PAYING GRATITUDE, RESPECT, AND HOMAGE TO ZEN MASTERS THICH NHAT HANH AND THICH THANH TU
1.
Let's come back, our life is getting shorter
Let's come back, our life is getting shorter
Coming home itself is a present in the realm of emptiness.
2.
The masters just sat in peace
Joy, hope, and happiness spread beyond the Zen gates
Just sitting silently, the Dharma lessons are taught
Covering discourses and countless sutras.
3.
White mountain-tops are a stunning beauty
In the back of the sky, the sunset ray is falling
Half of the rainbow is magnificent
Ah, just three gentle deep breaths!
4.
From the beginning I came here
Learn to understand and love, learn to smile
Suddenly, the soul of the traveler is empty
Looming over the course of life! And then stops dreaming.
5.
Over ninety years of life
Wait for the student to grow up
Ah, who is still not awaking
In gratitude, raising a salute to the silent teaching
6.
Road dust is still not settled and is unable to return
The masters still sit and smile silently
The suffering and miserable, only we must know for ourselves
The masters asked, “Tell me, is this life, a dream, or what!?”
7.
Promise with all my heart to visit the ancestor land
Experiencing life in the East and in the West
Is it time to come back, the soul-searching traveler?
Your ancestor land has all the seed of wisdom and enlightenment.
8.
Leaving behind the West, ah, this valued piano
A song of dreams is the common love
Coming back to the East, oh, that single-string instrument
Oh, a primitive realm, just like the seas, mountains, and forests.
9.
Coming back the shadows are fading
Grasses trampled on the edge of the sunset rays
10.
The golden sun covered my way home
Ah, this is truly a lonely country road
The rolling pine hill is dancing with the clouds overhead
Taking a vacation for the inner mind, fostering calmness
On the shoulders, the moon and the sun, are just an emptiness
Be freely and leisurely strolling the harbor of duality.
11.
This episode, a realm of life, is getting shorter
Coming and going is just the same
We should be free wherever we truly are.
12.
The masters still sat quietly
Look at their smiling children
Who bowed their heads in respect
13.
Letting go, letting go
Our attachments and thoughts also let go
The mind, body, and heart are one with the Tathagata
14.
They are just sitting there
Yet all is calm and at ease
The zen monasteries are purified and beautified
Knowing that everything is just fine the way it-is.
