Toki-no-Ge (Satori Poem)
"Year after year
I dug in the earth
looking for the blue of heaven
only to feel
the pile of dirt
choking me
until once in the dead of night
I tripped on a broken brick
and kicked it into the air
and saw that without a thought
I had smashed the bones
of the empty sky"
Born ten years after Dante Alighieri, Musō Soseki was the most famous Zen monk of his time, and is considered the father of the rock garden. Musō spent much of his early life practicing Zen in remote temples and hermitages. In spite of this isolation, his reputation grew, and he served as an advisor and teacher to several emperors, as well as to more than thirteen thousand students.