Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Yung-chia Ta-shih

Zen Buddhist Poet and Sage

"One Nature, perfect and pervading, circulates in all natures, one Reality, all-comprehensive, contains within itself all realities."

"If we hold exclusively to Emptiness, we deny the entire causal world; all is then attributed to chance, with no ruling principle, inviting evil to prevail. The same error occurs when one holds exclusively to the manifested, denying the Emptiness; that would be like throwing oneself into the flames in order to avoid being drowned in the water."

"It is only when you hunt for it that you lose it. You cannot take hold of it, but equally you cannot get rid of it, and while you can do neither, it goes on its way. You remain silent and it speaks. You speak and it is dumb."