Appreciating a Zen Poem: Do Not Judge Me Through Right and Wrong — The Floating Life Is Unrelated to Such Contrivances

A Verse Revealing the Dharma

[Tang Dynasty] Longshan Monk

Three thatched huts I have always called home,

One ray of mystic light, and all realms rest at ease.

Come not with right and wrong to judge me—

This drifting life's contrivances touch me not.

"Three thatched huts I have always called home; one ray of mystic light, and all realms rest at ease." The three thatched huts allegorically represent the past, present, and future. Dwelling within these three huts, the Chan Master dissolves the habitual afflictions accumulated since beginningless kalpas, while guiding sentient beings toward their future Buddhahood. "Mystic light" is a metaphor for the wondrous mind of perfect awakening. Ordinary people in the world, who have never realized this "mystic light," are often whirled about by the myriad things—people busy, circumstances busy—though all dharmas are inherently at ease, it is people themselves who stir up the commotion. Those who have seen the Way, however, are not turned by circumstances; naturally, "all realms rest at ease"—the non-duality of motion and stillness.

"Come not with right and wrong to judge me; this drifting life's contrivances touch me not." The Chan practitioner has already transcended right and wrong, good and evil—how could ordinary people possibly understand him? Secular life, of course, has nothing to do with him. According to records, after Chan Master Dongshan paid a visit to Longshan Monk, Longshan set fire to his hermitage and retreated into deeper, higher places, and from then on, no one ever saw him again.