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buddhism
June 2009 
Nanao Sakaki Breaks the Mirror!
Posted on Dec 27th, 2008
by 
jhalifax
jhalifax
Transition: Nanao Sakaki Breaks the Mirror
nanao sakaki
On winter Solstice night, beloved and renown poet Nanao Sakaki stepped out of his mountain hut in the star-filled night and died.
He once wrote:
Read books
If you have time to read
Walk into mountain, desert and ocean
If you have time to walk
Sing Songs and dance
If you have time to dance
Sit quietly, you Happy Lucky Idiot
Someone wrote on hearing of his death: When I asked Nanao once what I should say to a friend who had just lost a loved one, Nanao said "Congratulations".
nanao sakaki
On winter Solstice night, beloved and renown poet Nanao Sakaki stepped out of his mountain hut in the star-filled night and died.
He once wrote:
Read books
If you have time to read
Walk into mountain, desert and ocean
If you have time to walk
Sing Songs and dance
If you have time to dance
Sit quietly, you Happy Lucky Idiot
Someone wrote on hearing of his death: When I asked Nanao once what I should say to a friend who had just lost a loved one, Nanao said "Congratulations".
Access: PublicTagged with: nanao sakaki, zen, buddhism, hippie, japan, gary snyder, roshi joan halifax, upaya zen center, poetrry
Thank you Roshi!
I’ve thought of this one on and off for a long time. Last summer I ‘searched’ for it but had attributed it to Snyder himself.
And I’d never read it until seeing your post!
Gary recited the poem at the first Hudson Valley Bioregional Conference in ‘86.
Here it is returned like a Solstice, a stand-still that never went anywhere.
Hands together,
Jikishin
joan,
Thank you for sharing this… I always believe that death is an amazing life experience not one to hold us victim but an experience of joy for the person/being journey to another space…
Thank you for sharing Nanao’s thoughts…
For my family has had three death within the week… I am not as effected but the family is at a loss and at a loss of words, when I wish to be joyful…
If you have time to dance
Sit quietly, you Happy Lucky Idiot
Congratulations to Nanoa, indeed! Glad he’s “broken the mirror” and hopefully broken some of us open as well….
This happy lucky idiot thanks you for posting this.
Be well.