Zen Instructional Verse

In addition to regularly hosting public interview sessions where anyone with a question could step forward and ask it, lecturing on an aspect of Zen relevant to their community, and writing extensive instructional commentary on public interview sessions Zen Masters also wrote long-form instruction in verse.

They aren't poems in the sense most people are familiar with in the West as applied to the secular lyrical traditions paying homage to an aspect of the author's experiences nor religious hymns expressing devotion to the supernatural.

They are public-facing texts written in formal meter and sometimes with particular rhyme schemes with the dual purposes of expressing their understanding and instructing.

Here are some of the most prominent Zen texts written in verse.

Trust in Mind aka. Faith in Mind aka. The Inscription on Trusting in Mind

Third Patriarch, Jianzhi Sengcan

The Song of Attesting to Enlightenment aka. The Song that Attests to the Way aka. The Song of Enlightenment

Heir to the Sixth Patriarch, Yongjia Xuanjue

The Inscription on the Mind King

Fu Xi

The Harmony of Difference and Sameness

Shitou Xiqian

These are just some that we have listed on the subreddit's lineagetexts wiki page.

Zen Masters wrote a lot and some of the translations we have of their records have a lot more poetic content than others.

(Looking at you, T'aego)

The 20th century saw a lot of misappropriation of the name 'Zen' rooted in cultural ignorance, religious bigotry, and a lack of expertise from anyone in the primary sources.

The stuff many denominationally unaffiliated and Japanese Buddhist inspired Westerners like to imagine constitutes 'Zen poetry' is frequently just another kind of hymn to the supernatural, not Zen.