Returning to Zhen* 歸真

By Yuan Xi from White Cloud Poetry Society | Translated by Jennifer Zeng and Gerard Traub文：白雲詩社 元曦 | 英文翻譯：曾錚

Amidst boundless seas of calamity
Lasting for countless ages
With devastating waves and storms
When the cosmos wanes
Lives cast down to earth.

In my dreams last night
I was like a startled deer
Vividly recalling my previous lives
When the same moon lit up the water-like sky
And shone over a world           
Where truth was nowhere to be found.

Living in such a place
I always feared people's words
Which were violently powerful
Enough to kill
My soul wept over my lonely graves
Burying me a thousand miles away.

The chilling bitterness
Could still be felt
Even after many reincarnations
The world remains cold and harsh.

When will the suffering and reincarnations end?
How many times have I cried without a reason?

Alas! In this lifetime
I have finally discovered a bright land!
With the magnificent sun shining upon me
I rise above the desperation of the past!

Levels beyond levels of endless skies in front of me
In all Ten Directions*
With Falun* rotating.

Udumbara flowers blossoming in my hand
Realms after realms unfolding
The blessing of the Fa*
The majestic sound
Can be felt and heard from afar. 

Golden lotuses spring up from the ground
Clouds parting to form a path
Stretching out before me.

Harboring millions of beings within my heart
The spell was broken
And I was freed
With great courage
I fear nothing.

Beyond the finite self
I now awaken to the divine!

Finally! There is a boat to save us
From the boundless bitter seas
Even across the coming ages     
I can never return
Master's grace.

* Zhen: truth, truthfulness

* Ten Directions: The Buddha School conceptualizes the universe as the Ten Directions with four sides and eight directions.

* Falun: Law Wheel, Wheel of Law

* Fa: Law and principles in the Buddha school

劫海茫茫風濤深
宙宇飄零委下塵
昨夜夢迴心驚鹿
歷歷觸懷悟前身
一樣明月天如水
遍照滄桑少有真
生畏人言能化骨
死去千里泣孤墳
隔代猶感淒涼意  
世情依舊冷淡春 
輪迴輾轉何時了
幾度無由淚紛紛
今朝終登光明地
大日照我出沉淪
層層有天望不盡
但見十方轉法輪
手拈優曇開境界
法音洪鐘遙可聞
地湧金蓮雲鋪路
億眾生時出封塵
心升大勇吾何懼
念斷小我即是神
苦海無涯終有渡
萬古難報是師恩

Photo by Benny Zhang. 攝影：張炳乾