[Buddha-l] "Free and Easy" Vajra song

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Bob Zeuschner schreef:
> That "song" sounds as though it could have been translated from the 
> Taoist Lao-tzu or the Chuang-tzu. Even the "Free and Easy" reference 
> is the title of a chapter of the Chuang-tzu.
> Is this really a Vajra piece or is it contemporary by Alan Watts? Is 
> there a bibliographic source?
> Bob
>
>
> Robert Leverant wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for the teaching of  Kohelet the Preacher. I like the 
>> contemporary,
>> aka Buddhist view, translation. Incidentally, many of the Tibetan 
>> teachers
>> that I've studied  with say that once we grasp the truth of 
>> impermanence,
>> then we take our work and life seriously and don't fall into the 
>> nihilistic
>> void expressed in Ecclesiastes.
>>
>> Here's a Doha that suggests an alternative way to the nihilistic void 
>> voiced
>> by Kohelet the Preacher.
>>
>> Robert
>>
>> FREE AND EASY
>>
>> A Vajra Song
>>  
>> by
>>
>> Ven. Lama Gendun Rinpoche
>>  
>> Happiness cannot be found
>> through great effort and willpower
>> but is already present, in relaxation
>>          and letting go.
>>  
>> Don't strain yourself;
>> there is nothing to do.
>> Whatever arises in the mind
>> has no real importance at all,
>> because it has no reality whatsoever.
>> Don't become attached to it;
>> don't identify with it
>>          and pass judgment upon it.
>>  
>> Let the entire game happen on its own,
>> springing up and falling back like waves --
>> without changing or manipulating anything --
>> and everything vanishes and reappears, magically,
>>          without end.
>>  
>> Only our searching for happiness
>> prevents us from seeing it.
>> It's like a rainbow which you pursue
>>          without ever catching.
>>  
>> Although it does not exist,
>> It has always been there
>>          and accompanies you every instant.
>>  
>> Don't believe in the reality
>> of good and bad experiences.
>> They are like rainbows in the sky.
>>  
>> Wanting to grasp the ungraspable
>> you exhaust yourself in vain.
>> As soon as you open and relax this grasping,
>> space is there -- open, inviting, and comfortable.
>>  
>> Don't search any further.
>> Don't go into the tangled jungle
>> looking for the great elephant
>> who's already quietly at home.
>>  
>> Nothing to do,
>> Nothing to force.
>> Nothing to want --
>>          and everything happens by itself.
>>
Sorry, I missed the first post. It is the lama Gendun the I used to know and it is his writing. So much for the antagonism between Zhuang Zi and Buddhism, huh?

Erik

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