Zen words is the best word “年々歳々花相似 Nennen sai sai hana ai nitari Nen nen sai sai hito onazikarazu”

2024年9月11日2025年3月17日

Flowers bloom the same way every year, but people grow older every year.

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 “Nennen saisai hana ainitari Nennen saisai hito onazikarazu" It means “Flowers bloom the same way every year, but people do not the same"

1. Flowers bloom the same way every year, but people grow older every year.
2. Zen is difficult, you just have to feel it.

Flowers bloom the same way every year, but people grow older every year.

The cherry blossom season has come again. Even as the world changes, flowers bloom the same every year. They bloom quietly whether people are suffering from disasters or wars or living in peace. Under the fully bloomed flowers, people in the midst of misfortune and people who are happy look up at the flowers and raise their heads. Flowers always heal people’s hearts.

“Year after year, flowers are the same, people are not the same year after year" is a line from the fourth stanza of the poem “In Place of the Sad White-Toed Old Man" by Liu Tingzhi of the Tang Dynasty.Flowers bloom the same every year, but people who look at them grow older with each passing year. Nature does not change, but people grow old quickly. This poem laments the impermanence of life.

As Tingzhi laments, life is much shorter and more fleeting than the eternity of nature. However, rather than lamenting this and looking at the flowers, I would like to enjoy the sight of the flowers blooming to the fullest. I would like to be happy that I was able to see the same flowers again this year.

Zen is difficult, you just have to feel it.

“D.T. Suzuki Zen" (English version) was written in English to introduce Zen to foreign countries. It was translated back into Japanese as “D.T. Suzuki Zen" (Chikuma Shobo). I thought it would be easy to understand because it was written for foreigners, but it is steep and difficult like a towering mountain, and I can’t get through it at all. The writing style is old and difficult. Even if you think you understand it, you lose it soon. The fish you are about to grab slips away. It is a reproduction of a picture of catching a catfish with a gourd.

Zen aims to achieve enlightenment. When you achieve enlightenment, you can know the true nature of yourself. If you know this, your mind will be freed from various constraints. The only way to achieve enlightenment is to practice diligently. If you try to understand the true nature of yourself through intellect, the intellect that tries to understand you and the self exist separately. That does not mean you know the true nature. The goal is not to understand, but to become one with your true nature and intellect.

But it is difficult to understand. Even if you think you understand, you still don’t understand. Even Zen monks undergo rigorous training to attain enlightenment. It is natural that ordinary people cannot reach the same state as Zen monks. There is no need to think too hard about it. Ordinary people can simply interpret Zen in their own way and apply it to their lives.