Monday, October 13, 2008

carry water, chop wood


神通並妙用
miraculous power and marvelous activity
運水及槃柴
drawing water and chopping wood
Pángyùn (庞蕴, 740-808), a lay practitioner of the eighth century

1 comment:

Mark Foote said...

Hi, Paul,

Thanks for the poetry, and the attribution to Pangyun (hope I got that right).
*
I am attempting an explanation of the juxtaposition of the adjective "marvelous" with the seemingly mundane activity, hopefully with the parallel quotation attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas (log. 77, pg 43 in my Harper & Row edition 1959): "Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there; lift up the stone and you will find Me there."
You can find my approach at "www.zenmudra.com" (or just google "zen mudra") if you're interested; my email is there at the bottom of the page, too.
Thanks, sure are a lot of people repeating another version of this as history, but the poetry has a joy I like. Yers, Mark