You stop to point at the moon in the sky,
but the finger’s blind unless the moon is shining.One moon, one careless finger pointing –
are these two things or one?The question is a pointer guiding
a novice from ignorance thick as fog.Look deeper. The mystery calls and calls:
No moon, no finger – nothing there at all.
Ryokan
from the book The Poetry of Zen
translated by Sam Hamill
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