Moon in a Dewdrop
Half a year, just having rice and sitting on Wan peak.
This sitting cuts through thousands of layers of misty clouds.
One sudden clap of roaring thunder. Spring in the mystic village.
Apricot blossoms are red.
- Zen master Dogen, from Moon in a Dewdrop
Rational thought does not give you a leg to stand on when trying to understand Zen, so I make no claims of being able to interpret this one. Zen seems to be about gaining understandings that cannot be expressed in words. If you have an understanding but cannot express it in words, it seems to me that is a nice problem to have. Anyway, the poem paints a nice mental picture, don't you think?
So much so that Moon in a Dewdrop actually inspired me to write a poem myself:
Five fingers outstretched against the sky
the smell after the rain
the soft, gentle breeze
asleep in the warm sun.
