Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu (Companions for the Journey) [Paperback]

Ikkyu (Author), Rengetsu (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Companions for the Journey | Publication Date: November 1, 2007

Ikkyu, who lived from 1394–1481, was known as one of Japan’s most irreverent and iconoclastic Zen masters. He spent much of his life as a vagrant monk, wandering here and there, and mingling with people both high- and low-born. On occasion, Ikkyu played Robin Hood, taking money given by the rich and spending it on the homeless. Interspersing his travels with retreats deep in the mountains, he eventually became head abbot at the most important Zen temple in Japan. Much of his verse rants against the pervasive hypocrisy of the Buddhist establishment and the corruption of the imperial court, but his writing is at its finest when centering around what he loved most: the unfettered Zen life and the joys of sexual intimacy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Break Open %a Cherry Tree
Cancel All Debts
Coming Alone, %departing Alone
Crazy Cloud Is A Demon In Daito's Line
Crazy Cloud Speaks Of Daito's Unsurpassed Brilliance
Death Verse
The Dharma Master Of Love
The Dreamy Sound Of Bokushitsu's Shakuhachi Awakened Me From
Emerging From The World's Grime, A Puritan %saint Is Still
Enlightenment And Delusion
Exhausted With Gay Pleasures,i Embrace My Wife
Farewell, Lady Mori
Fertilizing My Bamboo Grove %with Horse Manure
A Fisherman
Fleeing From Mika-no-hara To Nara To Escape The War
A Gentleman's Wealth
A Hermit Monk In The Mountains
Honored One Of The Forest
I Hate Incense
I'd Like To %offer Something
If Chunks Of Rock %can Serve As A Memento
If Your Meditation Cannot Work In The Hall Of %life And Dea
In Praise Of Fish-basket Kannon
In Thanks For A Gift Of Soy Sauce
In This World
A Jonquil Flower
Lady Mori Rides In A Palanquin
Lady Mori's Gifted Touch
Lingering Chrysanthemums In The South Garden
The Lotus Flower
A Man's Root
A Meal Of Fresh Octopus
A Melancholy Autumn Wind
Memories %flee And %are No More
Monk Ganto Practiced Zen While Rowing A Boat;
A Moonless Midautumn
My Beauty's Dark Place Is A Fragrant Narcissus
My Hovel
My Mountain Monastery
My Real Dwelling
Nature's Way
Nightingale
Of All Things
The Old Woman Was Bighearted Enough
One Short Pause
Poem Exchanged For Food
Poem Inscribed On A Painting Of Bodhidharma
A Poem Of Protest
Poem Presented To My Friend Ako At The Hot Spring
Raincoat And Straw Hat
Relativity
Reminiscences
Returning To The City From The Mountains
Rinzai's Disciples Never Got The Zen Message
Self-portrait
A Sex-loving Monk, You Object!
Shut Up In A Hut Chanting Verse Beside A Single %lamp
A Single Moon %bright And Clear
The Stick Of Zen
Stilted Koans And Convoluted Answers Are All %monks Have
This World %is But %a Fleeting Dream
Three Poems On Love And Longing
To Lady Mori
To Lady Mori With Deepest Gratitude And Thanks
To My Daughter
Typhoons And Floods Make Everyone Suffer
Under The Fragrant Eaves
Upon Becoming Abbot Of Daitoku-ji
The Vagaries Of Life, %though Painful
What Can Be Done
Who Needs The Buddhism Of Ossified Masters?
Within Your Bedchamber, Emotion For A %torrent Of Poems
A Woman's Sex
Writing Something %to Leave Behind
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Rengetsu (Lotus Moon) was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1791 the illigitimate daughter of a samurai and a young geisha. By age 33 she had lost two husbands and two infant children and she renounced the world and became a Buddhist Nun. To support herself she became a potter, poet and artist. Her work in these arts is still revered in Japan. Rengetsu (Lotus Moon) was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1791 the illigitimate daughter of a samurai and a young geisha. By age 33 she had lost two husbands and two infant children and she renounced the world and became a Buddhist Nun. To support herself she became a potter, poet and artist. Her work in these arts is still revered in Japan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: White Pine Press (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893996654
• ISBN-13: 978-1893996656
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #510,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a work of art, April 6, 2000

By 

Gwendolyn S. Brookes (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu (Shambhala Centaur Editions) (Paperback)

This is my favorite Ikkyu translation and collection. John Stevens captures Ikkyu's wry wit and his earthy sensibilities, his concurrent plunges into deep despair, and his profound spirituality. The presentation of the book is delightful as well. This is a tiny book. You can carry it in your pocket. It has lovely artwork intermingled with the poetry. I read this in one sitting, and then over and over.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars if it rains, let it rain / if it storms let it storm, April 6, 2008

By 

Muhammad Asad Khan (Jonesboro, AR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu (Companions for the Journey) (Paperback)

The title of the book "Wild Ways" is apt for the legendary Japanese Zen Monk Ikkyu (1394 - 1481)who wrote poetry, drank frequently, found truth in brothels, and was deadly serious about Zen meditation. He was disgusted with the hypocrisy of fame-and-fortune Zen and frequently ridiculed them. He shunned temple life and mingled with all manner of people. But at age 80 he was asked to become the head abbot of the most important Zen Temple of Japan Daitoku-ji which he succeeded in rebuilding after it had been destroyed in a war. He died at age 87 while sitting in a lotus pose.
His Rinzai Zen master Kaso gave him the name "Ikkyu" which roughly means "one pause" after he penetrated and understood a koan at age 24. He achieved enlightenment at age 26. But Ikkyu preferred to call himself "crazy cloud" and his master Kaso concurred when he said " Ikkyu is my true heir, but his ways are wild".

A Crazy Cloud, out in the open
Blown about madly, as wild as they come!
Who knows where this cloud will go, where
the will will still?
The sun rises from the eastern sea, and shines
over the land.

"Wild Ways" is a selection of more than a thousand poems he wrote. He writes freely about sex which comes across as raw and in your face, his beloved Mori, and struggles of hermit life. In the end, it contains the famous "Skeleton" poem in its entirety with pencil sketches which adds a beautiful touch. Skeleton is the haunting expression of the classical Buddhist theme No beginning, no end, emptiness of emptiness.

Memories
Flee and
And are no more:
All are empty dreams
Devoid of meaning

If you enjoy this translation by John Stevens, you will enjoy my other favorite Japanese poet Ryokan, also translated by John Stevens.
If Ryokan was a gentle curling fog on the mountain side, Ikkyu was the lashing storm.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Wild Ways of Crazy Cloud, April 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu (Shambhala Centaur Editions) (Paperback)

Ikkyu's poetry is extremely wide in scope, ranging from poems expressing his understanding and experiences of love and sex, to poems which express "standard" Mahayana/Zen doctrine, to poems which protest the way in which society treats the poor and vulnerable. Mr. Stevens does an admirable job of selecting poems for this volume which are representative of this range. He provides a brief but useful introduction, which gives enough information to understand the cultural setting of Ikkyu and his poetry, without intruding upon the reader's own appreciation and enjoyment of Ikkyu's work. "Skeletons", which Mr. Stevens renders accurately into a combined prose/poetry piece, is particulary interesting, as it is in this work that we see Ikkyu teach his form of Zen in a way that is both instructive in content and beautiful in form.