A time of playing willow pipes;
a time of growing dreams by the stream;
now that I live without self
I long for those times.
All people who live
have dreams of the past.
They dream dreams of hope
but they are not able to do what they need to do –
they live ignorant of life’s futility.
It is possible to know it is futile
when you wake up from the dream.
Don’t blame it for being futile;
don’t brag that it exists,
or sigh that it doesn’t;
life is but a springtime dream,
but without dreams there is no hope
so life was made to dream dreams,
leaving you with nothing
after sad times have passed.
I am already living a life
which exists and yet does not;
I have already departed from myself
regardless of what anyone says.
I am me only because I am living
but amidst existence there is nothing,
and amidst nothing, there is existence.
Existence and non-existence are one and the same.
It is now possible to see that one’s mind does not exist,
but no one else in the world
has the mind of non-existence.
I am alone in knowing,
steeped in solitude.
It is best to be among people,
to be ordinary.
Perhaps this is because I miss those I have lost,
for now I know that to stand out is unhappiness.
While searching for Truth
I was simply seeking to
attain a high level of enlightenment
but I have been given a task –
the task of truly saving people.
I do not know whether
I will be able to carry out heaven’s order,
and it makes me wake in my sleep
and wander in my dreams.
It is a burden that is too large and overwhelming.
Though I worry, I am without any minds.
My minds have disappeared somewhere,
and I am alone,
writing these words.
– Woo Myung
