Metaphor

Every phenomenon is like a dream,
an illusion, a bubble, a shadow;
it is like dew and also like lightning.
So is all to be seen.
-The Diamond Sutra

One should see that all appearance

is like mist and fog.

-Milarepa

An ox's footprints filled with water
Will soon dry up; so with a mind that's firm
But full of qualities that are not perfect;
These imperfections will in time dry up.
-Saraha

O hidden under the dove's wing,
hidden in the turtle's breast,
Under the palm tree at noon,
under the running water
At the still point of the turning world.
O hidden.
-T. S. Eliot

The monkey is reaching
For the moon in the water.
Until death overtakes him
He'll never give up.
If he'd let go the branch and
Disappear in the deep pool,
The whole world would shine
With dazzling pureness.
-Hakuin

Spring rain
leaking through the roof
dripping from the wasps' nest.
-Matsuo Basho

The self's warp is gone;
Now with what woof will it get woven?
-Akha

A caterpillar,
this deep in fall -
still not a butterfly
-Matsuo Basho

A dunce once searched for fire with a lighted lantern.

Had he known what fire was,

He could have cooked his rice much sooner.

-Joshu

The fireflies' light.

How easily it goes on

How easily it goes out again.

-Chine-Jo

Waiting for the spark from heaven to fall.
-Matthew Arnold

Ah, the rainbow of deception!
Unity's dying vat will reduce it to a single tint.
-Sana'i

O Lord of Caves,
 if you are light,
 there can be no metaphor.
-Allama Prabhu

Simply by the act of cutting stone
he measured the distance
between himself and the Supreme.
-Takashi Tsuji

Reality is an ocean;
the law is a ship.
-Yunus Emre

Stay on the road until you arrive.
Be speechless.
Don't become a salesman.
-Yunus Emre

Over railroad tracks
wild geese fly by low
on a moonlit night.
-Shiki

If you sit, sit in the middle of the sky.
If you sleep, sleep on the point of a spear.
If you look, look upon the center of the sun.
-Tilopa

Atop a hundred-foot flagpole,

one should step forward 

to manifest the whole body throughout the universe.

-Sishuang

If I really see you,
I will laugh out loud, or fall silent,
or explode into a thousand pieces.
And if I don't,
I will be caught in the cement and stone of my own prison.
-Djalal al-Din Rumi

By breaking the needle's eye and going within,
Did I behold a wondrous spectacle.
-Dayal Singh

The body is the tree of enlightenment,

The mind like a clear mirror stand;

Time and gain, wipe it diligently,

Don't let it gather dust.

-Shen Xiu

How bright and transparent

the moonlight of wisdom

-Haksuin Ekaku

But how could I let a speck of dust
Into the city of the mind?
-Wu Cailan

Bamboo shadows sweep the stairs,

But no dust is stirred.

Moonlight penetrates the depths of the pool,

But no trace is left in the water.

-Nyogen Senzaki

In this way and that I have tried to save the old pail
Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break
Until at last the bottom fell out.
No more water in the pail!
No more moon in the water!
-Chiyono

My heart is the clear water in a stony pond.
Right now it is invaded by the peach-blossom shadows.
As soon as I arrive at heaven's palaces
I shall settle down with my seven-stringed lute.
-Lu Tung Pin

Like tangled hair,
The circular delusion
Of beginning and end,
When straightened out,
A dream no longer.
-Dogen

The rock behind my back is transparent.

-Gotsangpa

The circle without blemish.
The empty mountains without sound.
-Du Fu

A clean hand

needs not washing

-The Oculatum

A man with no form, no shadow

Turns into a rice pounder

When he pounds rice.

-Sosho

Between our two lives
there is also the life of
the cherry blossom
-Basho

I tried to make sense of the Four Books,

until love arrived,

and it all became a single syllable.

-Yunus Emre 

I have found the sea,

An ocean limitless.

I have opened a treasury unending,

Its jewels blaze with the luster of a thousand thousand suns,

And they blaze here, in my soul.

Of a sudden,

Without any effort of mine own,

I have heard the eternal Secret,

I have learned to know God.

Here in my life hath blossomed

The flower of perfect union.

-Tukaram