Eighty Four Thousand Poems汇总.doc

Eighty Four Thousand Poems Talks given from 1/4/80 to 30/4/80 Darshan Diary 28 Chapters Year published: none Unpublished Eighty Four Thousand Poems Chapter #1 Chapter title: None 1 April 1980 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium Archive code: 8004015 ShortTitle: 84POEM01 Audio: No Video: No [NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been copy-typed on to the computer. It is for reference purposes only.] It is impossible to express the ultimate truth. It is like a taste. If you have tasted, you know If you have not tasted There is no way to convey it. A man who has not tasted honey cannot be made To know what sweetness is. The man who has never seen light is incapable Of understanding anything said about light. The person who has known and experienced Even he finds it almost impossible to express it Because language falls very short. The experience is so vast And language is so small. The experience is so sacred And language is so mundane That there is no possibility of any bridging. Hence truth has been known many times And all those who have known Have tried to express it But they have all failed. We are grateful that they tried Because out of that effort life has been enriched. We have beautiful scriptures: the sayings of Zarathustra, Jesus, Lao Tzu, Buddha Are so beautiful, so precious That without them there would Have been no humanity We would have been utterly poor. But howsoever beautiful they are They have not been able to express it. And they all say that they have failed. They have tried with their heart They have tried in thousands of ways In every possible way. Buddha spoke for forty-two years continuously But again and again the same cul-de-sac. Something seems to be elusive, it escapes. Just this morning I was reading a Zen master, Sotoba. The day he experienced truth The day he became enlightened He wrote these beautiful lines: The mountain -- Buddhas body The torrent -- his preaching. Last night, eighty-fo