Rain and Rhino

Love Letters from the Hermitage

May 2014 Retreat, Furnace Mountain

On Failing Case 87 of the Blue Cliff Record

Master Dae Gak is unwell.
He sends me out to gather fragrant grasses;
I come back with the rain and fallen leaves.
Together we pass the night over the wood-stove in the drafty hermitage;
in the bent tin cup between us—the Ancestors’ Meaning.



One More Try at Case 87

Wind blows down the wooded path;
Crow calls—“Who is this that hears it?”
Mountains rise, one after another.
Mind sweeps mind.

Nothing in the universe is not oneself.