Zen Song by Na-Ong Zen Master (1320-1376)

Zen practice doesn't need much talk,
just like whipping a running horse on.

Once the question mass cracks,
your eyes will open wide and light up the prior time to the universe.

Just stick to whadu (= koan) and don't loose it.
Struggling with it, just continue questioning 'What is this ?'

Endless questioning will be like a fireball,
and suddenly you will awake from the long dream of life and death.

Innumerable years of quiet zazen
made the thinking walllike and all the others forgotten.

With keen questioning through millions of thoughts,
I passed rivers and mountains, not knowing spring had come.

Raise the question of whadu every way.
Don't keep anything but whadu.

Nothing is left, so mind is free.
All is silent, so no dust arises.

In a street or thick woods, on a plain or the seashore,
only Nirvana ecstasy is always for him absorbed in whadu.

Go right ahead without looking elsewhere.

When you take one step forward where you cannot go further,
there will truly not be any matter at all,
and you can pass through a thorny thicket, even swinging your arms.

The integrity of proud loneliness is lofty
like a great mountain,
and dhyana is free like a sea gull, forever.

Reverse a round desperately with all your strength,
and passion-free world will be clear beyond in and out.

The essence of whadu lies in great questioning.

When the question defeats the blue eyes of Boddhidharma,
you will be free to kill and revive others, hence notorious all over the world.

The subtlety of zen is from keenness.
Dull questioning cannot solve the life and death problem.

When the question cracks, space will split,
and time will fuse in a beam of cold light.

Be always earnest in pondering over whadu,
and sweep out worldly idle thoughts by the question.

Only after you let go the hold on the bottomless cliff,
the earth and space will disappear all together.

As the question cracks and passions die suddenly,
there is no shade in every direction all the way.

As the spacious spirits void all directions,
you can stroll about and relax even on the way to Eternal Hell,
accompany various people and pass like a wind.

Liberation by zen practice is not so hard,
only if you turn a thought round instantly.

Where waters end and mountains are passed,
there is no water and no mountain,
yet mountain is mountain and water is water.

(the end)