A Compilation of Japanese Folk Zen Sayings

	Had you done a good job
Clapping with
	Two hands,
No need then to hear
	The sound of one.

	All heaven and earth
Have worked out
	This single buttercup:
Surely it will go on
	Age after age.

How joyous to meet with you!
How terrible to part!
Greeting is the
	Beginning of farewell.


My hair curled elaborately
Only for your sake;
It’s you who will
	Disturb it at midnight.

	Up to the puppeteer:
Out of the doll box
	hung from his neck
Comes a Buddha?
Or a devil?

	Without fences,
Everything belongs to me:
	The snow-clad mountains.

The bell doesn’t ring,
Nor does the stick;
The “between”
	Is ringing.

	No bird twitters
On the hillside rice field
	After harvest;
Just a scarecrow
Fallen.

	No more, thank you, of
This suffocating world!
	I’m moving to
A new house
Down in hell.

Kunisada Chuji,
Fearful as a devil,
Cuts and kills men--
	With a sweet smile!

	When you’re
Beyond
	Pain and pleasure,
Both good and bad
Fail to reach you.