Muso Soseki: Satori Poem

Toki-no-Ge (Satori Poem)

Year after year
I dug in the earth
looking for the blue of heaven

only to feel
the pile of dirt
choking me

until once in the dead of night
I tripped on a broken brick
and kicked it into the air

and saw that without a thought
I had smashed the bones
of the empty sky

By Muso Soseki, 13th century Zen monk