SUZUKI ROSHI TRANSLATION
The spiritual source shines clear in the light; The branching streams flow on in the dark. Grasping at things is surely delusion; According with sameness is still not enlightenment.
MAEZUMI ROSHI TRANSLATION
The subtle source is clear and bright; the tributary streams flow through the darkness. To be attached to things is illusion; to encounter the absolute is not yet enlightenment.
SENSEI SŌEN MICHAEL BRUNNER COMMENTARY
Here, we are reminded of the inherent brilliance of the Source, which shines with clarity in the depths of Buddha Nature. The essence of reality, the very nature of what is, is always present before us. However, our conditioned minds, steeped in conceptual frameworks and intellectual constructs, often prevent us from directly perceiving this luminosity.
The brilliance of the spiritual source is ineffable, defying our attempts to grasp it through intellection. It transcends language and concepts, existing as a monolithic presence that eludes definition. Our misguided reliance on knowing blinds us to the radiant light that permeates everything.
To truly perceive the Source, we must let go of our attachment to our deeply held fixed ideas and surrender to the direct experience of our True Nature. It is a shift from intellectual comprehension to a deeper, intuitive Oneness. The conceptual analogues we encounter are not meant to be dwellings for our attention; they are mere pointers, guiding us toward our true home.
When we free ourselves from the delusions born out of conceptual fixation, we open ourselves to the flowing streams that branch out in the dark. These streams represent the multitude of manifestations and expressions of the spiritual source as things. They move and intertwine, carrying the essence of this nature everywhere.
We must remember: dark is not ignorance, not a lack of clarity. Dark is a place of Absolute Wonder. It is the living, fertile ground where the branching streams appear. To cling to light alone is to seek clarity without wonder. To shrink from the dark is to miss the mystery in which all things arise.
This humility also guards us against mistaking oneness for the goal. Sekitō warns that even “according with sameness is still not enlightenment.” To attach to the absolute—to imagine that realizing unity is the endpoint—is to flatten the dynamism of the Dharma. Enlightenment is not found in light alone, nor in the absolute, but in the ceaseless interplay of clarity and obscurity, unity and difference, self and other. In our own practice, this means being willing to sit with what is bright and what is obscure, what is certain and what is unresolved. Dark is a place of Absolute Wonder, and light is a place of radiant clarity—both facets of one jewel.
Understanding the ubiquitous presence of this Unity is not awakening. We must open to it and experience it directly. We have to taste the wine ourselves to truly savor it. In this place the taster and the tasted merge, and there is direct experience. Awaken: just this.
