Zen a day - catch-up 2 - May 30-June 5

Friday 30 May 2008
There was never mystery,
    But 'tis figured in the flowers;
Was never discreet history,
    But birds tell it in the bowers.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saturday 31 May 2008
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
- Hans Hofmann

Sunday 1 June 2008
You, before me standing,
Oh, my eternal self!
Since my first glimpse
You have been my secret love.
- A Zen Monk's Song of Samadhi

Monday 2 June 2008
A permanent state of transition is a man's most noble condition.
- Juan Ramón Jiménez

Tuesday 3 June 2008
Morning, sickle in hand.
Noon, roaming the forest, gathering wood.
Now the evening moon, quietly shedding light on the path I walk.
- Commentary on the Nansen “Sickle” koan

Wednesday 4 June 2008
One must ask children and birds how strawberries and cherries taste.
- Goethe

Thursday 5 June 2008
One day, Yang-uan called to his assistant: "Bring me the rhinoceros fan."
"It is broken," said the assistant.
"In that case," Said Yang-uan, "bring me the rhinoceros."
- Zen koan