This is one of the best meditation poems I've come across yet in the Chan tradition. It is attributed to Shih Te, who according to legend was the occasional sidekick of Han Shan, the otherwise reclusive poet of Cold Mountain fame. There are those who doubt whether there ever was such as person as Shih Te or Han Shan for that matter. But reading this poem I have little doubt that whoever wrote it spent many long hours sitting in meditation, on a mountaintop or otherwise, open to the radiance that fills the earth and sky.
Not going not coming
But upright and deeply rooted
Residing neither inside nor outside
But somewhere in between
Like a drop of water
Unblemished and contained
Yet open to the radiance
That fills Heaven and humankind
无去无来本湛然
不居内外及中间
一颗水精绝瑕翳
光明透满出人天
