禅Ikkyu Sojun

proverb

Skull on a Stick

Muromachi

Traditionally attributed

Text

On New Year's Day I walked through the city with a skull on a stick, calling: beware! beware! The crowd said I was insane. The crowd had not noticed they too had a skull beneath the face.

tr. Zen Lineage editorial

license: cc_by

Attribution

Lineage: Rinzai

By Ikkyu Sojun

Sources

  • contentIkkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology

    Sonja Arntzen (trans.)

No per-field confidence has been recorded for this teaching yet. Treat individual claims with the caution appropriate to the source list below.

Attribution status: traditional — see editorial policy for what this means.

1 supporting citation on record (see Sources above).

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