours.
In winter, a bonfire spells delight,
but when summertime arrives what a nuisance it becomes!
And the breezes you loved in summer,
even before the autumn’s gone, already have become a bother.
Throwing your whole life away sacrificed to the thirst for gold.
But when you saw your life was through all your money was no use.
Clinging, craving and the like, I don’t have them on my mind.
That’s why nowadays I can say the whole world is truly mine!
Since, after all, this floating world is unreal.
Instead of holding onto things in your mind, go and sing!
Only original mind exists, in the past and in the future too.
Instead of holding onto things in your mind, let them go!
Having created the demon mind yourself, when it torments you mercilessly
you’re to blame and no one else.
When you do wrong our mind’s the demon.
There’s no hell to be found outside.
Abominating hell, longing for heaven,
You make yourself suffer in a joyful world.
You think that good means hating what is bad.
What’s bad is the hating mind itself.
Fame, wealth, eating and drinking, sleep and sensual delight-
Once you’ve learned the Five Desires
they become your guide in life.
Notions of what one should do never existed from the start.
Fighting about what’s right, what’s wrong, that’s the doing of the “I.”
When your study of Buddhism is through,
you find you haven’t anything new.
If you think the mind that attains enlightenment is “mine,”
your thoughts will wrestle, one with the other.
These days I’m not bothering about getting enlightenment all the time,
and the result is I wake up in the morning feeling fine!
Praying for salvation in the world to come, praying for your own selfish ends,
is only piling on more and more self-centeredness and arrogance.
Die—then live day and night within the world.
Once you’ve done this, then you can hold the world right in your hand!
If you search for the Pure Land bent upon your own reward,
you’ll only find yourself despised by the Buddha after all!
People have no enemies, none at all right from the start.
You create them all yourself, fighting over right and wrong.
Clear are the workings of cause and effect.
You become deluded, but don’t know it’s something that you’ve done yourself.
That’s what’s called self-centeredness.
Though the years may creep ahead, mind itself can never age.
This mind that’s always just the same.
Wonderful! Marvelous!
When you’ve searched and found at last
the one who never will grow old --“I alone!”
The Pure Land where one communes at peace is here and now.
It’s not remote, millions and millions of leagues away.
When someone tosses you a tea bowl --catch it!
Catch it nimbly with soft cotton, with the cotton of your skillful mind!
Bankei Yotaku
Unborn and imperishable is the original mind.
Earth, water, fire and wind, a temporary lodging for the night.
Attached to this ephemeral burning house, you yourselves light the fire,
kindle the flames in which you’re consumed.
Keep your mind as it was when you came into the world
and instantly this very self is a living “thus-come” one.
Ideas of what’s good, what’s bad
all due to this self of yours.
In winter, a bonfire spells delight,
but when summertime arrives what a nuisance it becomes!
And the breezes you loved in summer,
even before the autumn’s gone, already have become a bother.
Throwing your whole life away sacrificed to the thirst for gold.
But when you saw your life was through all your money was no use.
Clinging, craving and the like, I don’t have them on my mind.
That’s why nowadays I can say the whole world is truly mine!
Since, after all, this floating world is unreal.
Instead of holding onto things in your mind, go and sing!
Only original mind exists, in the past and in the future too.
Instead of holding onto things in your mind, let them go!
Having created the demon mind yourself, when it torments you mercilessly
you’re to blame and no one else.
When you do wrong our mind’s the demon.
There’s no hell to be found outside.
Abominating hell, longing for heaven,
You make yourself suffer in a joyful world.
You think that good means hating what is bad.
What’s bad is the hating mind itself.
Fame, wealth, eating and drinking, sleep and sensual delight-
Once you’ve learned the Five Desires
they become your guide in life.
Notions of what one should do never existed from the start.
Fighting about what’s right, what’s wrong, that’s the doing of the “I.”
When your study of Buddhism is through,
you find you haven’t anything new.
If you think the mind that attains enlightenment is “mine,”
your thoughts will wrestle, one with the other.
These days I’m not bothering about getting enlightenment all the time,
and the result is I wake up in the morning feeling fine!
Praying for salvation in the world to come, praying for your own selfish ends,
is only piling on more and more self-centeredness and arrogance.
Die—then live day and night within the world.
Once you’ve done this, then you can hold the world right in your hand!
If you search for the Pure Land bent upon your own reward,
you’ll only find yourself despised by the Buddha after all!
People have no enemies, none at all right from the start.
You create them all yourself, fighting over right and wrong.
Clear are the workings of cause and effect.
You become deluded, but don’t know it’s something that you’ve done yourself.
That’s what’s called self-centeredness.
Though the years may creep ahead, mind itself can never age.
This mind that’s always just the same.
Wonderful! Marvelous!
When you’ve searched and found at last
the one who never will grow old --“I alone!”
The Pure Land where one communes at peace is here and now.
It’s not remote, millions and millions of leagues away.
When someone tosses you a tea bowl --catch it!
Catch it nimbly with soft cotton, with the cotton of your skillful mind!
