The Buddha's essential functioning

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[This version: 28 July 1993]
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TITLE: The Buddha's essential functioning
AUTHOR: Eihei DOGEN
SOURCE:  The Ten Directions, Vol 2, No 2, June 1981. pp. 20
NOTES: A poem by Eihei Dogen Zenji, written approx. 1242, translated 
by Taizan MAEZUMI, Roshi and Neal DONNER.  It complements an earlier poem by
Hung-chih Cheng-chueh [T'ien-t'ung Hung-chih ] (J.Tendo Wanshi)

The Buddha's essential functioning,
the partriarchs' functioning essence,
manifest without deliberation
and acomplishes without hindrance.
Manifesting without deliberation,
its manifestation is intimate of itself.
Accomplishing without hindrance,
its accomplishement is realized of itself.
Its manifestation, intimate of itself,
has never been defiled.
Its accomplishement, realized of itself,
is neither absolute nor relative.
The intimacy that is never defiled
drops away without dependence.
The realization that is neither absolute nor relative
penetrates without intent.
Clear water soaks into the earth;
the fish swims like a fish.
The sky is vast and penetrates the heavens;
the bird flies like a bird.
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