Japan Discovery Zen words is the best word 掬水月在手 弄花香満衣
Zen is difficult. Zen word is also difficult. That’s why I interpret it as I please. I think that’s fine. Enou Zenji, Dogen Zenji, Ikkyu-san, and Ryokan-san are likely to say, “That’s fine, that’s fine. Let it be."Today’s Zen word is “掬水月在手 弄花香満衣 Mizu o sukueba te no nakani tsuki ari, hana o rō seba Koui ni kaori mitsu" It means “If you scoop water with both hands, the moon is in your hands. If you play with flowers, the fragrance fills your clothes."
If you scoop water with both hands, the moon is in your hands. If you play with flowers, the fragrance fills your clothes.
On a night when winter is over and the air is warm, you stop by a stream and see the hazy moon reflected on the surface of the water. If you scoop up the water with both hands, the moon will be in the water in your hands. If you hold the flowers blooming all around you in your hands, their fragrance will fill your clothes. The spring mountains are filled with the breath of life and there is nothing more pleasant than this. This is a line from “Spring Mountain Night Moon" by Yu Liangshi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty in China.
A child crying, asking me to take the beautiful moon for him." In Kobayashi Issa’s poem, the child wanted the harvest moon. Although adults can understand the child’s feelings, they don’t think they can take the moon. They advise the child that it’s okay to just look at it. Adults teach children that they should not pick flowers blooming in the fields indiscriminately. Adults are happy just to carry their child on their backs and look at the moon.
Sharing makes your heart peaceful
When you enjoy the moon reflected in the water you scoop or the scent of flowers filling your clothes, the moon and the scent become one with you. But the reality of the moon and flowers remain as they are. Even if you cannot touch the moon or the scent of flowers, they can become yours depending on your attitude. You can also say that you are sharing the moon and flowers with many other people. People can share many things.
But people have always fought over land and wealth. They want this and that, and try to take it from others according to their desires. Sometimes they resort to violence to get it. If they stop doing that and have a spirit of sharing, their hearts will be at peace like a spring night. If we change our thinking from monopoly to sharing, a peaceful society is sure to come.
Wanting everything to be yours is just as futile as a child wanting the moon. If you can be satisfied with the moon reflected in the water in your hand or the scent of flowers on your clothes, you can live peacefully.