Chant Leader: From the beginning all beings are Buddha …..
All: Like water and ice,
Without water no ice,
Chant Leader: Outside us no Buddhas
All: How near the truth,
Yet how fa-ar we seek//
Being in water//
Crying in thirst//
Being the child//of a rich family
Wandering poor on this earth
Chant Leader: Endlessly circling the six worlds
All: The cause of our sorrow is ego delusion
From dark path to dark path
We’ve wandered in darkness
Chant Leader: How can we be freed from the wheel of samsara?
All: The gateway to freedom is zazen Samadhi
Beyond exaltation
Beyond all our praises
The pure Mahayana
Observing the Precepts, Repentance and Giving
The countless good deeds and the Way of Right Living
Chant Leader: All comes from Zazen
All: Thus one true Samadhi extinguishes evils.
It purifies karma, dissolving obstructions.
Then where are the dark paths to lead us astray?//
The Pure Lotus Land// is not far away//
Hearing this truth,// heart humble and grateful
To praise and embrace it
To practice its Wisdom
Brings unending blessings
Brings mountains of merit
And if we turn inward and prove our True Nature
That True Self is no-self,
Our own self is no-self
We go beyond ego
And past clever words
Then the gate to the oneness of cause-and-effect is thrown open
Not two and not three
Straight ahead runs the Way
Our form now being no-form
In going and coming
Chant Leader: We never leave home
All: Our thought now being no-thought
Our dancing and singing
Chant Leader: Are the Voice of the Dharma
All: How vast is the heaven of boundless Samadhi!
How bright and transparent the moonlight of wisdom!
What is there outside us?
What is there we lack?
Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes
Chant Leader: This earth where we stand is the pure lotus land!
And this very body, the body of Buddha.