If I bow to a Buddha,... the Buddha won't know...

Lead me from dreaming to waking.
Lead me from opacity to clarity.
Lead me from the complicated to the simple.
Lead me from the obscure to the obvious.
Lead me from intention to attention.
Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am. Lead me from confrontation to wide openness. Lead me to the place I never left, Where there is peace, and peace - The Upanishads
*note* this is his pic..see his wisdom on his forehead? Yuan Mei

What Mei Yuan means when he wrote this poem,,that if he bows to a Buddha..the Buddha won't know??..Mei Yuan(1716 - 1798)spoke the truth...because bowing to a Buddha would be bowing to your true self,if you're not yet realized..but bowing to a monk might make him happy,and start the path..A Buddha happiness doesn't depend on your bowing,or slapping him in the nose.This is what he meant..
 I quote about his life..
Yuan Mei was born in Hangchow, Chekiang during the Qing dynasty. As a boy, he was a talented student who earned his basic degree at the age of eleven. He received the highest academic degree at 23 and then went to advanced studies. But Yuan Mei failed in his studies of the Manchu language, which limited his future government career.

Like many of the great Chinese poets, Yuan Mei exhibited many talents, working as a government official, teacher, writer, and painter.

He eventually left public office and retired with his family to a private estate named "The Garden of Contentment." In addition to teaching, he made a generous living writing funerary inscriptions. Among other things, he also collected local ghost stories and published them. And he was an advocate of women's education.

He traveled quite a bit and soon gained the reputation as the pre-eminent poet of his time. His poetry is deeply engaged with Chan (Zen) and Taoist themes of presence, meditation, and the natural world. As biographer Arthur Whaley notes, Yuan Mei's poetry "even at its lightest always had an undertone of deep feeling and at its saddest may at any moment light a sudden spark of fun."

So I composed this never heard stanza:)

Behold

You might bow to a Buddha

And forget your true nature,due to your loving of the external bowing..

Bow to yourself,Mei Yuan meant.

But if you bow to a monk

He might ponder,and gain wisdom.

And you may slap a Buddha in the nose

And in turn,he'll turn the other nose

As Jesus turning the other cheek

But there is only one nose..

And there are only 2 cheeks,and lots of slapping

But ONLY one nose.

Ponder about that,grasshoppers..

..kisses:)

Thus spokenth the mahayogi.

-added by danny-

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Motto
Yuan Mei, Yuan Mei poetry, Buddhist, Buddhist poetry, Zen / Chan poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, Taoist poetry by Yuan Mei
(1716 - 1798) Timeline

English version by
J. P. Seaton

Original Language
Chinese

Buddhist : Zen / Chan
Taoist
18th Century

When I meet a monk,

I bow politely.

When I see a Buddha,

I don't.

If I bow to a Buddha,

the Buddha won't know.

But I honor a monk:

he's here now, apparently,

or, at least, he seems to be.

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"To us all towns are one, all men our kin. Life's good comes not from others' gift, nor ill. Man's pains and pains' relief are from within. Thus have we seen in visions of the wise !." - Tamil Poem-