Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘In picturing spring we should not picture willows, apricot trees, peach trees, and plum trees; we should just picture spring.

To picture willows, apricot trees, peach trees, and plum trees is to picture willows, apricot trees, peach trees, and plum trees; it is never to have pictured spring. It is not true that spring should not be pictured. Nevertheless, besides my late master, the eternal buddha, there is no one, from India in the west to China in the east, who has pictured spring. My late master, the eternal buddha, is the only sharp brush-tip to picture spring. The spring he is describing now is spring as a picture, and, because it has entered a picture, he need not summon any extra effort. He has let plum blossoms enter a picture and let them enter trees only so that they may usher in spring; it is a skillful means.’ (Shobogenzo Baike)