Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “Nakagawa-Soen”
June 19, 2016
The Dusty World
A poem, written in 1938 by Soen Nakagawa Roshi1:
Looking for serenity
you have come
to the monastery.Looking for serenity
I am leaving
the monastery.Kwatz!
Stop running about seeking!
The dusty affairs of the world
fill the day,
fill the night.
I am not sure this is the proper poem for what I want to talk about today. But there is something in Roshi’s poem that touches me in a profound way. Maybe because I live in what many people consider a monastery—a place far removed from “the dusty affairs of the world.”