Monday, January 16, 2023

shikish from Shodo Harada

 

曹  源   一 滴   水

so gen   itteki   sui

One drop of water from the fount of Ts'ao Ch'i.

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Shodo Harada, abbot of Sogenji in Okayama, Japan, gave this shikishi to my sister Susan when she visited us with my mother in 1991. Susan gave it to my niece Camille who inquired about it and took this photo of it and her finger. 

Thanks to Chisan Storandt of Sogenji for confirming that the calligraphy is Shodo Haradas and Shohaku Okamura of the Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana for translating it. 




This saying appear in Blue Cliff Record case 7

***

When the Sixth Patriarch died, his disciples did not cremate

his body but buried it in the valley of Ts'ao-ch'i. In that place is

the main temple of the Sixth Patriarch, where he lived for quite a long time.

from: http://www.firstzen.org/ZenNotes/2001/2001-02_Vol_48_No_02_Spring_2001.pdf