When the bottom of a barrel
		busts open
	this vast earth seems even wider
When one’s life line
		snaps asunder
      a green lake turns crystal clear
What can be better
	        than to grasp a pinch
       of snow from a blazing furnace
& sprinkle it throughout
		  all human life
	like travelers’ lamps brightening their night 

—Da-hui Zhong-gao (1039-1163). Translated by Gary Gach.

Poet Da-hui Zhong-gao was a 12th-century Zen master. Translator Gary Gach (http://word.to) hosts Mindfulness Fellowship weekly in San Francisco.

From the Spring 2015 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 31, No. 2)

© 2015 Gary Gach