Continued from issue #92
COMPOSED BY THE VENERABLE MASTER HSUAN HUA
Illustrated by a student of prajna
Translated by Bhiksu Heng Yo

CROSSES THE YELLOW RIVER AND ENCOUNTERS SNOW #49

      On the second day of the month, the Master crossed the Yellow River, and upon arriving at the other shore, night had already fallen. He had no place to sleep. Compelled to pull up into full-lotus posture in the small thatched rialto he found near the riverbank, he waited for morning. He shivered with cold in the stillness of night, and as it grew lighter, he saw boundless amounts of white snow everywhere he looked, transforming the countryside into a silvery world. Its depth prevented the recognition of direction, and with no way to get through, the Master sat dead still and recited the Buddha's name.

The verse says:

At the Yellow River he met a blizzard

and stayed in an open straw hut.

Contemplating mind in the lotus posture

the bitter cold encroached.

The seasonable snow was whirling, swirling,

enveloping the world;

And so although he was a person

he had no self at all.