Short Poems

'Tis the cuckoo—
Listen well!
How much soever gods ye be.

When they told Cimabue
He didn't know how to cooee,
He replied, ‘Perhaps I mayn't,
But I do know how to paint.’

The benevolence of Amida's great compassion
we must repay, though our bodies be turned to dust.
The benevolence of our masters and teachers
we must thank them for, though all our bones be broken.

Those who attain the true heart of faith in other power,
the Master Teacher, the World-honored One, praises:
“Revere and greatly rejoice in the dharma, and
you shall be my friends.”

When the waters of true faith in other power
enter the sea of Amida's vow of wisdom,
then as is common in the true and real fulfilled land,
deranged passion and enlightenment become one savor.

Those who enter the virtue directed from Amida
and attain the mind that aspires to buddhahood
abandon the directing of merit through self power;
thus the benefit to all sentient beings is boundless.

That which is called “the heart that saves all sentient beings”
is Amida's vow of wisdom directed toward us.
Those who entrust themselves to his directed virtue
will realize the greatest nirvana.

During the true, semblance, and last dharma ages,
Amida's original vow has spread, but at the
end of the semblance and in this last dharma age,
all goodness has entered the dragon king's palace.

In the last dharma age of the five defilements,
sentient beings can neither practice nor realize,
so all the teachings left behind by Shakyamuni
have entered the palace of the dragon king.

It is now two thousand years or more since the
passing of the Tathagata Shakyamuni.
The true and semblance ages have come to their end.
Lament! Disciples left behind by the Tathagata.