Gizan Zenrai

Gizan Zenrai (1802 – March 28, 1878) was a Japanese Zen monk and poet.

Quotes

 * I was born into this world I leave it at my death. Into a thousand towns My legs have carried me, And countless homes - What are all these? A moon reflected in the water A flower floating in the sky Ho!
 * Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6, 2000; Partly cited in: Scott Alexander Jones. Elsewhere: Indian Summer’s End: Book I, 2014. p. iii. Also translated into German in: Ralf T. Vogel. Der Tod in der Psychotherapie. 2007. p. 111, and quoted in: Andrés Pascual. Die Tränen des Himmels: Roman 2011. p. ii

Quotes about Gizan Zenrai

 * As a spiritual successor to the 19th-century Zen poet Gizan Zenrai (and anyone who has ever felt wistful thinking that everything we’ve ever known will one day vanish), [Harold Whit] Williams writes: “A child once again, / Gazing out to where forever ends. / Everything orbiting, gently orbiting.”
 * Harold Whit Williams. Red Clay Journal Paperback, January 2, 2018. Back cover text.