青qīng青qīng翠cuì竹zhú盡jìn是shì法fǎ身shēn,，鬱yù鬱yù黃huáng花huā無wú非fēi般bō若rě

What does 青青翠竹盡是法身，鬱鬱黃花無非般若 (qīng qīng cuì zhú jìn shì fǎ shēn, yù yù huáng huā wú fēi bō rě) mean?

青青翠竹盡是法身，鬱鬱黃花無非般若 (qīng qīng cuì zhú jìn shì fǎ shēn, yù yù huáng huā wú fēi bō rě) is a line of classical verse (shīcí 詩詞). Word for word it reads "Every green bamboo stalk is the Dharma body; every yellow flower is nothing but prajna wisdom." In use it means: The sacred is not separate from the natural world. Buddhist truth is present in every ordinary plant and phenomenon, not locked away in scriptures or temples. You reach for it when you want that idea in one breath, and the Wood note it carries is why we hand it to those born in the Year of the Goat.

Literally: "Every green bamboo stalk is the Dharma body; every yellow flower is nothing but prajna wisdom."

The reading

A monk who travels to a distant mountain looking for truth walks past ten thousand teachers growing in the roadside ditch. This verse shatters the wall between the spiritual and the mundane. The bamboo does not try to be sacred, and the wildflower has never read a sutra, yet both express the fullness of reality without effort. Wisdom grows in the cracks of ordinary life. The only thing preventing you from seeing it is the assumption that it must look extraordinary.

What kind of proverb it is

• Typeshīcí 詩詞
• FocusPresent-minded
• Element木 Wood
• Zodiac tie羊 Year of the Goat

Source Attributed to Chan Master Nanyang Huizhong (南陽慧忠), Tang Dynasty

Sits beside

Keep reading

Return to the Proverb Pond to draw another of the eighty-seven, or hear one read aloud. Read the rest of its chapter in Nature, Seasons & Health, or follow the years these lines belong to: Year of the Goat, Year of the Rat, and Year of the Ox.