酷我-北美枫

[hahaview]

Poem Lyrics of Deathbed Song by Taego Bowoo

A man’s life? Empty water bubbles.
Eighty years passed in a dream.
Now I throw away my leather sack,
The wheel of the red sun sinks in the West.


Thematic Review

Taego Bowoo, the founder of the Taego Order and who ushered in a new era for Buddhism in his country, is a prominent Korean Zen poet of deathbed songs. Such a song, one of Korean Zen literary traditions, is composed by Zen masters on their deathbeds: a summa for a life and one final teaching lesson. What Deathbed Song offers is the distillation of Taego Bowoo’s life wisdom, revealing the essence of Zen Buddhism and the insight of his illumination.

The ideas about nothingness and transience of life, as observed and taught by the Buddha, are characteristics of Zen poetry: the impermanent nature of form means that nothing possesses essential, enduring identity. These Zen ideas are fully expressed in the poem in general and explicitly in the first two lines in particular. Nothingness and the transience of life are illustrated in the Zen-influenced metaphors as water bubbles and a dream. The boundary between life and death is transcended in the image of flesh as a leather sack, and the grand wheel of nirvana and transmigration is figured as the sinking sun. The images employed here are good reminders of the Buddhist text, Diamond Sutra 32:

By detachment from appearances, abide in Real Truth. So I tell you, Thus
shall you think of all this fleeting world,
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, a dream.

In Deathbed Song, Taego Bowoo shows his Zen-influenced poetic understanding of the phenomenal world through religious-rooted images, observations of nature, and insights into human life. Definitely, Deathbed Song is his summa for his life and one final lesson for his readers.
_________________
I came, I saw, and I conquered

[[hahaview]]

Poem Lyrics of Deathbed Song by Taego Bowoo

A man’s life? Empty water bubbles.
Eighty years passed in a dream.
Now I throw away my leather sack,
The wheel of the red sun sinks in the West.


Thematic Review

Taego Bowoo, the founder of the Taego Order and who ushered in a new era for Buddhism in his country, is a prominent Korean Zen poet of deathbed songs. Such a song, one of Korean Zen literary traditions, is composed by Zen masters on their deathbeds: a summa for a life and one final teaching lesson. What Deathbed Song offers is the distillation of Taego Bowoo’s life wisdom, revealing the essence of Zen Buddhism and the insight of his illumination.

The ideas about nothingness and transience of life, as observed and taught by the Buddha, are characteristics of Zen poetry: the impermanent nature of form means that nothing possesses essential, enduring identity. These Zen ideas are fully expressed in the poem in general and explicitly in the first two lines in particular. Nothingness and the transience of life are illustrated in the Zen-influenced metaphors as water bubbles and a dream. The boundary between life and death is transcended in the image of flesh as a leather sack, and the grand wheel of nirvana and transmigration is figured as the sinking sun. The images employed here are good reminders of the Buddhist text, Diamond Sutra 32:

By detachment from appearances, abide in Real Truth. So I tell you, Thus
shall you think of all this fleeting world,
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, a dream.

In Deathbed Song, Taego Bowoo shows his Zen-influenced poetic understanding of the phenomenal world through religious-rooted images, observations of nature, and insights into human life. Definitely, Deathbed Song is his summa for his life and one final lesson for his readers.
_________________
I came, I saw, and I conquered

[redshoe]

[[redshoe]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[anna]

Hi Hahaview,

This is good.

Your summary is really helpful to understand it.

Thanks for sharing.

I also think of death when I am alone. I feel it useless if we just live it without meaning or happiness in this world. But who really know its meaning and what is happiness?

nirvana
n.
(佛教) 涅; (印度教)生命火焰的熄灭; 极乐世界

(自痛苦、烦恼中的)解脱

不能实现的梦想

the nirvana sutna
涅经
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Hi Hahaview,

This is good.

Your summary is really helpful to understand it.

Thanks for sharing.

I also think of death when I am alone. I feel it useless if we just live it without meaning or happiness in this world. But who really know its meaning and what is happiness?

nirvana
n.
(佛教) 涅; (印度教)生命火焰的熄灭; 极乐世界

(自痛苦、烦恼中的)解脱

不能实现的梦想

the nirvana sutna
涅经
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[hahaview]

[[hahaview]]

[hahaview]

Thanks for reading my piece and sharing your viewpoint

[[hahaview]]

Thanks for reading my piece and sharing your viewpoint

[dundas]

[[dundas]]

[clair]

[[clair]]